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...

Devils keep Kinkaid,buy out Cammalleri..

The New Jersey Devils and general manager Ray Shero had plenty of cap space already with July 1st and the start of free agency looming,but they shuffled the available space just before the period started with a re-signing and creating even more space with two players being bought out on free agency eve.

First,the retention as the Devils re-signed backup goaltender Keith Kinkaid to a two season contract worth a combined 2.5 million to stay as the steady backup to Cory Schneider.
Kinkaid went 8-13 in 21 starts (played in 26 games total) with a goals allowed average of  2.64 last season.
Kinkaid might not be the future of the franchise,but I'm glad he's sticking around.
Kinkaid's effort isn't a question and it's not like the Devils would save any money bringing in another backup from elsewhere as the cost for backup goaltenders is right along the cost of this deal,so why not keep a popular and a player of similar skill in house?
The main trickle down with this signing is that it shows that the Devils aren't as enthused with Scott Wedgewood being a seriously challenger to backup Schneider and it also buys the Devils time to continue to develop former first round draft pick Mackenzie Blackwood to eventually take that role,if not the starting position.

That signing was somewhat expected,but today's buyouts of Mike Cammalleri and Devonte Smith-Pelly came as somewhat of a surprise,but the timing makes sense in hindsight,if the Devils are going to attempt to be somewhat of a player in free agency.
The 35 year old Cammalleri finished with 10 goals and 21 assists in 61 games last season,but over the course of his Devils career has never been able to stay consistently healthy and missed much of the final two months of the season.
Cammalleri scored 27 goals in the first season of his five year deal with New Jersey,but only scored 24 goals combined in the two seasons after that and with age and health concerns seemed to be a lag on the cap for the next seasons.
Cammalleri will still carry a 1.6 million cap hit over the next two seasons,but shedding his five million dollar contract still created a sizable amount of cap space.
Cammalleri was the final big free agency addition of the Lou Lamiorello era and will leave Newark as he came-with injury questions for any team that decides to ink him to a contract.
Much as with Ryane Clowe,it shows the dangers of expecting a veteran player with injury issues to overcome them with age-they rarely get past those problems and they usually get worse.

Devante Smith-Pelly burst onto the Devils scene with a strong 18 game cameo to end the 2015-16 season after being obtained from Montreal for Stefan Matteau,but that player never arrived last season in finishing with just four in 53 games,which was half as many as he scored in his initial month plus with the team.
Smith-Pelly will bring a small cap hit (average 200K) over the next two seasons,but Ray Shero has made the comment of "passengers" unwanted,which refers to players that don't always bring their top game every night and even dating to his Montreal days,that has been a rap on the right winger.
This is one of those "change culture" moves that you often hear about when bad teams are in the process of clearing players,so this one doesn't come as a huge surprise.

I'll have coverage of tonight's IBF lightweight title fight later and tomorrow,I'll be around with any Devils news from day one of the free agency cattle run!
I also have two features finished and on deck for a slow news day,so I hope you'll enjoy some good stuff soon to stick around for-especially for my Devils-only readers!

Kinkaid notches 1st NHL win as Devils down Tampa

The New Jersey Devils snapped their losing streak with a surprising 3-2 win in the shootout over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Rock in Newark.
Patrik Elias scored the only goal of the shootout and scored earlier in the game (4) as well.
Adam Henrique (9 power play) scored the other goal for New Jersey.
Keith Kinkaid finished with 26 saves in net in earning his first NHL win in the victory.
The Devils will host Washington tomorrow night..

Hell Raisers

1) Very happy for Keith Kinkaid in net in his first NHL win.
Kinkaid was not only strong in net (loved those shootout stops!),but he showed poise after allowing the game tying goal with under a minute to go.
When we met Keith in Hershey,he was one of the nicer guys on the team and it's always nice to see good guys do well...

2) I've already seen some words about Kinkaid sharing the goalie job with Cory Schneider.
Let's not be too premature yet.
Cory Schneider will be given every opportunity to play himself out of the position considering the price paid (a first rounder in the top ten),the public relations hit (the thoughts of some (not me) that Schneider pushed Martin Brodeur out the door) and the contract (a long term one).
And he deserves those chances-the goaltending is not what ails this franchise.

3) What a pretty goal by Patrik Elias in the first period with a spin move around Matt Carle and then the shot over the shoulder and into the net.
For now,that's the Devils goal of the year..

4) What I didn't like was a lot of standing around on defense on both goals allowed by Keith Kinkaid.
Andy Greene and Jon Merril didn't clear the crease on the first Tampa goal and Peter Harrold and Greene again on the second one.
I'm a little more flexible on the second goal due to the six on five,but that is just lazy hockey.

5) The Devils fought off a four minute penalty when Michael Ryder's high stick cut Victor Hedman.
The penalty was not intentional and a bad break,but the penalty kill against a strong power play was a plus.

6) I really try to like Peter Harrold because he seems to be such a good fellow,but Peter DeBoer puts him in positions to fail.
Harrold is the 7th defenseman on a team and is playing due to Adam Larsson's mumps issues,so he moves up to play.
Fine,that is why you have depth.but why does Harrold of the bunch find the ice with under a minute to play with the Lightning thundering (like that play on words?) down with the goalie pulled in a gusty attempt to tie the game?
It's not fair to the player who is overmatched in that situation and it sets him up to fail.....

Kinkaid brilliance not enough in Chicago loss

For the second night in a row,the New Jersey Devils received an extraordinary performance in goal,but this time the opposition was better as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Devils in the shootout for a 3-2 triumph at the Rock.
Keith Kinkaid finished with 37 saves in his first NHL start in a stellar effort.
Jordan Tootoo (2) and Stephen Gionta (2) scored for the battered Devils,who will be in Philadelphia on Thursday....

Hell Raisers

1) Keith Kinkaid was sensational in his first start and it was even more remarkable when you consider the competition of one of the better teams in the league.
Kinkaid may have been overwhelmed in the shootout by two of the best players in the game (Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane),but otherwise performed very well,

2) Kinkaid was called up earlier in the day from Albany with the Devils playing yet another back to back game set and didn't get there until a few hours before the game.
As far I am concerned,if the Devils want to actually play the backup once in a while,I'd rather see Kinkaid than Scott Clemmensen....

3) Cory Schneider asked for a night off and Rachel (who generally complains about Schneider whenever she can) said that "he wanted to play all the time,he should play".
Asking out of the lineup happens in baseball and Schneider has started every game but one entering last night.
In my opinion,playing Martin Brodeur far too much was an issue in his later years and it appears that it is rearing its head again.
I liked that Schneider asked out (this time) and think it would help him and the Devils to sprinkle Keith Kinkaid in more often....

4) The defense ranged to poor to good,but the penalty killers did kill off a 5 on 3 that looked to have doomed the game.
New Jersey is slowly starting to turn that problem around and must credit where it is do.

5) Dainius Zubrus was injured against Carolina and Reid Boucher was called from the A-Devils.
Boucher was less than remarkable in this one,but the short notice could have been a factor-at least I hope.

6) Travis Zajac and Adam Larsson have been diagnosed with the mumps.
It appears to be on its way out as Zajac has resumed skating,but it took this long to know this for sure?

7) The team needs to work on one final thing that I noticed-the team doesn't clear the puck well.
I lost count of how many times that the puck was just lying there after a interrupted pass and Chicago was able to keep in the Devils zone.
That is not just a problem of the defensemen,that is a forward issue as well and it needs to be addressed..

I'll be around from the road office later tonight with a boxing challenge update and perhaps a Q and A since I haven't had one of those in a while....