Secondary Trade Candidate On Devils Still Getting Attention

There is little doubt that the New Jersey Devils are going to make some trades this season and in the summer, so that means Dougie Hamilton is all but confirmed to be on his way out, especially with Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec playing how they are this season in their roles.

But while Hamilton is the big talk due to his status and impact of a trade he could cause, there is still at least one more. David Pagnotta said, "Ondrej Palat's name I haven't heard as much as Dougie Hamilton, but it's out there."

The Devils should want to move Palat just as much as Hamilton. While Hamilton hasn't been on the scoresheet offensively nearly as much this season, he still plays over 21.5 minutes per night, shoots a lot, has around a hit and a block per game on average, and plays power play and penalty kill. He has also been elite offensively in the past and that's not long gone as it was as recent as last season. His cap hit is $9 million AAV for two more years though. That term can offset the money a little though.

Palat is a different story. He's two years older than Hamilton and has contributed even less offense than even Hamilton in this very down season. It has been more noticeable that Palat has been on a downward trend since back when he signed his deal with the Devils.

He only has four goals and 10 points in 47 games, plays under 13 minutes per game, has some time on the second power-play unit, does hit and block shots well for a forward in his role, but is highly overpaid at $6 million AAV for one more year.

The Devils gained some freedom with Palat this season as his full no-move clause opened up to a 10-team trade list. It's not a ton of options, but it's more than they had before. The Devils will likely have to pay to dump Palat's contract off to a rebuilder or a bad team with space, but it has to be done if they want to bring in some more serious secondary scoring help that will be able to do that job.