He reports that people are speculating on it, it's a nothing tweet.

LHD is the last thing the Devils need to pay a premium on.

As an islanders fan.. this seems like a mistake too many holes on the wing to move the 2OA for a defenseman when you already have dougie, siegenthaler, smith, and Hughes under team control + devils don’t compete this year and a lot of the chychrun value comes from his definitive under market value contract that doesn’t benefit the devils as much since they have so much space and this year would be a wasted year of value.. better of packaging for debrincat and Tkachuk or just making the pick

Ive been telling ppl for a while that Devils should offer #2 for Chycrun and #32. They have the centers they need, they can sign Johnny hockey in free agency to get their winger, and then they’ll have a true top pairing in Hamilton/Chychrun. Hughes wouldn’t be thrown to the wolves then and Ty smith could be sheltered. Devils would be scary to play, coming from a NYR fan

They could also try and get Forsberg for the top LW over gaudreau too, idk hm tho. if they were to add Husso, Forsberg and Chychrun then they really are going to be competitive lmao

I haven’t looked at their total cap space recently but they could potentially go for both which is crazy

Husso also showed he can clutch up when needed, showed up against the avs. Husso, Chychrun, Forsberg or Gaudreau and the team is definitely improved right away.

Luke Hughes is in pipeline ... He's the future #1 LHD

It makes sense in that they may not see Graves as a long term solution since he's UFA next year as well as Severson. Chychrun is the same age range as Hughes and Hischier and signed to a good contract. Actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

I disagree. Don't think he has the pedigree to be a number 1. Maybe a number 2 or 3.

Look at devils grabbing Quinn and playing Luke on RD to have 3 Hughes in the starting lineup in a year or two lmao

Mukhamadullin should be another NHL quality D. Likely AHL this year, but could easily make roster this season as 3rd pair.

Then there is the long list of potential 3rd pair guys like Walsh, Bahl, Okhotiuk ... and the Russians, if they ever come over

Pedigree??? He certainly has the pedigree. The family are all first class hockey players, ice skaters etc. I guess that's a joke?

yeah idk all ur prospects just those off the top of my head.. helps the point for sure tho doesnt make sense to make this move to me

Devils don’t bc they’d be screwing over the cap for the future. Can’t go for both unfortunately

Forsberg would be a good fit imo, Gaudreau a bit too small for their top 6. 42 goals in 69 (nice) games, maybe a 6 year deal would be alright in the 9mil range.

I agree. I don’t want gaudreau. Doesn’t fit the team. Forsberg could. Personally I want them to keep developing their guys and if they are going for someone, trade for tkachuk bc they got too many assets that they won’t end up using in the future

Tkachuk would be too costly but i could see it happen, but tbh better off getting Forsberg for 9.5mil than give up assets for Tkachuk.

Chychrun would not be worth it for NJ

Let me rephrase, he doesn't have the skill set to be a number 1 defenseman. His defensive awareness isn't strong enough for him to be that number 1 defenseman, not talking about his genes or family.

Not sure how the Devils can do that short of trading Hischier and a first or two plus another piece.

I disagree. The devils have too many assets but not the right pieces. Overflowing amount of LHD and too many prospects that won’t be able to fill their potential bc they’ll be stuck in the bottom six and the bottom pair. Smith Mukhamadullin Zacha are all expendable. My offer for tkachuk would be those three plus holtz sharngovich and next years first. It’s definitely an overpay, but tkachuk is a physical skilled player that we’ve never seen in the nhl before. It’s gonna take a lot to pry him away. But we’ll worth it. My future lines:
Tkachuk hughes Mercer
Slaf hischier Bratt
Foote Boqvist (or ufa) Zetterlund
Wood McLeod Bastian
Hughes severson
Sieg Hamilton
Okhutyiuk Walsh

This maximizes our assets and puts the quality of players rather than quantity in our lineup. That is a Stanley cup contender in a few years. Forsberg doesn’t provide that physicality and skill that tkachuk does. Perfect fit for hughes

Ok ... Not saying I have an opinion either way, but I understand your point. Thing is ... he's 18 years old. I'd suggest defensive awareness is the most challenging skill to develop & the reason Defenseman are notoriously a long term investment. It is also the most coachable skill .... At 18, did you say the same about Adam Fox & Quinn Hughes (just to name two recent examples)? I'd feel comfortable saying Luke is well ahead of those two defensively at 18 & has the added positive trait of size & physicality neither Fox or Quinn showed at such a young age (if ever)
You may be right, but to make such a definitive call on such a skilled 18 year old is quite the call. Enjoy the draft