Devils add Marek Zidlicky

As I noted earlier in the day,the New Jersey Devils announced during their loss to the Vancouver Canucks that the team had added defenseman Marek Zidlicky from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for three players,a second round pick that the team had acquired from Washington last season and a conditional third rounder that would be added if the Devils make the Eastern Conference finals this season.

The 35 year old Zidlicky had been a healthy scratch often this season with the Wild and has not scored a goal to along with 14 assists and had been at odds with the Minnesota coaching staff.
A motivated Zidlicky was a top of the line player in his time with Nashville and his first season in Minnesota and considering his skills with the puck,Zidlicky might be an excellent choice to be paired with a defense oriented partner at full strength.
Anton Volchenkov and Bryce Salvador have played very well of late as a shutdown team,but either might be a good selection as a prospective unit with Zidlicky.
Zidlicky brings power play skills to the blueline that are different that what Kurtis Foster brought,but still unique on the Devils.
While Foster was brought to Newark on the basis of his powerful shot,Zidlicky is more of a passer type that will run the power play from the point,which is a skill that is not currently a strength of the Devils defensemen at this time.

The Devils sent forwards Nick Palmieri and Stephane Vellieux along with the aforementioned Kurtis Foster from the teams defensemen to the Wild along with the mentioned draft picks.
None of these are a major loss to the organization,although Palmieri was a player that I would have liked to have seen had a little more time to develop.
That said,Palmieri had went from being part of the Kovalchuk/Parise line at the beginning of the season to Albany,so one might not have a better chance than that to impress the team.
Foster was a mild help on the power play,but awkward in any other situations and likely had to be included to make things work on the salary cap side of things.
Vellieux is just a veteran AHLer that had Minnesota connections,so his addition was likely a favor to him.

I was not "wild" about adding the second rounder,but that seems to be the going rate for a rental player.
However,Zidlicky is not a true rental as he is signed through next season,albeit at a four million dollar cost,so that has both its positive and negative-more use of the player against the high cap hit.
I am also not concerned about a Zidlicky attitude issue as both Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora are good friends and I am sure that he knows up front what will be expected from him....

I am not against the trade,although I would have liked to have kept that second rounder,but none of the departed players are likely to be missed,so for now I am tentatively Ok with the trade....

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