The New Jersey Devils have acquired forward Tyler Toffoli from the Calgary Flames, with the signing rights to RFA Yegor Sharangovich and a 2023 third-round pick (80th overall) headed to Alberta in return.
This move comes just after Toffoli made it clear to the Flames that he would not be signing a contract extension to remain in Calgary. The 31-year-old two-time Stanley Cup champion is playing out a $4.25MM AAV contract that will expire at the end of next season. By acquiring Toffoli, the Devils add the Flames’ leading scorer and a player who has crossed the 20-goal plateau seven times.
While the Flames as a team had an extremely disappointing season, Toffoli had one of the finest years of his career in 2022-23. Not only did he score 34 goals and 73 points, each career-high marks, he also captained Team Canada to victory at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships.
The acquisition of Toffoli signals a shift in focus for New Jersey that was all but confirmed when the team reached the playoffs and eliminated their arch-rival New York Rangers in the first round.
The long rebuild is over for the Devils, and the focus for GM Tom Fitzgerald is no longer on building for the future, it’s about assembling a Stanley Cup contender ready as soon as next season.
In adding Toffoli, the Devils’ hopes of going on a long playoff run have certainly increased. Toffoli’s been on quite a few of those, and he has triple the career playoff points of Tomas Tatar, the player he’s most directly replacing in New Jersey’s forward lineup. He may not be a long-term acquisition at 31 years old, but he’s an exceptional finisher and is easily improves the team’s group of forwards.
Seeing as Ondrej Palat, Dawson Mercer, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier are likely at this point in time to occupy the spots on the wing next to New Jersey’s two franchise centers, Toffoli could end up in a third-line role for the Devils. That would give the Devils an embarrassment of riches up front, potentially giving them three forward lines capable of creating offense at an impressive rate. At the very least, Toffoli’s addition gives head coach Lindy Ruff another talented scoring forward to plug into his lineup.
Sharangovich was unlikely to have a long-term future in New Jersey, given the whole host of young players that still need to sign contract extensions. Players such as Meier and in the future, Luke Hughes are likely to eat up quite a bit of the Devils’ future cap space, so with RFA negotiations set to take place this summer, it seems other players supplanted Sharangovich in New Jersey’s long-term plans.
For Calgary, losing Toffoli is undoubtedly disappointing but they do have an interesting player headed their way in Sharangovich. As he turned 25 earlier this month, he fits new GM Craig Conroy’s goal of getting younger and faster this offseason. He got a little lost in a crowded Devils forward group last year and scored a career-low 13 goals and 30 points, but in the prior two years when he had a larger role he scored at a 25-goal, 48-point pace.
If Sharangovich gets a chance to play with forward Jonathan Huberdeau, for example, he could take an even larger step forward offensively. He’s also decently versatile, with experience playing all three forward positions. Seeing as Toffoli is a widely respected player with an affordable cap hit, the Flames likely had no shortage of offers for his services.
Their acquisition of Sharangovich suggests they feel he can become an even greater player under their new head coach Ryan Huska. While it undoubtedly hurts to lose Toffoli, Sharangovich could be a player who lifts Flames fans out of their seats for years to come.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
NJ using their defensive prospect depth to their advantage
Steal. Yet the Habs give up basically two firsts for a 3rd liner
They traded picks 31 and 37, two picks with a relatively low chance of producing an NHL regular, for a young player with potential who now has an opportunity to play on a higher line. I’d say that’s a fair value.
Steal for whom??? Toffoli is a solid player to be sure, but he’s on the wrong side of 30, entering his walk year and wanted out of Calgary. The Flames didn’t do so bad under the circumstances.
I’m sure you realize that #31 is closer to the 2nd round than #37 is to the 1st. So the Habs basically gave up two seconds.
Either way I’d rather have Taffoli back for the price the devil’s gave up and ya a late first or early second have never been superstars in the NHL (moron)
Second round picks are not expected to be superstars though..it’s not hard to understand. Also, the devils are in win now mode. The habs are rebuilding..you don’t add a proven 31 years old winger if you are thinking about being competitive in say 3-4 years..renagade is right
Ya so you trade away pics when you’re rebuilding right? Another idiotic comment
Rebuilding only by stacking picks takes time and luck..the habs did the same kind of trade with dach last year: you get a young NHL ready player to add to your core, instead of having the players later with picks. An overwhelming majority of people count the dach trade as W for the habs. But I guess everyone are idiots? Sure it must be..
Damn! Devils comin heavy.
WOW!! Nice move by New Jersey.
Remind me not to start a new NHL23 career mode the week before the draft.
Sharangovich was going anyway. They got an older but much higher scoring forward for him and a 3rd…Fantastic! NJ is now an offensive juggernaut!
I would assume that means Wood is gone… when you factor that in it’s kinda like Wood, a 3rd and Yegor for Toffoli. Upgrade I guess.
I hope they will resign Tatar and we have a third line of Tatar, Boqvist/McLeod and Toffoli which I can get behind.
I forgot we also have Palat… yeesh. That’s suddenly a stacked top 9 even if Tatar walks.
Holy moley and Haula signed, I forgot… Yikes for a 3rd line of Palat, Haula and Toffoli. Gunna be rolling em around.
Toffoli will be in the top six that is why then when out and traded for him ,Jack or Nico will be his center…
They not then
I wouldn’t be so sure. He’ll have to overtake Meier and Mercer on RW. I’m not convinced Toffoli is a lock to push Mercer down to the third line.
He should be taking Palats spot.
Meier Jack Toffoli
Bratt Nico Mercer
Palat Haula ——
Nah, Meier has played pretty much his whole career at RW.
The Flames could of got a lot more in my opinion for Toffoli
could’ve (as in, could have). i’m sorry, i’m not normally a English nazi, but perhaps you will find this note helpful. good day
So where does this leave the Meier negotiations?
This will be paid for from the Severson, Graves, Wood, Tatar, Blackwood fund. Shouldn’t do any damage cap wise.
If this is the asking price for a 34g scorer then habs screwed up with anderson.. should have traded him during the deadline..now he wont fetch a 5th round pik lol jk i love anderson but man thats a steal for NJ. Its just gonna make it really hard for habs to use anderson as leverage now
Holy hell, did Fitzy also beat up the Calgary office interns for their lunch money? So Toffoli wanted out. So what? Players a good bit worse than him draw first rounders at the trade deadline all the time, never mind with his very team-friendly cap hit. (Go ahead, see if DuBois is traded for as little as a middle-six winger and a third rounder.)
Don’t you have some racist remarks to yell from the stands at Fenway clown?
No hardware is a given regardless of how you load up, Let’s not forget the 22/23 version of the Boston Bruins, And let’s not forget that the Florida Panthers barely made the playoffs. Let’s not be to eager to count our pitchforks.
All this talk about his offense abilities, don’t forget this guy is a solid defensive player as well and can work on the PK unit too.