Devils' Deadline Moves Set up Their Offseason

The New Jersey Devils' mix of buying and selling at the trade deadline has set them up to have an active offseason.

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The trade deadline has come and gone. It was a busy one for the New Jersey Devils that saw them add a couple of goalies and trade away a couple of pending unrestricted free agents, namely Tyler Toffoli. 

Even though adding Jake Allen and Kaapo Kähkönen might not help the Devils save their season, general manager Tom Fitzgerald's trade deadline was more about clearing the path to do damage during the offseason when real team building actually takes place. 

Clearing Vaněček's Contract Was Crucial

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Devils' deadline was moving off Vitek Vaněček's contract. Given his season, I'm surprised any team was willing to take on his deal, even though it only has a season and a half left on it at a semi-reasonable cap hit of $3.4 million. 

Vaněček's play might not be worth a $3.4 million cap hit, but for a rebuilding team like the San Jose Sharks, who are not trying to win games any time soon, that probably doesn't matter much. The more surprising part is that the Devils got an upgrade in net with Kähkönen and did not have to give up a sweetener to move Vaněček's contract. 

I like Kähkönen and think he could be someone the Devils consider beyond this season. But as Fitzgerald said in his presser, that trade wasn't about acquiring Kähkönen. It was about moving Vaněček's contract and clearing up cap space to go big-game hunting for a goalie this offseason.