New Jersey Devils: Top-3 2021 NHL trade deadline assets
Kyle Palmieri
Files this one under the ‘fan favorites’ category.
Since being acquired by the New Jersey Devils for a second and third-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Kyle Palmieri has almost immediately ingratiated himself to the Garden State like he’s a native-born son.
Why? Well, because in a way, he sort of is.
Though he was technically born in Smithtown, New York, Palmieri grew up in Montvale, New Jersey, and actually played for the team’s minor league club in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament in 2004. From there, Palmieri played a single season of college hockey at Notre Dame before being drafted 26th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in 2009 – where he played for the first five seasons of his NHL career.
Since returning to Jersey, Palmieri has been the model of consistency – scoring between 24-30 goals and 20-27 assists in each of his five campaigns with the red and black. Palmieri was even named to the 2019 All-Star game as an injury replacement for his then-teammate Taylor Hall, a fact that feels lifetimes ago when you consider everything that’s happened between then and now.
While it’d be nice to keep Palmieri with the Devils for the remainder of his career for selfish reasons alone, if the two parties can’t come to a contract extension that works for everyone – aka one that keeps him well paid while the team will be bad but gets him off the books when they’d like to use cap space on signing the next Taylor Hall-esque free agent – the soon-to-be-30-year-old may find himself shipped out midseason to a team in need of a reliable right-winger.
Fortunately, if Palmieri was to be made available at the deadline, there’d be about a half dozen teams banging down the Devils’ door looking to get him on their roster in time for the playoffs – most of whom wouldn’t be on his 8-team no-trade list. If the team can fetch a similar haul to the picks they gave up back in 2015 for Palmieri’s services, his next trip to New Jersey may be to visit family during the offseason.