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.

Wedgewood blanks Islanders, Devils win 2-0!

  Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves to allow the New Jersey Devils to avenge their previous game's loss to the New York Islanders and win 2-0 at the Rock in Newark.

Wedgewood's flawless night was supported offensively by second-period goals by Jack Hughes (3 Power Play) and Pavel Zacha (1) in the New Jersey victory.

The Devils will host (my most hated) rival Philadelphia at the Rock Tuesday night.

Hell Raisers

1) I know that many have questions ( you may rank me amongst them) about Scott Wedgewood as the backup to Mackenzie Blackwood and the Devils look at the situation in the same manner or they wouldn't have claimed Aaron Dell, but on this night there would be no worries as Wedgewood was excellent.

2) Scott Wedgewood isn't going to be that good every night.

Hey, I don't even expect him to be that good on Tuesday against the Flyers, but what he has to do is be good enough that he doesn't lose games right away by allowing soft goals for a Devils team to fall behind early that cannot afford to do so.

3) Jack Hughes with his third goal of the year as part of a power-play unit that thus far has been much improved over last season.

4) That unit has been improved for two different reasons.

The first is the addition of Myles Wood, who has been a plus due to his aggressiveness around the net.

On the goal by Jack Hughes, it was Wood working around the net and parking himself in front of Islander goalie Ilya Sorokin to allow Hughes to fire the puck by the netminder.

If Wood can harness that aggressiveness and not take stupid penalties, which he has been known to do,

he could be a key part of an improvement on the man advantage.

5) And Ty Smith, who entered the season with questions about whether he was ready for the NHL, has been key offensively.

On the Hughes goal, it was Smith playing the point and it was Smith picking up his fifth point in five games as he hit Hughes with the pass setting up his goal.

For now, Smith seems more comfortable offensively than defensively, but the Devils power play is much more effective with the rookie on point than veteran P.K. Subban.

Smith moves the puck far more than Subban does and that has made the difference.

6) The Islanders may have a good one in net with Ilya Sorokin, who was blocked by Myles Wood on one goal and the Pavel Zacha goal was a rebound that no one could be expected to stop.

Sorokin kept the Islanders' hopes alive by stopping several Devil chances and played very well.

Devils draft Ty Smith.

Photo Credit; Bruce Bennett-Getty

The New Jersey Devils used the 17th pick of the first pick to select defenseman Ty Smith of the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.

I've said before that I'm a novice when looking at the hockey draft, at least once one gets past the first few picks of the draft, so I make no claims about being a hockey draft expert.

Ty Smith finished second among the WHL in points from a defenseman and was the first pick in the WHL draft in his junior draft season.
Smith is reported to have excellent offensive skills, although, at 5'11, he isn't as large as you would hope for a first-round defenseman.
Smith isn't afraid to shoot (194 shots last season) and was rated by some as a high-level skater.
Smith will need to get stronger and I think he will need at least one year and likely two to three years before being physically prepared for the physical NHL grind.

All about the Jersey has a far better look at Ty Smith than I have here, but the consensus going into the draft, Smith was considered as a top 15 pick with a few sites rating him as high as eighth on their player board, so depending on your ratings, the Devils either received a tremendous steal or a mild theft at 17.

Ty Smith's skating ability and skills seem to be a nice fit for the Ray Shero style and for the Devils, Smith is the type of defenseman that the system lacks and that Shero is continuing to try to build up for his vision of building the franchise and how he wants the team to play.

Finally, what really struck me was long-time TRS favorite Kathryn Tappen's (a crush that goes all the way back even past Tappen's time at NESN to the old College Sports Network, which was eventually swallowed up by the CBS Sports Network) talk with Ty Smith.
Tappen told the viewers that when they ask the various players all sorts of questions that one of those questions was "who among you would be the best team player/teammate?".
Tappen then stated that the overwhelming leader in responses was Ty Smith.
That's the type of answer that can be generic but is always a good thing when evaluating a player.
You want guys that can be leaders and who other players enjoy playing with.
It makes it a better environment and can help down the road in being able to recruit players on occasion when a team tries to win over a free agent.

As I said, I'm far from the best guy when it comes to the NHL draft, but I have to admit that I like what I heard yesterday about Ty Smith and hopefully, Smith will be a Devil in a few years.

Back later with a boxing challenge report...