Lichtenstein: Devils' Deadline Sales Will Continue Until Shero Gets Serious
By Steve Lichtenstein
» More Columns
Monday's killer 4-3 overtime loss to visiting Montreal was the Devils' final game before the NHL trade deadline. After four consecutive defeats, New Jersey is closer to the Eastern Conference cellar than to the eighth-place seed required for postseason entry.
Unfortunately, 20 games likely won't be enough for the Devils to make up the seven-point differential (while also vaulting over the six teams in front of them) needed to end their four-season playoff drought.
If this sounds like déjà vu, it is.
The Devils are facing the same scenario as a year ago. In fact, I probably could have copied and pasted the above lead, changing the particulars, from my column in advance of last season's deadline.
New Jersey general manager Ray Shero used that deadline to offload winger Lee Stempniak, the exemplar of the team's grit-and-grind ethic, to contending Boston, thereby announcing to the NHL community that the Devils were effectively done for the season.
It's selling time again for Shero, so who's on their way out in the next two days? Well, it's usually the veterans with expiring contracts who are prime candidates to be dealt to contenders looking for cheap roster depth. Mike Cammalleri, however, could be an exception, as I noted in my previous post. However, at Monday's morning skate, the 34-year-old winger told Andrew Gross of The Record that he has not been approached by Shero with regards to waiving his no-trade clause, nor has he asked to be traded.
Kyle Quincey was held out of Monday's lineup after he was told that Shero was shopping him. Not that the third-pair defenseman would bring the return Stempniak garnered (a 2016 fourth-round draft pick and a second-rounder in the 2017 draft). The 31-year-old has 54 playoff games under his belt, but the Devils will be lucky to get back a fourth-round pick like they did when they dumped center Vern Fiddler on Nashville at the beginning of February.
Winger P.A. Parenteau also sat out against the Canadiens, though it was under the guise of a banged-up finger he injured blocking a shot during the Devils' 4-3 overtime loss to the Rangers on Saturday. As a waiver claim prior to the start of this season, Parenteau would have to be offered to any other team that also claimed him at that time before he could be traded. While ESPN's Pierre LeBrun reported that he believed no teams had done so, the league has not confirmed this. Parenteau is a pending unrestricted free agent who is minus-16 in his 59 games, so we are again talking about a bargain-basement player even if he is deemed tradeable.
That the Devils are again in this position has to be considered a disappointment.
Shero's summer trade for Taylor Hall trade should have been a huge win for the Devils, but they are scoring at roughly the same rate as last season (2.34 vs. 2.24 goals per game), while defenseman Adam Larsson's departure has created such a void on the back end that New Jersey has gone from eighth in the NHL in goals against per game to 22nd.
To me, that's because all Shero has done since that blockbuster is exchange one set of deadwood for another.
He signed low-performing players like Quincey, Fiddler and Beau Bennett in the summer free agent market and later picked up Parenteau and Stefan Noesen at the league's garbage dump. He re-signed his own career underachieving restricted free agents like Sergey Kalinin, Reid Boucher, Jacob Josefson and Devante Smith-Pelly. Only defenseman Ben Lovejoy could be deemed a somewhat successful pickup.
This despite the Devils projecting to be a little more than $9 million under the salary cap at the end of this season, including the injured Marc Savard's $4 million contract they took on in exchange for Florida's 2018 second-round draft pick. As of this writing, only Florida and Carolina have more cap room.
The Capitals, with all their superstars, were able to squeeze another one -- defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk -- in under their cap after Monday's trade with the Blues. Yet the Devils, who have no one of that caliber, wouldn't even entertain the thought of making a move like that.
Instead, they think they can bide their time until their recent draft picks mature. It won't work because: not every prospect pans out, and, in that time, much of their current core (defenseman Andy Greene, center Travis Zajac, and goalie Cory Schneider) will succumb to age and need replacing.
Remember, for all the rookies who have been called up this season, none of the Devils' top six point-producers is under 25 years old. Young forwards who were counted on to be future cornerstones -- Pavel Zacha, Miles Wood and Joseph Blandisi -- have been extremely inconsistent. Of the youngsters on defense, Jon Merrill hasn't been as gaffe-prone since partnering with rookie Steven Santini, but you'll still see some of his classic misplays every so often. Meanwhile, Damon Severson, who is all of 22, has had a horrific season in his own end, posting a league-worst minus-28.
There's more on the way. I'm sure John Quenneville, Blake Speers, Michael McLeod, et al, will find their way to next season's training camp, but there's no guarantee they'll be any better than what's on the ice now.
You see, while it's nice that Shero has made a living collecting assets during these down years, the Devils' problem has been that they've never been bad enough to land the transformational Auston Matthews-type player at the top of a draft.
That means that Shero has to go outside the organization more often to bring in elite talent, and not just to plug one hole by opening another like he did with the Hall trade.
This summer will be huge for the Devils. In his third offseason at the helm, Shero will have oodles of cap space (an estimated $22 million) for about a half dozen open roster spots. Will they fill it with quality players or will we be talking about another fire sale in 12 months?
For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Jets and the NHL, follow Steve on Twitter at @SteveLichtenst1
