Devils trade John Marino to Utah

   I hadn't planned on writing about the New Jersey Devils on the second day of the NHL Draft since they lacked a second-round pick but the Devils and Tom Fitzgerald moved into the second round by trading defenseman John Marino and their fifth-round selection (153 overall) to the Utah Hockey Club (formerly the Arizona Coyotes) for Utah's second-rounder (49th overall) and Edmonton's second-round pick in 2025.

The twenty-seven-year-old Marino has played five seasons in the NHL, the last two with the Devils, and scored four goals with twenty-one assists in seventy-five games, finishing with a minus-six plus-minus rating.

New Jersey seemed ready to move Marino and needed to do so quickly as Marino's contract activated a no-trade clause on Monday, July 1, so the Devils needed to move during the draft.

When you consider the Devils were borderline desperate to deal Marino due to the deadline, New Jersey should consider themselves fortunate to receive two second-round picks.

The Devils have been connected to Carolina free agent defenseman Brett Pesce and removing Marino from the cap could make a signing of Pesce more likely with the additional space.

New Jersey used the second-round selection acquired from Utah to select a goaltender, Mikhail Yegorov of Russia, who played his junior hockey with the Omaha Lancers last season.

Yegorov's goals allowed average was .896 and a save percentage of .892 but Omaha was a terrible team last season, finishing last in the league, so that could have something to do with stats that aren't a standout.

At 6'5, Yegorov should cover the net well and was ranked as the top North American-based netminder in the draft.

Yegorov is the second goaltender selected in the draft behind only Ilya Nabokov, who was selected by Colorado with the thirty-eighth pick.

Devils swap defensemen with Penguins

    The New Jersey Devils needed to add something to shake up a defensive unit that needed to bulk up its second and especially third pairings.

General manager Tom Fitzgerald hopes that he has addressed that problem after swinging an inter-divisional trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins to add John Marino in exchange for defenseman Ty Smith and a 2023 third-round draft pick.

The twenty-five-year-old Marino played in eighty-one games for Pittsburgh, scoring one goal, finishing with twenty-four assists and a plus one in the plus-minus rating.

Marino finished third in the Calder Trophy voting (rookie of the year) in 2019-20, scoring six goals with twenty assists in the shortened by pandemic season in fifty-six games.

Marino's play has slipped a bit according to followers over the last two seasons but at 25, Marino could return to his rookie form.

Marino is expected to slot into the second defensive pairing and while Pittsburgh needed to clear some cap space quickly to re-sign Evgeny Malkin, that doesn't mean that Marino is overpaid.

Actually, Marino is locked up under a very friendly contract that will pay him 4.4 million for each of the next five seasons with the final three seasons under a limited no-trade clause (Marino will pick eight teams at the beginning of each season that he cannot be moved to without his permission).

The Devils traded former first-round selection, Ty Smith, to Pittsburgh and I'm sad to see Smith go as I had high expectations for him as an offensive blueliner.

Smith was the Devils top pick in 2018 and the Devils were hoping that Smith could develop into at least a second-pairing defender that would be strong on the power play.

Smith's play in his rookie season of 2020-21 was promising ( two goals, twenty-one assists, seven power-play points and an acceptable minus six in forty-eight games for a non-playoff team) but he regressed badly in his second season with five goals, fifteen assists, four power-play points and an awful minus twenty-six in sixty-six games.

Smith has only one season remaining on his entry-level contract and with the Devils having to make decisions on the future of Damon Severson and Ryan Graves with contracts that end at the conclusion of the upcoming season, the Devils didn't need to have questions about the future of three of their top six defenders.

I'm not ready to give up on Ty Smith yet but the Devils needed a little more certainty for the next few seasons and if Smith is the player that played in Newark last year and not the promising rookie, the Devils did well in getting a steady, cost-controlled defenseman in John Marino.

And for a team that was trying to move salary, Pittsburgh did well in getting a talented and still young (22) defenseman that could easily improve with a change of scenery, and adding a third-rounder doesn't hurt the Penguins side of the swap either.

In other words, this could be a deal that both teams are able to profit from over the next few seasons.

All About The Jersey writes of the trade with more statistical detail.