New Jersey Devils: Top-3 2021 NHL trade deadline assets

Ryan Murray

What? Ryan Murray has been a member of the New Jersey Devils for all of two months, and he’s already on the trade block?

Well hey, they don’t call it the hockey business for nothin’.

The former second overall selection in the 2012 NHL Draft, Murray played all seven of his professional seasons as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Though he’s never quite lived up to his initial draft pedigree, having failed to score five goals or 30 points in any of said seasons, Murray is a solid if not unspectacular left defenseman who should immediately slot in next to 2012 second-round pick Damon Severson on Lindy Ruff’s second line.

For the low-low price of a 2021 fifth-round pick, the Devils were able to land a perfectly fine player to supplement Will Butcher on the left side and a quality trade piece who could see his value rise considerably depending on what the NHL’s other 30 teams look like at the deadline.

With Murray set to hit the open market at the end of the season, if some playoff-bound team comes calling offering a four, a three, or even a pick-plus-player, you kind of have to take it, right?

With quality young players like Ty Smith and Kevin Bahl waiting patiently in the wings for an opportunity, an out of it Devils squad may opt to avoid paying an average defenseman making $4.6 million a year and flip him for an appreciating asset down the line.