Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are one of the many teams interested in trading for Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers. If they’re interested in Kreider, who is a rental, why not just try to get Palmieri, who has another year on his deal?
Recently, the Avalanche got bitten hard by the injury bug yet again, as Mikko Rantanen will be out for a while. Colorado needs to replace him in the lineup short-term. Long-term, they need more scoring depth once Rantanen comes back.
Palmieri would make an already impressive (when healthy) lineup even better. He could even turn them into legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. Palmieri would be a great fit next to Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon. That could allow the Avalanche to put Rantanen with Nazem Kadri on the second line, which would give that line a much-needed scoring boost.
The Avalanche can also afford to take on Palmieri without the Devils retaining any salary or sending any salary to the Devils, which is huge. They have more than enough cap space next season as well.
Colorado would have to part with their first-round pick in 2020, as the Devils probably won’t even listen to offers for Palmieri unless a 2020 first-rounder is involved. The Avalanche have a deep prospect system too, which means the Devils would have options regarding who they want. Conor Timmins could make sense. So could Martin Kaut or Tyson Jost.