Lindy Ruff has just announced Another NHL trade deadline, which is…

Lindy Ruff has just announced another NHL trade deadline, which is…

The All-Star Weekend and a bye week are just one game away for the New Jersey Devils. The NHL Trade Deadline is the next significant event on the NHL calendar, barring any news.

The deadline for this season is March 8, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET. The New Jersey Devils are on lock to make the playoffs. A club that finished the playoffs with 52 wins and an incredible victory over Our Hated Rivals shouldn’t, in my opinion, be content to remain a bubble team that only participates in important games in March.

All season long, goaltending has been a liability. Due to accidents and other problems, depth has been checked at the center and on the blue line.

Between tomorrow’s game and February 6, when there will be more than a week off, management will have plenty of time to make decisions, think through trades, and possibly even take action to strengthen the club.

This indicates that now is a great time to evaluate each player on the squad and determine how much they may be traded for. Particularly considering that Dougie Hamilton was just placed on long-term injured reserve yesterday, giving Fitzgerald access to $6.7 million in LTIR space.

Rules
I completed this last season in 2020, in 2021–2022, and about a year ago today. These days, it’s almost a ritual. Here are the rules behind this perceived trade value ranking of devils, for those who are not familiar with them.

In this post, I am not advocating, disputing, announcing, or insisting that General Manager Tom Fitzgerald and his team trade everyone, nobody, or any particular player.

I’m not advocating, arguing, declaring, or pressuring the team to deal with the guys who are worth more than others. For the Devils, any deal is assumed to make some sense. This is an experiment to see how the rest of the league could see each player’s trade value. I could be wrong, as usual.

This list is ranked. I believe it would take more for a team to lure a player away from New Jersey alone, the higher the rank. It’s fantastic if they come in a box. It’s not taken into account in this ranking.

 

This isn’t a ranking of the team’s greatest players, in my opinion. We can debate which player, Ondrej Palat or Alexander Holtz, is enjoying a better season.

Whether we agree or disagree on something doesn’t always mean that Palat will be worth more in trade than Holtz. Perceived value is influenced by many more variables than just an entity’s current performance.

A player’s worth in a possible deal can be determined by a number of factors, including their age, cap hit, contract compensation structure, position, history, present role in New Jersey, and even skill level. Once more, this is not a ranking where Player X is superior to Player Y. This relates to the idea of trade value. And that’s it.