Confirmed with Link: (G) J. Markstrom (30% retention) traded to NJ for (D) Kevin Bahl, 2025 1st rd pick (Top 10 protected)

[Zippy316]

A little on the high end, but not upset with this price, especially with the retention.

By my math, the Devils still can add quite a few pieces and still be under the cap:

Mercer at 3.5
Middle-six forward at 3.5
Second-pairing D (Dillon) at 3.5
Bottom six forward (Trenton, Carrier, etc) at 2.25
Another depth defender (Smith replacement) at 1.25

Meier - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Mercer
FWD - Haula - Holtz
FWD - Lazar - Bastian
Foote - MacDermid

Siegenthaler - Hamilton
DFD - Marino
Hughes - Nemec
Depth D

Markstrom/Allen

Would be able to fill out a 23 man roster that way with around .5 million in space.

 

[captainscott2]

He's getting a lot more than $6.5M on the open market.

Holtz is obviously and should be on the trade block. Brass hates him and he isn't going to get a legit shot. Should convert him into an asset that can help the club now.

Grzelcyk is a big no. He was horrible last season and is completely the opposite type of defenseman they need.

Holtz may be traded its possible... never say never if you get the right return. I am surprised how quickly everyone is giving. up on him.. he showed improvement last year.. he has some holes in his game for sure.. but some guys just take an extra season or two to learn the NHL game..I am a Holtz believer. He is a below average skater, he d zone play needs work his wall play needs work. his hockey IQ with the puck is good, his shot is good , and he has potential to play a heavy game as he matures... I'd like to see him one more season with a new coach, new frame of mind.. would like to see him with hughes more or nico..

 

[Saugus]

I think they'll be looking for a short term warm body LHD to kill penalties. I don't think that's a role that Casey can fill. I'd rather give him a ton of ice time in the AHL this season rather than throwing him into the deep end in the NHL. Plus one of the RHD would have to play on the left which puts them in a rough position (PTSD from the Severson-Vatanen pairing in 2019).

Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Hughes-Marino
(PK specialist)-Nemec
Hatakka
---------------
Misyul-Casey as the AHL injury callups

PP1: Luke
PP2: Nemec-Hamilton

PK1: (PK specialist)-Marino
PK2: Siegenthaler-Nemec

For some reason I had a lapse and thought Casey shoots left. There’s definitely no spot for a RHD unless there’s an injury. Marino would be the only one who could be moved and I don’t see it happening.

 

[JimEIV]

If we aren't competing for 2 more years like you say, it makes perfect sense to rely on Nemac to PK. It would be huge if we became good at it.

It's dumb to throw the player into the fire. We need a 5th option, someone we can rotate in and out of the 4th spot.

Fitz has shown a pretty good ability to find solid dmen to fill out the roster. We really just need a Colin Miller level guy with PK ability and it’s fine. I’m not too concerned. I believe in Hatakka as the extra man if his health is figured out.

I don't think finding a 4/5 Pk shutdown defender is the hard part...I think make one fit is the hard part.

Assume we replace Bahl and our Left side PK is the new guy and Siegenthaler

Now the right side... Marino and ?
Dougie, Marino and Nemec assuming are the regular RHD's....is the staff going to sit Nemec for a PKer on regular basis? It's almost impossible to fit another in this lineup.

 

[Alex NJD]

A little on the high end, but not upset with this price, especially with the retention.

By my math, the Devils still can add quite a few pieces and still be under the cap:

Mercer at 3.5
Middle-six forward at 3.5
Second-pairing D (Dillon) at 3.5
Bottom six forward (Trenton, Carrier, etc) at 2.25
Another depth defender (Smith replacement) at 1.25

Meier - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Mercer
FWD - Haula - Holtz
FWD - Lazar - Bastian
Foote - MacDermid

Siegenthaler - Hamilton
DFD - Marino
Hughes - Nemec
Depth D

Markstrom/Allen

Would be able to fill out a 23 man roster that way with around .5 million in space.

Replace the depth d with Hatakka and you save like 500k

 

[Bcap88]

As if we don’t have a whole free agency left to address the pk

No matter what some people will never be happy lol

 

[JrFischer54]

This almost certainly assures we won't be giving MTL our 2nd next year for the Allen deal. They will be getting our 3rd unless something goes catastrophically wrong.

So our 2025 picks look like:

NJ's 2nd
WIN's 2nd (Toffoli)
NJ's 4th
NJ's 6th

We gave up our 5th '25 for Colin Miller and our 7th '25 for Kaapo Kahkonen.

Not great to be giving up those picks, but we kept our best young prospects/picks like Holtz/Casey/Gritsyuk and will be adding a top-10 pick this year. Plus Luke and Nemec still on ELC.

It's not great to basically mortgage a draft for the present, but our window is now and the wealth of young assets makes it sting quite a bit less.

Anything after the 2nd round is a crapshoot even the first two rounds are smaller versions of crapshoots

 

[MasterofGrond]

Playing nemec behind Marino on the PK is hardly throwing him into the fire. You don’t think he’s ever played PK before or something? Lmao.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

the only curious thing here is we took one of this teams only bigger tougher guys and sent him... so glad we got a goalie... we needed it.. but the defense which was weak got weaker.. my guess is we are going after a top D in FA ..

Zadorov

 

[McDuffz88]

I don't hate this at all. Unlike most of the board, I did like Bahl & thought there was potential in him but at the end of the day you gotta give to get. The 2025 1st is whatever, we should be an actual good team this year so that should be in the 20-30 range. Having a starter for 2 seasons is easily worth more than that. In fact a rental pending UFA Markstrom traded at deadline if playing decently would easily fetch that. We got him retained & for 2 seasons, well there's Bahl comp. So this is a win trade. We didn't give up anything major for a position that can greatly affect our entire season. We're stacked now on goalies. With Markstrom & Allen we shouldn't have a single worry. Let Daws and Schmid develop in the minors & even in the worst case if there's ever an injury they already have NHL experience & will be playing a much better system implemented by Keefe.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Absolutely no f***ing Zadorov, please

 

[NJ07102]

Bahl is probably worth something like a 3rd. It's more than I want to give up but the Devils have plenty of LHD coming through with Misyul and Hatakka around the organization. I really wonder if Bahl's lack of meanness sealed his fate, or if this was just the expendable guy.

If he played more shifts like the famous one against the Rangers, he'd be a Devil for life. Unfortunately, he never played another shift like that. He is just a huge nice guy.

 

[Zippy316]

Replace the depth d with Hatakka and you save like 500k

I don’t think the Devils do that. I think they look to sign a depth veteran option with some experience for that role.

I’d be willing to bet it’s a guy like Kulikov, Cole, or De Haan that’s capable of playing both sides and being paired on the third pair with either Luke or Nemec.

 

[Lindys Lazy Eye]

Hate it. Overpayment. You mean to tell me a 35 year old goalie who could turn to dogshit next year is worth a 1st round pick?

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

It's dumb to throw the player into the fire. We need a 5th option, someone we can rotate in and out of the 4th spot.


I don't think finding a 4/5 Pk shutdown defender is the hard part...I think make one fit is the hard part.

Assume we replace Bahl and our Left side PK is the new guy and Siegenthaler

Now the right side... Marino and ?
Dougie, Marino and Nemec assuming are the regular RHD's....is the staff going to sit Nemec for a PKer on regular basis? It's almost impossible to fit another in this lineup.

Nemec is going to PK and likely do it well. He will not be sitting at all.

 

[forceten]

By my math, the Devils still can add quite a few pieces and still be under the cap:

Mercer at 3.5
Middle-six forward at 3.5
Second-pairing D (Dillon) at 3.5
Bottom six forward (Trenton, Carrier, etc) at 2.25
Another depth defender (Smith replacement) at 1.25

Meier - Hughes - Bratt
Palat - Hischier - Mercer
FWD - Haula - Holtz
FWD - Lazar - Bastian
Foote - MacDermid

Siegenthaler - Hamilton
DFD - Marino
Hughes - Nemec
Depth D

Markstrom/Allen

Would be able to fill out a 23 man roster that way with around .5 million in space.

I do not think we need a 2nd depth defender if we have Hatakka and would lose him on waivers. He's fine as a #7, and we need to start showing the pipeline that there's a chance for them to play. A smith-type replacement isn't really giving the kids any hope.

That would also allow us to upgrade the bottom six/middle six that you have at just under $6M.

If we do not believe as a team that Siegenthaler and/or Marino are in the plans as top 4 players, we should move them rather than bring them back while trying to use a ketchup packet to stabilize the table. That's sure to explode, and we've got white shoes.

 

[Lindys Lazy Eye]

Absolutely no f***ing Zadorov, please

@Dylan9z9 is one of the biggest Zadorov fanboys.

 

[Blackjack]

Hate it. Overpayment. You mean to tell me a 35 year old goalie who could turn to dogshit next year is worth a 1st round pick?

He was a .905 this season. Absolute joke to pay a 1st for him.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Hate it. Overpayment. You mean to tell me a 35 year old goalie who could turn to dogshit next year is worth a 1st round pick?

I don't love the trade either, but a #1 goalie for $4.125 isnt that big of a deal.

and a 2025 1st essentially equates to a 2024 2nd.

 

[NJDevs26]

It's actually kind of surprising so many people think this is an overpayment...all goalies values are inflated anyway, that's why it's taken so darn long just for a deal like this. Some of you talked yourselves into thinking Markstrom would force his way here for a third-rounder just the way the Calgary fans were talking themselves into #10 OA and Mercer as potential targets.

Yeah I have to admit not thinking Markstrom's really worth a 1st but if it's a 1st in the 20's next year who cares? Those picks get traded for role players every deadline. If it's a first in the high ten's then Fitz'll be on his ass after this year anyway.

 

[JrFischer54]

Hate it. Overpayment. You mean to tell me a 35 year old goalie who could turn to dogshit next year is worth a 1st round pick?

Yeah I mean we could get another Vitek style how did they work out

 

[Lindys Lazy Eye]

He was a .905 this season. Absolute joke to pay a 1st for him.

Reactionary move by Fitz that won't do ANYTHING.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope everyone here is screenshotting my anger and a year from now making me eat crow. Right now I don't want to hear about the summer of f***ing Fitz or Fitz magic. This is more than we gave up for Cory who was a WHOLE DECADE YOUNGER

 

[DerekDevils30]

Was pretty obvious something like this was going to happen after the piping hot rumours back at the deadline. Fitz still has some work to do. Pretty clear he will continue to be active heading into summer.

 

[Blackjack]

I don't love the trade either, but a #1 goalie for $4.125 isnt that big of a deal.

and a 2025 1st essentially equates to a 2024 2nd.

Don't get why people are saying this. Could just as easily be #11 or #12 OA

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

Reactionary move by Fitz that won't do ANYTHING.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope everyone here is screenshotting my anger and a year from now making me eat crow. Right now I don't want to hear about the summer of f***ing Fitz or Fitz magic. This is more than we gave up for Cory who was a WHOLE DECADE YOUNGER

no it literally is not lol and Schneider was 7 years younger, not 10.

Calm down.

Don't get why people are saying this. Could just as easily be #11 or #12 OA

could just as easily be #29 or #30

see how that works?