Tyler Toffoli could bring an interesting return in a trade for the Devils
Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed a potential Tyler Toffoli trade on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: It was a former Calgary Flame who stole the show last night in Tyler Toffoli. A hat trick for him and now has 20 goals on the season. Frank, let’s start with the Devils as a whole here. If there is any team in that Eastern Conference playoff race with the ability to go on an Oilers type heater and turn around their season in the span of 15 games, is it not maybe New Jersey?
Frank Seravalli: Not for me, not with that defense core. Not with all the pieces that they’re missing. I mean, Damon Severson kind of called them out last week. He said when they said goodbye to me and Ryan Graves I knew they would be in tough. With the changes they were making and the steps they were asking their young defensemen to take. Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, like the future is incredibly bright in New Jersey and there’s all sorts of reasons to be excited but maybe with the Dougie Hamilton injury and Jonas Siegenthaler missing time maybe you step back and say maybe this isn’t our year.
They’ve got the offensive pieces to compete but not defensively. It’s not just missing four of your top six from last year, their goaltending hasn’t been great. And there’s not much to hang your hat on when it comes to that. Can the Devils be a playoff team? Yes, they can. But they need some significant in-season surgery and that’s sort of the spot they’re in now. When everyone gets healthy and takes another year to get experience they’ll be in a great spot, it’s just they’re not there right now.
Tyler Yaremchuk: They lead the Metropolitan Division in goals scored, Toffoli with 20 goals on the season. If you would have sat down the two GMs that made that Toffoli swap at the beginning of the season and said hey at the 45-game mark Toffoli is going to have 20 goals and you show Craig Conroy the Yegor Sharangovich statline, both GMs would view it as a win for each of them. I look at Toffoli, a pending UFA making $4.25 million, they need help on the blueline, could this be an opportunity for them to move him for a nice draft pick and move that pick for a really good defenseman?
Frank Seravalli: Maybe, and maybe that would be a smart way to go about balancing the team. It’s funny though because they’re right there knocking on the door it would be a surprise to see them selling at the deadline. That’s the tough spot that they’re in, maybe they’ll get pieces that have term and not go out and go crazy.
You can watch the rest of the episode here: