Devils Fail at NHL Trade Deadline, ‘We Came in Second’

NEWARK—There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The New Jersey Devils’ NHL Trade Deadline was a failure.

The Devils wanted to ensure they were more than just a team that consisted of Jack Hughes and a supporting cast. They did themselves no such favor at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadlin by way of reinforcement.

The Devils’ issues began to creep through the cracks of their foundation after Christmas. For the last few seasons, the Devils have been a high-speed, high-skill team that thrives on offense, even when they struggled to keep the puck out of their own net in the 2023-24 season.

The Devils went into the holiday break on fire. They were seemingly at the top of their game, scoring 3.35 goals per game while receiving stellar goaltending from Jacob Markstrom behind strong defense.

The latter two points are still true. Yet, the Devils’ ability to put the puck in the net has plummeted to 2.5 goals per game.

Things went from back to worse when Jack Hughes suffered a season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery. They lost their best player, one of the one ones who was providing consistent offense.

Even before Hughes was hurt, the Devils needed to add. After the injury, that need only intensified.

For general manager Tom Fitzgerald, there were multiple opportunities for the Devils GM to add. Leading up to the 4 Nations Face-Off, there was a wave of NHL trade activity that saw a few names such as Mikko Rantanen, J.T. Miller, and Mikael Granlund on the move.

The Devils showed some interest in the available parties, but each ultimately ended up elsewhere.

Then there was the window between the 4 Nations Face-Off and Friday’s trade deadline. There wasn’t a whole lot of NHL trade activity of significance, giving Fitzgerald time to get his ducks in a row in order to ensure added support to Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes and Timo Meier, their stars who remain in the lineup.

On Thursday night, the dam began to break. Brock Nelson was the first domino to fall, then word spread that Rantanen was being flipped to Dallas.

Players began to move.

Fitzgerald explained he was after a player of significance. Yet, they came away empty-handed.

“I don’t want to say a knockout punch, but it was a split decision, and the player went to a different team,” Fitzgerald explained Friday after the deadline. “It was difficult. But you know what? That happens. You win some, you lose some. And I just felt that my goal from the get-go was to add to this group in the player that I went after hard was that player with or without Jack. We were still trying to add that, and unfortunately, we just came in second.”

Multiple reports suggested, including one with New Jersey Hockey Now, that the Devils expressed interest in both Rantanen and Nelson.

The Devils’ trade deadline only gets worse when you zoom the lens in further.

After making the depth adds they did, New Jersey had over $10 million in LTIR space, money set aside to make a big add. They had Anaheim retain salary in a trade to maximize cap space. Hughes and Jonas Siegenthaler’s cap hits went to LTIR. Instead, they walked away with peanuts.

“We tried. But when you start looking at, not only the amount of capital you have, but the assets that we thought we had, and sometimes you don’t have enough for certain teams,” Fitzgerald said. “But we tried. We tried to with certain players, it wasn’t like we were going out and getting three players on expiring deals because of that cap space. We wanted to be strategic about it, and realistic too. Because the players that went for a lot of assets, and we have a lot of assets, but we didn’t have that many assets.”

Fitzgerald settled for Daniel Sprong, a forward with a history of scoring touch at the NHL level, and Cody Glass.

However, Sprong’s been playing in the American Hockey League for the majority of the 2024-25 season. The former disgruntled Seattle Kraken forward believes he’s an NHL player. As for Glass, he’s a failed first-round draft pick, sixth overall, who has been minimized to a fourth-line defensive forward.

On the blueline, the Devils added Brian Dumoulin and Dennis Cholowski. They’ll fill in for the injured Jonas Siegenthaler and Dougie Hamilton.

The Devils’ defense only needed some patchwork.

However, the forward group has been severely lacking, and didn’t get much better after Friday.

Yet, Fitzgerald stood in front of the media and explained it’s still the Devils’ goal to make it to the postseason.

As for the message to his team after Friday’s activity, or lack of, Fitzgerald explained he believes the Devils’ defense will be what propels them if they achieve their goals.

“I believe in them,” Fitzgerald said when asked what the message is to his team. “We’re a good team. Of course, no Jack Hughes, but we’re not a one-man team. No Dougie Hamilton, but we’re not a one-man defense corps. We’re a good team, and I think our team realizes that when you can play a committed defensive game, you give yourself a chance to win every night.”

As of Friday before their tilt with the Winnipeg Jets, the Devils’ odds at clinching the playoffs stands at 87.5%, per MoneyPuck. A percentage that has only dropped since returning to play following the holiday break.

The teams surrounding the Devils in the standings didn’t improve all that much at the NHL Trade Deadline, either. Yet, the Devils failed to improve for a chance to establish themselves as the team to beat in the east, had they added impact players, despite the absence of their superstar.

Fitzgerald reinforced although Jack Hughes is of vital importance to the Devils, they’re more than a one-man team. He better hope he’s right down the stretch of the regular season. Otherwise, back-to-back years of missing the playoffs amid high expectations could cost the Devils GM his job.

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