Ondrej Palat Out With Lower-Body Injury
- Missing last night’s game with a lower-body injury, team reporter Amanda Stein is reporting that New Jersey Devils forward Ondrej Palat was also absent from the team’s practice this morning. Currently on a three-game losing streak, the loss of Palat will do nothing to help the Devils’ hopes of qualifying for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. In 51 games for New Jersey this season, Palat has scored nine goals and 24 points, which is a similar pace to his production last year.
[SOURCE LINK]
Devils Working Out Toffoli Extension, Palát Injured
- The Devils made it known earlier this week they’d prefer to keep winger Tyler Toffoli past the trade deadline and continue working on an extension. Today, GM Tom Fitzgerald said the two sides are close on salary but still have a gap to bridge regarding contract length (via Amanda Stein of the Devils’ official site). It’s not clear which side prefers a longer-term deal than the other, however. Toffoli leads the Devils in goals with 26 in 60 games and is wrapping up a four-year, $17MM deal signed with Montreal in 2020.
- New Jersey will also be without winger Ondřej Palát due to a lower-body injury as they aim to get back in the playoff race tonight against the conference-leading Panthers, interim head coach Travis Green said (via Stein). Palát has had a middling second year with the Devils, recording nine goals and 24 points in 51 games, but the two-time Cup champ with the Lightning has always been regarded for his playoff production rather than regular season point totals. Veteran center Chris Tierney, who’s averaged just 9:06 per game this year, will slide into a third-line role alongside Curtis Lazar and Dawson Mercer in Green’s debut leading the New Jersey bench.
New Jersey Devils Fire Lindy Ruff, Promote Travis Green As Interim Head Coach
The New Jersey Devils have fired head coach Lindy Ruff, per Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Travis Green will step up as interim head coach. Green has served as an Associate Coach in New Jersey this season – his first coaching gig since being relieved from a five-year stint as the Vancouver Canucks head coach in 2021-22.
Ruff has been with the Devils since the 2020-21 season, relieving Alain Nasreddine from his 43-game stint following John Hynes’ departure. He led the Devils to their highest point total in club history last season, earning 112 points and New Jersey’s second playoff berth of the last decade. But the Devils didn’t make much come from the historic season, getting booted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. They’ve struggled to get their prowess back this year, falling to a 30-27-4 record largely thanks to their long list of injuries – including Dougie Hamilton, whose season was cut short by a torn pectoral in November and stars Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, who have played in just 45 and 50 games respectively.
Their circumstance would be challenging for any team to handle, though Ruff’s lineup choices have been called into question many times. His use of young forward Alexander Holtz has been particularly divisive, with Holtz averaging just over 11-and-a-half minutes and minimal power-play time despite scoring 13 goals and 24 points. Holtz has expressed frustrations with his role, telling NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky, “I don’t know, it’s hard to say… Some games I don’t play that much. I’m just trying to focus to get better every day and show them I’m able to play more.”
Holtz will now be commanded by Green, who had plenty of experience bringing up young players in Vancouver – serving as the head coach for Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes in their rookie seasons. Green totaled a measly .462 win percentage across his five years in Vancouver, though he did lead the team to the second round of the playoffs in the 2019-20 season. The Canucks were Green’s first NHL coaching role, coming after he served four years as head coach for the AHL’s Utica Comets. He now steps into a new role with experience in hand, and may even have a chance to secure the job with the Devils on the cusp of the playoff race.
Devils Prefer Not To Trade Tyler Toffoli
Devils winger Tyler Toffoli has drawn some trade interest ahead of Friday’s deadline, including from a former team. However, the team prefers to hang onto the pending UFA and continue negotiating an extension even if he’s not inked by the end of the week, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on Monday’s edition of “32 Thoughts” (and relayed by James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now).
While they haven’t been publicly named, it’s clear the Kings aren’t the only team interested in Toffoli’s services. That’s far from surprising — Toffoli is on pace to lead his team in goals for the second straight season and has firmly cemented himself as a top-six winger with five straight 20-goal seasons, including the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Toffoli broke out that season with 28 snipes and 44 points in only 52 games for the Canadiens, the highest point-per-game rate of his career up to that point. He’s since surpassed that mark with his career-best 34-goal, 73-point season with the Flames last year.
He was traded to the Devils by Calgary last summer in exchange for the signing rights to Yegor Sharangovich and a third-round pick, his third time being dealt over the previous four years. It’s been quite a tumultuous time for Toffoli throughout his offensive breakout, skating for four teams since his eight-year stint with Los Angeles ended before the 2020 trade deadline.
Friedman labeled Toffoli as “more of a wish than a likelihood” for teams looking to add scoring help this week, keeping one of the better pending UFAs out there barely on the market for now. He carries a cap hit of just $4.25MM and is nearing completion of the four-year, $17MM contract he signed with Montreal during his last time testing the free agent market in 2020. If teams want to pry Toffoli away from the Garden State, it’ll need to be an offer above market value for a rental.
His stat sheet in New Jersey isn’t quite as impressive as last year’s run in Calgary, potting 26 goals, 18 assists, 44 points, and a -14 rating in 60 games. He is, however, averaging the highest time on ice of his career with a 17:31 average, and the team’s subpar goaltending has tanked his rating. His expected +5.9 rating is fifth on the team behind Jesper Bratt, rookie defenseman Simon Nemec, Jack Hughes, and Ondřej Palát.
As such, he’ll command a considerable raise (and some trade protection) on an extension with the Devils, something they should be willing to dole out given how he helped stabilize the offense with injuries taking out both of their top two centers for extended periods this season. The team is built for the future despite a disappointing season. While a long-term deal isn’t in the cards for Toffoli at age 31, he’s likely to be a valuable top-six piece for New Jersey as they work toward making the postseason consistently over the next few years.
After back-to-back losses to the Ducks and Kings, the Devils are now only three games above .500 and trail the current second wild-card spot holder, the Lightning, by eight points with two games in hand. Per MoneyPuck, their playoff chances have dipped to 15.8%, beneath other wild-card hopefuls like the Islanders and Penguins but still ahead of the Capitals and Sabres.
Even so, it makes little sense for the Devils to sell, given they’d very likely be in playoff position with anything close to league-average goaltending. Their trio of Nico Daws, Akira Schmid and Vítek Vaněček have conceded a combined 19.1 goals above expected on the season, according to MoneyPuck, costing them several wins.
Devils Sign Mikael Diotte
The Devils have added to their prospect pool, announcing that they’ve signed defenseman Mikael Diotte to a three-year, entry-level contract that begins next season. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 20-year-old went undrafted but has taken some steps forward this season to get on the NHL radar. Diotte is in his fourth full QMJHL season, all spent with Drummondville where he has already set new career highs offensively with 10 goals and 27 assists through 50 games. Over his career with the Voltigeurs, the 6’3 rearguard has 20 goals and 65 assists in 197 major junior contests.
Diotte will spend the remainder of the season with Drummondville but will not be eligible to return for next year due to his age. Instead, he will begin his professional career, potentially with AHL Utica, a team that only has two other prospect blueliners under contract for the 2024-25 campaign as things currently stand.
Devils Circling Back On Jacob Markström, Will Take Full Salary
The Devils added some bottom-six grit today by acquiring enforcer Kurtis MacDermid from the Avalanche. Still, GM Tom Fitzgerald is far from done ahead of the March 8 trade deadline. He remains aggressive in his pursuit for a goaltender and, with Predators starter Juuse Saros all but off the table thanks to Nashville’s recent hot streak, he’s refocused his attention on the Flames and Jacob Markström.
That still doesn’t likely solve all of New Jersey’s roadblocks in acquiring Markström, who carries a $6MM cap hit through 2026. The Flames’ unwillingness to take salary back means it’s highly unrealistic that they’d take Devils netminder Vítek Vaněček, who carries a $3.4MM cap hit through next season, back in a trade. That would pose significant cap issues for the Devils in 2024-25, as they have under $20MM in projected space with only 13 out of 23 roster spots filled. To make it work, they’d likely need to part with more assets to dump the last season of the struggling Vaněček’s deal in a separate trade.
Devils Acquire Kurtis MacDermid From Avalanche
The Devils have acquired winger/defenseman Kurtis MacDermid from the Avalanche in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick and the signing rights to center prospect Zakhar Bardakov, per a team release. New Jersey didn’t have an opening on its roster before the trade, so winger Brian Halonen has been assigned to AHL Utica in a corresponding transaction, per CapFriendly.
The 29-year-old MacDermid moves to his third NHL team, spending four years with the Kings before joining the Avalanche via trade in 2021. Strictly an enforcer, MacDermid was briefly a member of the Kraken after they selected him from the Kings in the 2021 Expansion Draft, but they dealt him to Colorado for a fourth-round pick less than a week after picking him up. Primarily playing defense in his days with Los Angeles, he’s shifted to wing on a deeper Colorado blue-line, averaging 7:12 per game over his 131 appearances in the Mile High City.
MacDermid logged 29 games for the Avs this year, recording two goals and a +3 rating with an unusually low 23 PIMs. He has been a healthy scratch in nine of Colorado’s 12 games since the beginning of February.
New Jersey, who already has eight defensemen on the roster, will utilize MacDermid in a similar role. He’ll likely skate as their fourth-line left wing when in the lineup, rotating in and out with players like Tomáš Nosek and Chris Tierney.
The Avalanche, on the other hand, likely care more about clearing MacDermid’s $987.5K cap hit than they do about losing his bottom-six presence. They now have two open roster spots and $2.3MM in space with captain Gabriel Landeskog and goaltender Pavel Francouz on long-term injured reserve, significantly opening up their options to take on a player with double salary retention. They could realistically take on a player whose cap hit is in the $8MM range if the selling team and a third party each retain 50% of his contract.
MacDermid is in the second season of a two-year, $1.975MM contract and will reach unrestricted free agency this summer. If the Devils choose to buy at the deadline in a last-ditch effort to make the playoffs, they have $8.3MM in space remaining with Dougie Hamilton on LTIR for the rest of the season, per CapFriendly.
In Bardakov, the Avs pick up a 2021 Devils seventh-round pick who’s remained in his native Russia since his draft year. The 23-year-old Seversk native logged middle-six minutes for second-place SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, scoring six goals and 12 points in 51 games with a -3 rating.
Standing at 6-foot-2 and nearly 200 lbs, Bardakov possesses a physical element to his game and adds slightly to a thin pool of center prospects in Colorado. His contract with St. Petersburg is up this season, so he’s an option to sign with Colorado once SKA St. Petersburg’s run in the Gagarin Cup Playoffs, which began today, wraps up.
Dallas Stars Acquire Chris Tanev From Calgary Flames
The Dallas Stars have acquired defenseman Chris Tanev from the Calgary Flames, and goaltender Cole Brady from the New Jersey Devils, per a team announcement. The Stars will send defensive prospect Artyom Grushnikov, a 2024 second-round pick, and a conditional 2026 third-round pick back to Calgary. Dallas has also sent a 2026 fourth-round pick to the Devils for their part in retaining 50% of Tanev’s salary for the remainder of the 2023-24 season.
As the Flames also retained 50% of Tanev’s contract, that brings his AAV down to just $1.125MM for the Stars. As far as the conditions on the conditional third-round pick headed to Calgary, the Flames will only receive this pick if Dallas makes it to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
With Tanev now in the fold, this gives Dallas a formidable top-four of their defensive unit with Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Esa Lindell also in the mix. As Tanev was previously one of the grittier defensemen on this year’s trade market, he will make the Stars much more difficult to play against leading into the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In the last season of a four-year, $18MM contract signed with the Flames organization, Tanev has averaged over 20 minutes a night in Calgary during his tenure. In 259 games played with the Flames, Tanev has scored a total of 10 goals and 67 points during his tenure in Alberta. 
Nevertheless, the Stars undoubtedly targeted Tanev due to his defensive prowess, as he averaged close to a 90.0 on-ice save percentage in all situations over his career. Aside from carrying solid defensive awareness, Tanev has also averaged more than 100 blocked shots each season, and he will become the new leader in that category in Texas with 171 already this year.
Currently, in a backup role at the University of Massachusetts, Brady was brought to the Devils organization as a fifth-round selection in the 2019 NHL Draft. In now his fourth season in the NCAA, Brady has played in a total of 46 games for Massachusetts and Arizona State, earning a 16-18-4 record with a .902 SV%.
In return to Calgary, Grushnikov was originally drafted 48th overall by the Stars in the 2021 NHL Draft. In his first full season in the American Hockey League, he has played in 44 games for Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, scoring one goal and five points overall. Nevertheless, Grushnikov does have solid defensive awareness like Tanev and can frustrate opposing players in his zone.
By adding the second-round selection and the conditional third-round pick, the Flames now have a total of 24 draft picks available to them in the next three NHL Drafts. Intent on rebuilding the team through the draft to supplement their core, General Manager Craig Conroy continues to stockpile picks through his trades this season to do just that.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the deal.
The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the return to Calgary.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report the full return to Calgary.
Seravalli was the first to report New Jersey’s involvement in the trade.
Kings Reportedly Interested In Tyler Toffoli
After spending the first eight seasons of his career in Los Angeles, Devils winger Tyler Toffoli could return to Southern California. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports that the Kings have “expressed interest” in Toffoli if he’s made available by New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald in the days leading up to the deadline.
A pending UFA, Toffoli carries a cap hit of $4.25MM, and while extension discussions are ongoing, no deal has been reached. The Devils are still in a playoff chase, sitting five points behind the Lightning for the final playoff spot in the East with two games in hand.
That’s a perfectly bridgable gap, so even if the 31-year-old isn’t extended by March 8, they may keep him around if they feel the postseason is in reach or are confident in reaching an extension before the summer. Toffoli’s production isn’t replaceable internally – he holds the team lead in goals with 25 and has 42 points in 58 games, fourth on the team. While he’s technically listed as the Devils’ third-line left wing with Erik Haula and Dawson Mercer, he’s averaged 17:27 per game this year, fourth-most among Devils forwards.
It makes sense the Kings would have an interest in reuniting. He was a solid middle-six threat throughout most of his time in L.A., but he’s only entered his prime after a 2020 trade to the Canucks and subsequent stops in Montreal and Calgary. Last season’s career-high 34 goals with the Flames helped cement him as a true top-six and even first-line threat, posting above-average possession metrics. Add in his bargain cap hit, and he’s a logical fit to help the Kings shoulder apparent semi-long-term injuries to wingers Viktor Arvidsson and Adrian Kempe down the stretch.
Los Angeles would only be able to take Toffoli if the Devils retained half his salary, making him a $2.125MM player upon acquisition. That could change if evaluation this week reveals Kempe is expected to miss the rest of the regular season, allowing the Kings to move his $5.5MM cap hit to LTIR and add Toffoli’s entire salary for the stretch run.
Critics may point to Toffoli’s -11 rating this season, but advanced numbers assign much more blame to New Jersey’s poor goaltending than Toffoli’s defensive impacts. His 56.5 CF% at even strength is fifth on the team, he has a decent +4.9 expected rating, and his most common line with Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes has controlled a remarkable 60.3% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck.
When talks of an extension in New Jersey began after his trade from Calgary last summer, it was clear Toffoli would prioritize trade protection and term. That’s because he’s played for five teams over the previous five seasons despite his strong play at each stop. He has no trade protection in his current four-year, $17MM deal signed with Montreal in 2020, and although the Kings won’t be able to afford to extend him, L.A. at least presents a familiar destination for Toffoli to ride out the 2023-24 campaign before testing the free agent waters for potentially the last time.
New Jersey Devils Interested In Juuse Saros
In an article from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, he mentions that the New Jersey Devils have had a consistent interest over the last several weeks in goaltender Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators. However, Seravalli points out that the General Manager of the Predators, Barry Trotz, has been informing teams that Saros will not be moved while the Predators are in a playoff position.
The Devils’ situation between the pipes has been an issue dating back to last summer when the team was strongly connected to Winnipeg Jets’ goaltender Connor Hellebuyck before he signed a seven-year contract extension in Manitoba. Throughout this season, New Jersey has largely been connected to nearly all the names currently present on the market, while almost acquiring Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames a few weeks ago.
The problem in net has been persistent this year, with the Devils currently ranked 22nd in the NHL in goals against per game, and 31st in the league in team save percentage. Combining the numbers from Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws, and Akira Schmid at the NHL level this season, the team has a .892 SV%, 3.22 GAA, and a whopping -20.5 goals saved above average.
Even with experiencing a down-season by his standards, Saros would mark an immediate upgrade over all three goalies that have started for New Jersey this season. In 46 starts, Saros has managed a 23-21-2 record coupled with a .904 SV% and a 2.95 GAA. Before this year, Saros finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting in each of the last three seasons and is still signed for a moderate $5MM salary for one more year.
Owning just short of $9.5MM in cap space come deadline day, the Devils could comfortably afford the contract of Saros, especially if they were able to move out Vanecek in the same deal too. Nashville may not be too high on Vanecek overall but could view him as an expensive short-term backup with his contract ending after the 2024-25 season.
As Seravalli highlighted in his article, the Predators do not seem keen on making a substantial move in net when the team currently holds the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Things could change leading up to the March 8th trade deadline, with Nashville sustaining plenty of pressure from the St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, Calgary Flames, and Seattle Kraken for that spot.
If the Predators do end up moving out Saros, they already have an heir-apparent in Yaroslav Askarov currently playing for their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. As the team currently rides a 19-game winning streak, Askarov has produced a 21-7-1 record throughout the season with a .920 SV% and 2.11 GAA, showing that he may be ready to take the full-time step to the NHL.