One player on each NHL team that should be traded
85. . RW. New Jersey Devils. Jimmy Hayes. 14. player
Jimmy Hayes just never panned out. He was a late second round pick who could never find his footing in Chicago. After a good season in Florida, where he had 35 points, they thought so highly of him that they traded him for a dead contract.
He failed to make an impact in Boston and he’s done a lot of nothing in New Jersey.
He’s 28-years-old now. It’s likely that he never figures it out and doesn’t have a place in the league in two years.
The Devils don’t need to do anything drastic at the trade deadline. They are way ahead of where anyone thought they would be this season and they are a young team with a lot of cap space. They shouldn’t risk any of that. They won’t risk any of that.
Thus, guys like Hayes and Drew Stafford are expendable players that the Devils might be able to get a draft pick for. There will be some team out there willing to rent Hayes for the rest of the season, hoping he shows enough to keep around for another season. Plenty of teams need a depth forward fighting for their NHL life. Those are the guys who push your younger players and should not be dismissed.
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I sincerely hope that Hayes gets traded to the Vegas Knights. I want to see Hayes and Reilly Smith on the same team because I love it when two guys who were traded for each other in the past, end up on the same team in the future. Maybe Vegas can acquire the retirement rights to Marc Savard as well.