Devils Deal Holtz & Schmid to Vegas!?

        Late in the second day of the NHL Draft (round six of the seven rounds), the New Jersey Devils made a trade that would have been laughed at, had it been made a year earlier.

The Devils traded right wing Alexander Holtz and goaltender Akira Schmid to the Las Vegas Golden Knights for forward Paul Cotter and Las Vegas's third-round draft choice in 2025.

Despite some questionable usage by former coach Lindy Ruff, the former seventh overall choice in 2020, Holtz scored sixteen goals with twelve assists last season and is still only twenty-two.

The hero of the Devils 2023 playoff win over the Rangers, Akita Schmid split last season between New Jersey and AHL Utica, playing in nineteen NHL games with a 3.15 GAA and a save percentage of .895.

The twenty-four-year-old Schmid had fallen behind Nico Daws among the Devils younger goalies and I suppose going elsewhere might be a good career move for Schmid, who could benefit from slotting in as someone's top goalie in the AHL.

In return, New Jersey adds Paul Cotter, a 6'2 forward, who plays a physical game that Tom Fitzgerald constantly covets.

Cotter will turn twenty-five in November and played seventy-six games last season, scoring seven goals with eighteen assists.

Cotter won a Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023 and he may be most known for this back suplex last season on Florida's Matthew Tkachuk.

I have to say, I'm not a fan of this trade.

Paul Cotter might add some muscle to the fourth line and I know how Tom Fitzgerald loves that (trading for Kurtis Macdermid and then his ridiculous contract extension belies that) and I can understand giving Akira Schmid a chance to play elsewhere.

However, I'm not happy with including Alexander Holtz in the trade.

Holtz scored sixteen goals last season and might be my choice as the player who suffered the most from Lindy Ruff's tenure in New Jersey.

Holtz is still young, and has room to grow, and yet the Devils botched his development by not playing him regularly in Newark or Utica.

The Devils made a mistake in not allowing Alexander Holtz a chance to work with a new coaching staff and their system as I believe Holtz has more value than the Devils received for him and Akira Schmid.

We now wait and see if the Devils have made a mistake.