NHL history: Worst trade in each team’s history
By Nick Villano
NHL history: Worst trade in each team’s history: New Jersey Devils
A former Norris Trophy winner still in his “prime” comes over to a team looking for an identity? Ray Shero had the right idea when he traded a few spare parts to the Nashville Predators for defensemen P.K. Subban. Admittedly, Subban gets more hate than he deserves from the Devils fanbase, but this trade had long-standing impacts beyond this specific trade.
Obviously, the Devils took on a $9 million salary to keep Subban. This impact the Taylor Hall negotiations and they couldn’t just throw a blank check his way. Maybe that’s a good thing in the long run, but they were forced to sell quicker than they thought possible. They eventually traded away Wayne Simmonds, Blake Coleman, Andy Greene, and Sami Vatanen before the trade deadline ended.
This, after the Devils fired head coach John Hynes and GM Ray Shero. The Subban deal went so terribly, that the Devils had to reset the entire franchise. If he was playing better then everything would still be in place right now. Shero would still have a job. Hynes probably isn’t in Nashville. The Devils are enjoying an $11 million Taylor Hall, and Jack Hughes probably doesn’t waste his first two years.
There are more repercussions to this trade. The Devils also wanted to trade for Nikita Gusev, but they didn’t have their 2020 2nd-round pick, so they had to trade their 2021 2nd-round pick to the Vegas Golden Knights. This meant they didn’t have a 2nd for two years in a row. That led to them reaching for Shakir Mukhamadullin in the 1st round of the 2020 NHL Draft, and reaching for Chase Stillman in the 2021 draft. Neither player was going to make it to the 3rd round, so the Devils had to overpay greatly with a 1st-round pick.
On top of all that, the Devils couldn’t get a different top-line defenseman until now. They just signed Dougie Hamilton as Subban is in the final year of his deal. For the first two years, that $9 million salary forced them to attempt to play him first-line minutes. He shouldn’t be there.
Subban is a fine player now, but he can only really play two roles after those back injuries. The Devils traded for a player who could not play the same after he got hurt.