{"id":481218,"date":"2026-02-15T08:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481218\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T08:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:06:07","slug":"with-eyes-on-the-olympics-the-devils-are-still-looking-to-send-a-message-at-the-nhl-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481218\/","title":{"rendered":"With eyes on the Olympics, the Devils are still looking to send a message at the NHL Trade Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Jersey Devils are at a crossroads heading into the NHL Trade Deadline. The organization believes it has the core to make the playoffs, but the results are just not there. That\u2019s why it seems like the only way out is to shake up the team\u2019s core.<\/p>\n

The only way to do that is to send a major message<\/a> at this year\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n

In a new report by RG Media, veteran sports journalist James Murphy discussed what sources call a move to shake up the core<\/a>. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is looking to send a message with hopes of spurring a turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to make a trade that, of course, he believes will address a major need and make his team better, but also send a message to his players that going forward, unless you have control of if and where you get traded to, you\u2019re not safe.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

If the source proves correct, only a handful of players without any sort of trade protection could be on the block. It\u2019s worth pointing out that Jack Hughes does not have any trade protection this season. Next year, however, a 10-team no-trade clause will kick in. <\/p>\n

But surely the Devils won\u2019t contemplate trading Hughes?<\/p>\n

Under that assumption, the main target becomes Dawson Mercer. According to Murphy\u2019s sources, the Devils have been getting calls about Mercer\u2019s availability. But Fitzgerald would rather start from the outside in.<\/p>\n

Devils want to move impending free agents<\/p>\n

The Devils would like to start by moving players set to become UFAs this summer. That situation points directly to Evgenii Dadonov and Luke Glendening. While it makes sense to move soon-to-be-free agents, doing so won\u2019t really be the sort of trade that Fitzgerald is targeting.<\/p>\n

In particular, Murphy\u2019s source highlighted one trade that could be what Fitzgerald is looking to pull off.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at last trade deadline and the [Dylan] Cozens for [Josh] Norris trade. Who saw that coming? Neither dressing room did, I\u2019ll tell you that, and when Norris has been healthy, that\u2019s been a good trade for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is that\u2019s a fine needle to thread. Who could the Devils move to recreate a similar effect? Could someone like Nico Hischier serve that purpose? What about Jesper Bratt<\/a>? <\/p>\n

All of these players have trade protection. So, they won\u2019t be going anywhere unless it\u2019s to a team of their liking. And even if they agreed to a deal, what could the Devils get back? It seems the Devils are stuck in a situation where the best they can hope for is adding around the fringes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always the possibility that someone steps up and takes Dougie Hamilton\u2019s cap hit on. That might be enough to entice Hamilton to waive his no-trade clause. But that\u2019s still a major if.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Jersey Devils are at a crossroads heading into the NHL Trade Deadline. The organization believes it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-481218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}