Devils Trade for NHL Tough Man From Avalanche

The New Jersey Devils announced on Friday evening that they’ve acquired forward Kurtis MacDermid via trade with the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft (previously acquired from Nashville) and forward Zakhar Bardakov.

Remember that seventh-round pick that general manager Tom Fitzgerald traded to the Predators as an act to honor long-time Nashville Predators GM David Poile? Yeah, that’s the one Fitzgerald turned into some real grit.

Think the Devils have had enough of being pushed around? MacDermid is 6-foot-5, 233 lbs, and ranked second overall on the Avalanche with 21.94 hits per 60 minutes in 29 games this season. Additionally, the 29-year-old forward recorded two goals, a +3 plus/minus rating, and 23 PIM in Colorado.

According to the press release, “Before joining Colorado, MacDermid played in parts of four seasons with the Los Angeles Kings from 2017-18 to 2020-21. He totaled 118 career regular-season games with Los Angeles logging a career-high eight points (3g-5a) in 2019-20. Additionally, the blueliner spent parts of four seasons with Los Angeles’ America Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Ontario from 2015-16 to 2018-19. MacDermid earned 57 career points in 194 games with Ontario and finished three seasons with over 100 PIM (2015-16, 2016-17 & 2018-19).”

Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal explained that, “(The) Avs moved MacDermid to forward full-time this year because he just wasn’t an NHL defenseman. All his teammates absolutely love him, but he just isn’t an NHL-caliber player. You can’t fault his work ethic, though. He spent all summer in Denver working on his skills so that he could be a forward. Always one of the first guys on the ice.”

“As for fighting, he really hasn’t fought much since Milan Lucic took him down, and to be honest, there aren’t many guys in the league who CAN fight him. That really made it kind of pointless for the Avs to keep him around.”

MacDermid’s last fight was back on Jan. 19th, 2022 against Nicolas Deslauriers.

Just thinking out loud, perhaps we’ll see MacDermid fight again on March 11th when the Devils visit Matt Rempe and the New York Rangers.

This is the second trade in three days for the Devils and Fitzgerald.

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