Confirmed Trade: [NJD/SEA] Daniel Sprong for 2026 7th round pick

[MVP Zacha]

It's an AHL trade. Who is upset about a 7th?

 

[Forsbergaura21]

It's an AHL trade. Who is upset about a 7th?

I actually think Sprong can be an upgrade for the Devils . He can’t do worse than guys like Tatar and Dowling that are in their top 9 right now…

 

[jd22]

Of course a 7th is essentially nothing, but it makes me wonder about the Van-Sea trade where Van sent Sprong (good riddance) for future considerations. Now that Seattle got some marginal value out of it, does that change the OG trade? Probably not.

 

[krutovsdonut]

7th nhl team at age 27. impressive. mike sillinger was 29 when he got to seven.

 

[NJ07102]

Could have been had for free on waivers, but instead our mastermind GM decided it's smarter to give up a pick for him.

 

[MasterofGrond]

Could have been had for free on waivers, but instead our mastermind GM decided it's smarter to give up a pick for him.

my brother in Christ it’s a 7th, next year

 

[NJ07102]

my brother in Christ it’s a 7th, next year

So?

 

[Super Hans]

my brother in Christ it’s a 7th, next year

The Devils always make good use of 7th round picks, I just hope they hold onto their 2028 7th rounder.

Maxime Brodeur

 

[GeeoffBrown]

The Devils do have a 6th rounder, two 7th rounders and a UDFA on the starting roster

 

[Brodeur]

Could have been had for free on waivers, but instead our mastermind GM decided it's smarter to give up a pick for him.

The deadline makes you do things like that. Like me stopping at the store to buy a junky gift for my friend while en route to her birthday party because I thought I would have picked up something better for her beforehand.

And as others have said, it's just a 7th rounder. Here's the list of our 7th rounders from the lockout: Alexander Sundstrom (0 games), Kyell Henegan (0 games), Ryan Molle (0 games), J.S. Berube (0 games), Curtis Gedig (0 games), Mauro Jorg (0 games), Patrick Daly (0 games, retired a couple months after being drafted), Anthony Brodeur (0 games), Jeremy Davies (23 games after being traded), Matthew Hellickson (0 games), Eetu Pakkila (0 games), Nikola Pasic (0 games), Zakhar Bardakov (tbd), Artem Barabosha (tbd).

If the team really wanted to recoup that 7th rounder, there are usually teams willing to trade out for a future 7th. Ie, to draft Anthony Brodeur in the 2013 7th, Lou gave up a 2015 7th. So hypothetically it can be a big old nothing burger that you kick down the road. Washington gave up a 2025 7th to get a 2023 7th on draft day. They were missing their 2024 7th but were able to trade back into the 7th on draft day.

Plus there is a window to sign an undrafted (North American trained) prospect with remaining draft eligibility. In 2017, San Jose intended to draft Josef Korenar with one of their 7th round picks but they ended up trading both. Korenar went undrafted and the Sharks signed him a couple weeks after the draft.

In 2015, Columbus tried unsuccessfully to get back into the 7th round for hometown product Kole Sherwood. Sherwood went undrafted but was willing to sign with Columbus and give up a college scholarship.

The Devils did this with Colby Sissons a few years back. And then if you don't have a direct target, not having that 7th opens up a contract slot for a different undrafted free agent down the road. We didn't have a 2020 7th but then signed an undrafted NCAA free agent like Brian Halonen a couple years later.

Also there's the slight possibility that the draft gets shortened as part of the next CBA negotiation. At the 2004 Draft, Columbus gave up a 2005 9th rounder to Los Angeles. Then the 2005 CBA shortened the draft from 9 to 7 rounds. The league gave LA a pick at the end of the 7th to make up for it, but theoretically Columbus technically ended up giving up nothing.

 

[NJ07102]

The deadline makes you do things like that. Like me stopping at the store to buy a junky gift for my friend while en route to her birthday party because I thought I would have picked up something better for her beforehand.

And as others have said, it's just a 7th rounder. Here's the list of our 7th rounders from the lockout: Alexander Sundstrom (0 games), Kyell Henegan (0 games), Ryan Molle (0 games), J.S. Berube (0 games), Curtis Gedig (0 games), Mauro Jorg (0 games), Patrick Daly (0 games, retired a couple months after being drafted), Anthony Brodeur (0 games), Jeremy Davies (23 games after being traded), Matthew Hellickson (0 games), Eetu Pakkila (0 games), Nikola Pasic (0 games), Zakhar Bardakov (tbd), Artem Barabosha (tbd).

If the team really wanted to recoup that 7th rounder, there are usually teams willing to trade out for a future 7th. Ie, to draft Anthony Brodeur in the 2013 7th, Lou gave up a 2015 7th. So hypothetically it can be a big old nothing burger that you kick down the road. Washington gave up a 2025 7th to get a 2023 7th on draft day. They were missing their 2024 7th but were able to trade back into the 7th on draft day.

Plus there is a window to sign an undrafted (North American trained) prospect with remaining draft eligibility. In 2017, San Jose intended to draft Josef Korenar with one of their 7th round picks but they ended up trading both. Korenar went undrafted and the Sharks signed him a couple weeks after the draft.

In 2015, Columbus tried unsuccessfully to get back into the 7th round for hometown product Kole Sherwood. Sherwood went undrafted but was willing to sign with Columbus and give up a college scholarship.

The Devils did this with Colby Sissons a few years back. And then if you don't have a direct target, not having that 7th opens up a contract slot for a different undrafted free agent down the road. We didn't have a 2020 7th but then signed an undrafted NCAA free agent like Brian Halonen a couple years later.

Also there's the slight possibility that the draft gets shortened as part of the next CBA negotiation. At the 2004 Draft, Columbus gave up a 2005 9th rounder to Los Angeles. Then the 2005 CBA shortened the draft from 9 to 7 rounds. The league gave LA a pick at the end of the 7th to make up for it, but theoretically Columbus technically ended up giving up nothing.

This is quite a writeup about what the Devs did with their 7th rounders, very impressive. Do you know we have two 7th rounders on our team? Ondrej Palat and Eric Haula were drafted in the 7th round, not by the Devils, that is true. Other 7th rounders include Frederik Andersen, Patric Hornqvist, Anton Stralman, Mackenzie Weegar, Henrik Lundqvist, Cliff Ronning, Doug Gilmour, Henrik Zetterberg and Joe Pavelski. So I wouldn't say 7th rounders are totally worthless.

It was obvious the Devils needed depth scoring not just now, but way before that. Our bottom 6 wasn't doing anything even in December and before. And there were quite a few guys on wavers, not just Sprong. Why not give somebody a try when you see you don't get ANYTHING from at least 4 guys. And then, to show that you are active and do at least something at the deadline, you trade a 7th rounder for Sprong. It's not a high price, that is true. But it's still foolish. Besides, I bet Sprong will be in Keefes doghouse in a hurry unless he has suddenly learned how to backcheck.

 

[Brodeur]

This is quite a writeup about what the Devs did with their 7th rounders, very impressive. Do you know we have two 7th rounders on our team? Ondrej Palat and Eric Haula were drafted in the 7th round, not by the Devils, that is true. Other 7th rounders include Frederik Andersen, Patric Hornqvist, Anton Stralman, Mackenzie Weegar, Henrik Lundqvist, Cliff Ronning, Doug Gilmour, Henrik Zetterberg and Joe Pavelski. So I wouldn't say 7th rounders are totally worthless.

It was obvious the Devils needed depth scoring not just now, but way before that. Our bottom 6 wasn't doing anything even in December and before. And there were quite a few guys on wavers, not just Sprong. Why not give somebody a try when you see you don't get ANYTHING from at least 4 guys. And then, to show that you are active and do at least something at the deadline, you trade a 7th rounder for Sprong. It's not a high price, that is true. But it's still foolish. Besides, I bet Sprong will be in Keefes doghouse in a hurry unless he has suddenly learned how to backcheck.

I'm not exactly thrilled by the Devils deadline moves, but I think you're just trying too hard to get mad over a 7th rounder. You had to cherry pick and go back to 1984 for Cliff Ronning? The 134th pick would be an early 5th round pick now?

Like I said before, if the team really wanted to trade back into the 7th round, it's typically not an impossible feat.

 

[NJ07102]

You had to cherry pick and go back to 1984 for Cliff Ronning?

I gave you more names and could give you even more. Like Olofsson, Engvall, Kubalik, Jake Evans, Matt Roy, Harvey-Pinard and Nic Dowd. So the one who is "cherry picking" is you, not me. All I'm saying is, the pick is not "nothing". For the Devils it may be nothing because of the way they draft, but you can certainly find some useful players once in a while.

 

[Brodeur]

I gave you more names and could give you even more. Like Olofsson, Engvall, Kubalik, Jake Evans, Matt Roy, Harvey-Pinard and Nic Dowd. So the one who is "cherry picking" is you, not me. All I'm saying is, the pick is not "nothing". For the Devils it may be nothing because of the way they draft, but you can certainly find some useful players once in a while.

Cherry picks names and accuses the other person of cherry picking. Solid.

Again, let me reiterate. I'm not saying 7th rounders are completely worthless. I just think you're outraging yourself by listing the rare 7th rounders who panned out and assuming that is the opportunity cost.

Here are a couple things you seem to be ignoring from my earlier post:

1. You can typically trade back into the 7th round if your scouts really like somebody. The Devils had a 7th in 2023 and traded it while on the clock to Nashville for a 7th in 2024; Granted that was more of symbolic trade since that draft was in Nashville and they wanted to give David Poile one last hurrah as GM. Several picks later, Vegas traded the last pick of the draft to Columbus for a 2024 7th. You'll typically see a couple trades like this every year where a team trades back into the 7th.

Teams could indefinitely kick the can down the road.

2. There's a window to sign (North American trained) guys who went undrafted who have remaining draft eligibility. I cited the example of San Jose intending to draft Josef Korenar in the 2017 7th round, but they ended up trading those picks to the Devils. Korenar slipped through and the Sharks signed him anyways. Was there a major difference between the Sharks drafting Korenar at #214 on June 24th vs signing him as a free agent on July 14th?

This is a strategy that teams are aware of. San Jose gave up a lot of picks in the Doug Wilson era and were typically aggressive in signing undrafted guys. Most of them didn't pan out, but they got a guy like Michael Sgarbossa who went undrafted in 2010, signed with San Jose after that draft, and then led the OHL in scoring in 2011-12.

Columbus was unable to trade back into the 7th in 2015 but still signed their target Kole Sherwood right after the draft anyways. Martin Jones went undrafted in 2008 and the Kings signed him that summer.