New York Islanders played a lavish play ahead of the NHL’s deadline on Monday, discussing New Jersey Devils veteran Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac.
The Islands gave depth players AJ Greer and Mason Jobst to the Devils, along with their first-round pick in the 2021 draft and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2022 draft. The Devils retain 50% of Palmieri and Zajac’s cap hits as part of the terms.
How did both general managers fare in this exchange? Here are our degrees for trading:
GM Lou Lamoriello said it best when he explained the islanders’ dealings with Palmieri and Zajac: there are no surprises with these two. “I know what they bring on the ice. I also know what kind of people they are and what they bring to the locker room. Chemistry is very important to me,” he said.
They regularly played against these islanders. They played alongside New York defender Andy Greene, who was a Devils defender before Lamoriello moved to Jersey and added him to the islanders’ deadline on last season. For better or worse, there are no surprises for the players the islanders have acquired.
This will mostly come in handy.
Palmieri has a downward year – it can not cope. The question is whether a short-term change in the scenery can inflame its transgression. He has been better than 0.33 goals per game since 2015-’16; this season he is at 0.24, with eight goals in 34 games. He was still not lower than 0.66 points per game during that period; this season he is at 0.50. Palmieri has some encouraging underlying numbers (51.41 percent expected goals). This is not a case of his production having had a sudden, steep decline. Whether they deploy him to the left of Mathew Barzal or to the right of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Palmieri will help fill the offensive gap left by Anders Lee’s loss for the season.
Zajac was an interesting addition to the agreement. His best days are behind him, and he scored a 46.88 expected goal percentage at 5 on 5. Like Palmieri, he was a substitute for the Devils this season. His phone card used to be a punitive, but he was also ineffective there.
What he is at the age of 35 is a strong character player who can offend (18 points in 33 games) while playing a sixth role. It also gives the islanders a lot of experience and depth at the center: Barzal, Brock Nelson, Pageau, Casey Cizikas and now Zajac. Lamoriello set him up. Lamoriello knows him. He will be properly cast by Barry Trotz.
This is not the kind of trade that a Stanley Cup ensures for the islanders. But it’s the kind of trade that, if they are so blessed to hoist the chalice at the end of the season, they will look back on the fact that they added important pieces to complete the puzzle. And it did not cost them much at all, as the return did not include a prospect at the higher level and included a first round in a very mysterious concept.
If the market for Palmieri was as robust as it seemed – the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins were among the allegedly interested teams – then one might wonder if the Devils could not have obtained a prospect, rather than ‘ a low first- a concept recognized by many general executives is a complete crapshoot, thanks to the lack of personal exploration and other COVID-19 consequences.
In essence, it’s the trade: Palmieri for a first player. Greer and Jobst are profound talents about contract expiration, though Greer has the potential to contribute. Zajac’s trade value was extremely limited due to its age, efficiency and complete non – trade clause. It would probably be a team in the metropolitan area of New York or at home in Winnipeg, or it was nothing. The conditional fourth player for Zajac is therefore what it is.
As I’ve written before, this is a strange deadline for the NHL. Given all the strange forces influencing teams, this was perhaps the best return GM Tom Fitzgerald could achieve for Palmieri in an off-season. This is something we will surely know if the dust settles after Monday’s deadline.
And it’s not out of the question that the Devils have selected a first round for a player who is back on their rankings next season via unlimited free agency. Fitzgerald calls the Palmieri deal “a business decision between Kyle and this organization right now.” I asked Fitzgerald about the possibility; he closed it by saying Palmieri is now in a different team and he can not comment. Which was not a ‘no’.
The value that returned to New Jersey because he retained 50% of both players’ salaries should have been a little more than a low first player, two depth players and a fourth round who becomes a third as the Islanders the Stanley Cup final.
Now they continue to hope that the islanders stumble a bit to make the first player a higher one. Well, everyone except their GM hopes apparently.
“I hope the choice we get is the 32nd choice. I hope both of these gentlemen win the cup,” Fitzgerald said.