Devils trade Blackwood to San Jose

    With the NHL draft one day away and the New Jersey Devils still lacking a first-round pick, the Devils still found a way to make some news with two minor trades.

The bigger of the two saw the one-time Devils goaltender of the future end his future with the Devils as Mackenzie Blackwood was traded to the San Jose Sharks for a sixth-round pick in the upcoming draft.

New Jersey used their second-round draft pick in 2015 (forty-second overall) on Blackwood, who was the second goaltender drafted and the first North American netminder selected.

Blackwood played in twenty-two games for the Devils last season, finishing 10-6-2 with a GAA of 3.20 and a save percentage of .893.

This past season was the third season in a row that Blackwood allowed over three goals a game as Blackwood authored a disappointing end to a tenure that started well in New Jersey.

Blackwood's first two seasons were strong ones for a bad team with an even worse defense in front of him, as he won thirty-two games over those seasons, finishing at .500 in his rookie year and 22-14-8 in the second season, finishing both years with a GAA under three and save percentages of over ninety-one percent.

But Blackwood never seemed to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown as his game fell into a decline that he was unable to reverse.

Blackwood suffered from illness, injury, and battles over the Covid-19 vaccine as Blackwood first refused to take the vaccine, and after taking it, playing even worse.

Blackwood was a restricted free agent and when you consider that the Devils were unlikely to make a qualifying offer of over four million dollars for a third goaltender that has struggled for years, Tom Fitzgerald did well in getting a sixth-rounder, which isn't anything to leap into the air about but it is literally better than nothing.

New Jersey also made a minor trade with the Boston Bruins as the Devils added forward Shane Bowers from Boston for defenseman Reilly Walsh.

The best part of this trade is the two teams swapped two players from the 2017 draft and the two have each played one game in the NHL.

Bowers was the first-round pick of Ottawa in 2017 and played his only NHL game for Colorado last season.

Bowers spent the rest of the season playing in the American Hockey League for fifty-seven games split between Colorado and Providence, where he combined for eight goals and seventeen assists between the two teams.

Walsh was taken by New Jersey in the third round in 2017, and played his lone game for New Jersey in 2020-21, finishing with an assist.

Walsh played last season for the Utica Comets in the AHL, finishing with nine goals and thirty-two assists in seventy-one games.

Both players are likely to play for their teams' respective AHL affiliates with a possible emergency callup.

Devils deals- Add Vanecek, Haula

    The first day of NHL free agency arrived and left with the New Jersey Devils swinging big for the top player available for the second year in a row but this time settling for a consolation prize.

I'll be writing about that signing later but for now I'll finally get around to discussing the Devils draft day trade and their free agency day swap with the Boston Bruins.

On the second day of the NHL draft last week, New Jersey hopes to have solved at least some of their problems in net with the acquisition of Vitek Vanecek from fellow division member Washington.

The teams flipped second-round picks and New Jersey sent Washington a third-rounder for the signing rights to Vanecek, who is a restricted free agent.

The Devils had massive problems in goal last season with Mackenzie Blackwood looking like he had never played before, Jonathan Bernier played in only ten less than effective games, and a parade of players either too young, too old, or vagabond types that were incapable of patching the hole even temporarily.

The 26-year-old Vanecek won twenty games for Washington last season with a 2.67 GAA, a .908 save percentage, and four shutouts in his second season with the Capitals, sharing the position with 

Vanecek is hoped to team with a revitalized Blackwood as the Devils goaltending tandem as no one knows what they would receive if anything out of Bernier this season. 

Is Vanecek the long-term answer? I doubt it but he seems at least capable of producing similar statistics to his two seasons in Washington and I think the Devils would be pleased with those results.

On the first day of free agency, New Jersey traded former 2015 first-round pick Pavel Zacha to Boston for veteran left wing Erik Haula in a deal that spelled the end of high hopes for Zacha, who did a little of everything as a forward but not enough of anything to be special.

Zacha scored 15 goals with 21 assists last season but was an awful minus twenty-one and scored two fewer goals than in 2020-21 in twenty more games played.

The time may have come to cut Zacha loose and see if he needed a change of scenery.

As for Erik Haula, he's 31 and has one year remaining on his contract, which is worth 2.3 million to Haula and is coming off his second-best season in his career with 18 goals and 26 assists in his first and only season in Boston.

I wonder about older players that exceed their normal statistics playing with a strong team and then move to a lesser one and that's my concern on Haula.

Haula should help the third line a bit but while I understand moving Pavel Zacha might be best for both parties, I'm not sure that I'm expecting Erik Haula for perhaps only one season to be worth Zacha's chances of putting it all together.

As the weekend approaches, I hope to have a look at the Devils free agent signees and the one that got away. 

Sharangovich beats the buzzer! Devils beat Bruins in OT!

   Yegor Sharangovich (1) beat Jaroslav Halak with just under two seconds remaining in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon at the Rock in Newark.

Kyle Palmieri grabbed the puck around the Devil net, passed it to Damon Severson across mid-ice and Severson hit Sharangovich with a no-look backhand to set up the one on one and the game-winning goal.

Myles Wood scored the other Devils goal (2) in the first period when Wood re-directed a Ty Smith shot past Jaroslav Halak.

The win gives the Devils a split of the two games against the best regular season in the league last season.

The Devils return Tuesday with their first road game of the season at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.

Hell Raisers

1) Yegor Sharangovich's first career goal couldn't have come at a better time for the Devils.

With less than two seconds remaining, there would have been no time for a rebound and the rookie had to be perfect and it was almost so.

Jaroslav Halak caught a piece of the puck, but not enough to keep the puck from going into the net.

2) I know it's easy to get caught up in excitement over a win and there have been plenty of players to have fast starts and fizzle out, but something tells me that the Devils have found themselves a real player in Yegor Sharangovich.

In the two games, the guy seems constantly around the puck and has a smoothness about his game that yet doesn't suggest a player skating at half-speed.

3) The goaltending in this game was stellar by both Mackenzie Blackwood and Jaroslav Halak.

While Blackwood was playing for the second game in a row, Halak was almost his equal in his first game of the year.

As good as Blackwood was, Halak's game goes to show how much the late retirement of Corey Crawford is likely to hurt the Devils with the steep drop from Blackwood to backup Scott Wedgewood.

Boston can rely on a strong backup to give Tuukka Rask a break, right now the Devils cannot say the same.

4) Ty Smith now has a goal and an assist in his two games as it was his shot that Myles Wood redirected past Halak for the Devils' first goal.

Smith looked better on the defensive end than he did in the opener and gives me a little hope.

5) The Devils did give up a shorthanded goal when Boston's Patrice Bergeron scored in the second period.

The Bergeron goal saw Kyle Palmieri pushed off the puck by Brad Marchand and the Bruins took advantage.

It's the second game that Palmieri has been pushed around and that's unusual for him as he's never been a shrinking violet in the past.

Something to keep tabs on.

6) The Devils knew that Boston was likely to go after Myles Wood early after the altercation involving Wood in their previous game, but they may not have expected the game to begin with Wood scrapping with Kevan Miller.

Miller did what his team needed him to do, Wood gave and took what he expected was coming to him and when it was over, the game moved on- I wish more teams and referees would allow these things to play themselves out.

7)  Jack Hughes assisted on the first goal and it was Hughes that passed to Ty Smith on the first goal.

Hughes had two big chances in overtime and I have yet another feeling that Hughes is sitting on a breakout year.

Hughes still needs to get stronger and he can be pushed around, but I'm seeing flashes of what the Devils expected and he's getting closer and closer to busting out.

It's coming and maybe sooner than later.

Devils lose Opener to Bruins

   Brad Marchand scored the only goal of the shootout to give the visiting Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory at the Rock in Newark and send the New Jersey Devils down to an opening night defeat.

New Jersey trailed twice in the game, with Myles Wood scoring on a breakaway in the third period to tie the game at one and after Boston regained the lead at two to one, rookie defenseman Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal to force the shootout.

Jack Hughes assisted on both goals for the Devils, who did earn one point in the loss.

Mackenzie Blackwood was stellar in net with 35 saves for New Jersey, who will host the Bruins in a Saturday 1;00 matinee' after taking a day off.

Hell Raisers

1)  Give almost all the credit for the one point that the Devils earned to Mackenzie Blackwood. 

Blackwood literally willed the team to their hard-earned point with several spectacular saves with stops against about every offensive situation that you could think of and without a lot of help from the Devils defense.

2) Myles Wood's goal was a beautiful sight as he broke into open ice and beat Tuukka Rask for the Devil first goal of the season.

Wood can be such an exciting player with his free-wheeling aggressiveness and willingness to crash the net.

3) Myles Wood also showed the need to control some of that aggressiveness and how it can affect the team with two goaltender interference calls.

It's such a fine line between aggressiveness and recklessness and Wood doesn't always walk that line.

Until he does that better, Wood might not become the player that he is capable of becoming.

4) The pleasant surprise was Yegor Sharangovich, who seemed to be all over ice and spent time playing on the top two lines.

Some of this may have been due to the missing Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, but his play was very strong for the 22 year old from Belarus.

It's only one game, but I was impressed by his play.

5) Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal but his pairing with Matt Tennyson is going to be very weak, at least for a while.

Tennyson is playing because the recently re-acquired Sami Vatonen hasn't been able to get into the country due to signing late in camp and the Covid-19 crisis, so that pairing will not last long for that reason only.

Still, they were not good for most of the evening.

6) I've said before for all of my dislike for many of the gimmicks in sports, the best recent change in the game has been the NHL's installation of 3 on 3 overtime.

I love it- it creates scoring opportunities and excitement and it's much more like real hockey than the shootout.

I only wish the NHL would expand it to ten minutes so even more games would be decided and never make it to the shootout.

7) Due to a recent personal change (with work/Covid-19), I'm not sure how much I'll have time to write for the next 2-4 weeks.

It's very possible that I could be posting more content and just as likely that I may be writing less.

At this stage, I just don't know.

I am hoping to sometime next week do a Devils preview.

With all the hubbub right now, I just ran out of time...

Devils blanked in Boston 3-0

The New Jersey Devils winless streak continued by the Charles River as the Boston Bruins scored two goals in the first and never looked back in a 3-0 decision.
Cory Schneider finished with 29 saves in a good effort in defeat for the Devils, who lost for the fifth time in five games.
New Jersey will take another shot at their initial win of the season Monday afternoon at the Rock against the Florida Panthers on a Columbus Day matinee'.

Hell Raisers

1) Cory Schneider played well in defeat and even though his defense in front of him still allowed far too shots at point-blank range, he was good enough to win on most nights.
I've never been a fan or hater of Schneider, but he has played well enough to have a win or two this season.

2) Schneider made a tremendous save in the first period against a Bruin that I cannot recall off a shorthanded rush that made me think later of how this game could have been without the strong game from Schneider.
My guess is at least 6-0, if not more.

3) John Hynes is doing something that makes me think that he is feeling some heat.
It's not what some think it is, but the tipoff to me is the look at the scratched players.
Look at Jesper Boqvist sitting and Kevin Rooney playing.
It made me think of the times that Peter DeBoer refused to play any of the younger players, most notably Adam Larsson and play veteran journeymen like Peter Harrold all the time because even though they were lesser talents, they were less likely to make the big error than a younger player.
Now, they also contributed next to nothing, but by crackies, they didn't make that mistake that God and everybody saw, so they kept playing.
When you see coaches starting to play those guys over superior young players, they are in win-now mode and feeling the pressure- I'd bet that's John Hynes.

4) All About the Jersey made a great point about Hynes's refusal to try anything original like swapping lines up and creating new ones in a game where not only are you behind, but you aren't even threatening to score.
I didn't consider that until I read it, but their point is correct.
The Devils didn't even try to shake things up and take chances-That goes on the coaching staff.

5) The clock starts on when the power play will put a puck into the net.
As of this writing, the Devils are 0 for 15 on the power play on the season.
With the type of firepower that this team possesses, that is simply unacceptable.
I'm not sure how to fix it other than trying some varied combinations and seeing what might click but doing nothing but wishing it will get better is a pretty crappy option.

6) The Devils come home for three games and let me throw something at the wall- IF and I don't think this will happen, but IF the Devils lose all three games of those games, John Hynes may not be on the next road trip.
That would be eight games to start the season without a win and how big of a hole will be allowed to be dug before something is changed?
I do think it'll take losses in all three games, but under that scenario, change could be a coming.

Devils keep collecting- Trade Kinkaid and Johansson

Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero wasn't expected to stop his dealings by Monday's trade deadline after his previous trades and he did not do so as the Devils made two more swaps before the end of the trading period arrived.

The first of those two deals were announced early in the morning as the Devils traded goaltender Keith Kinkaid to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for a 5th round draft pick in 2022.
The 29-year-old Kinkaid had disappointed the Devils this season with his play after being given every opportunity to replace Cory Schneider as the day to day goaltender after Schneider's awful play last season.
Kinkaid's save percentage was under .900 and he was allowing well over three goals a game for the season, so that makes a very strong case for a squandered chance.
Rookie Mackenzie Blackwood, who has played well in his eleven starts (Two shutouts and allowing over a goal fewer than Kinkaid) will remain with the team with Cory Schneider for the remaining time in the season and won't have to be at the ebb and flow of the roster needs from game to game to not have to return to AHL Binghamton as such.
Kinkaid will be a free agent at the end of the season and frankly, I'm surprised that under those conditions that the Devils found anyone to give up anything for Kinkaid, albeit a late round draft pick four drafts away, so even a small morsel of a return at this time for Kinkaid is a win for Ray Shero and the Devils.

As the deadline neared, Shero struck again as he moved the player that most observers looked at as most likely to be sent away before the end of trading as the Devils traded forward Marcus Johansson to the Boston Bruins.
Johansson had scored 12 goals with 15 assists for the Devils this season in 48 games and had been playing well since the return of the All-Star break with five goals and six assists in twelve games.
Johansson has a concussion history that cost him much of his first season (29 games, five goals and nine assists) with the Devils (Ironically, the player that caused that concussion-Brad Marchand, will now be a Bruins teammate), I'm sure that dropped his marketability a bit, but still at 28 and motivated by free agency at the end of the season, Johansson can help the Bruins in their playoff run.

The return for the Swedish forward was close to what the team paid for Johansson before the 2017-18 season (a 2nd and 3rd) as the Devils picked up Boston's second rounder in the upcoming draft and their fourth rounder in the 2020 draft.
The Devils will also pay forty percent of Johansson's salary for the remainder of his contract, which isn't an issue as Johansson will be a free agent at the end of the season for Boston.

The four trades by Ray Shero have added three picks in June's draft- Boston and Nashville's second rounders and the third rounder of the Dallas Stars along with Boston's fourth rounder in 2020 and the fifth round pick of Columbus in 2022, so for a team at the bottom of the standings, the Devils did exactly what you would wish- trade four players that are not part of the Devils future, all would be free agents at the end of the year and added five draft picks, three of which could be used in trades to help the team return to being competitive next season.
One can always hope for more, but all said, there is no reason to huff and puff about what the Devils received in return.

Now the Devils play out the remaining games, see where the pick in the draft falls,which looks like barring a strong late run will at least fall in the top five, and start talking trades again with the extra draft picks that they now hold.
And wait until next season, when perhaps TRS might make a return to the Devils televised package...