New Jersey traded veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy to the Stars to get something for a player that is a free agent at the end of the year and one that I wouldn't expect to carry a lot of value, yet the Devils managed a draft pick that is higher than I would have expected them to receive.
Lovejoy has spent the last two and a half seasons with the Devils after signing as a free agent as part of the Ray Shero Pittsburgh wave initially after Shero's hiring to run the front office.
Lovejoy is a stay at home defenseman as his two goals and five assists belie, but at plus one in plus/minus, Lovejoy was one of just two Devils with a positive number in that column.
Still, at 35, Lovejoy was likely to be on the bubble, at best, to return to the Devils next season and getting anything in return in a season this dismal for the Devils is a minor coup.
Coming to New Jersey in exchange is defenseman Connor Carrick and likely the larger part of the trade, the Stars third round draft pick.
The Devils now possess two second rounders (Their own and Nashville's) and two third rounders (Anaheim and Dallas) and could use the extra ammo to trade up in the draft or perhaps grab an expensive veteran from a team desperate to clear cap space as the team has done in the past in adding players such as Kyle Palmieri and Marcus Johansson for two examples.
As for the 24-year-old defenseman Connor Carrick, New Jersey will be his fourth career stop following Washington, Toronto, and Dallas with a goal and three assists in fourteen games this season with the Stars.
I remember seeing Carrick as a Hershey Bear and he reminds me a lot of ... a much younger Ben Lovejoy.
Decent enough defensively, very limited on the attack end, a player that you can get by with as part of your third defensive pairing, but not a player that you look at as a long term presence on your roster.
Carrick will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season, so the Devils have some flexibility in bringing him back next season or not and basically received him as an added attraction to the third rounder (which again is more than I expected for Ben Lovejoy) to give the team a handful of games to evaluate Carrick.
One would have to like a third rounder for Ben Lovejoy on its own and it doesn't hurt to add Connor Carrick on a cameo basis.
The Devils will likely still be looking to move more veterans by Monday's deadline, so it'll be interesting to see any possible deals and returns.
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