Zakhar Bardakov

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.