Had the same idea for Xhekaj but to VAN in a package for Lekkerimaki

Devils have the same issue with to many LHD. They don’t accept this imo

Didn't realize that. Is there a position the Devils are organizationally weak in prospects?

Good idea. It's just Holtz is more of a finished product and fits in more with the accelerated rebuild.

Not saying NJ should do this, but Xhekaj could easily be developed into a RD, I think.

Well ... If that's true than cancel this deal and the Habs keep him!!!

Weakest position in C at this point

Devils are pretty set on RD as well though. We really are looking for top end goalie prospects or centers

NJD Defensive depth charts

LD
Siegenthaler
Graves
Smith
Hughes (can play RD)
Bahl
Okhotiuk
Vilen
Edwards (can play RD)
Vukojevich
Orlov
Misyul


RD
Hamilton
Severson
Marino
Nemec
Mukhamadullin (can play LD)
Casey
Walsh (can play LD)
McCarthy
Leddy
Hurtig
Barabosha

Bold = NHLers or future NHLers
Italics = projects or long-shots

Yes!

1. Big, power forward/wing that can handle puck close to net. We recently drafted Filmon, who probably comes closest to checking all these boxes for us, but is still a couple years away. Foote is in AHL (the shot and stand-still skills are great, the skating is a concern). Hauser is also a possible candidate. Halonen and Dugan are probably NHL/AHL tweeners. Stillman is a bit of a wildcard. But none are clear candidates for future top-6. Our best froward prospects (Holtz, Gritsyuk, Thompson) are mostly smaller skilled players.

2. A big two-way center. Our pipeline includes Salminen (big, good shot, questionable defense), Shlaine (good skill, stick-handling, but not NHL size or speed) and Pytlik (who is just lost right now). We could use another future bottom-6 two-way center.

3. A long, mobile defensive dman. Most of our defensive prospects are either straight offensive dmen (Hughes, Nemec, Casey) or guys that excel in transition (Walsh, Mukhamadullin, Vilen). We have a couple of guys that are pretty close in Bahl (big, long-reach, but puck skills need work) and Okhotiuk (very physical). But after that, we have a slew of college players like Edwards, McCarthy, Hurtig, Leddy who are all defensive dmen, but are no guarantee to be NHL players.

We need NHL goalie, but our goalie pipeline is looking rather strong.
Schmid and Daws have shown well in AHL.
Brennan playing very well in juniors.
Brady has looked fantastic for UMass (only few games)
Malek is now playing Liiga.
Mitens, Poulter have been meh

Obviously Slafkovsky as a power forward is not on the table and we don't have another one. We have Owen Beck as a Center that can make sense. Is there a Beck+ for Holtz trade that can work?

Rangers don't even take that phone call. Schneider isn't available for trade, period.

Super strange perspective. You have Fox & Trouba ahead of him on the right side. Fox is your best player and Trouba's your captain. If you can make your team better in the short term and not take a step back on depth, why wouldn't you even pick up the phone?

NYR doesn't want Savard (his contract) so that is a no for Drury.

If anything the Devils should be looking to move their prospects for rentals and futures. There's a massive logjam that is only getting worse.

Because Schneider is the EXACT RD that Drury and the Rangers want.....big, physical, tough and has skill with a high ceiling, plus he is very young and cheap on an EL contract. Why on earth would ANY team want to trade him? The Rangers want to keep him for all the reasons you want to trade for him. The only possible trade offer they would consider for him would be a HUGE overpayment that would get the other teams GM fired for doing.

He plays 16 minutes a night, is -1, and has 1 assist. I get that you love your young defensemen, but let's not go nuts. There are lots of stay at home defensemen that come into the league each year. The Habs for example have Kovacevic.

It's not unreasonable to say that a GM might look at Schneider & Barron and prefer Barron to Schneider based on team needs (even if Barron is 1 year behind in his development).

It's also not unfair to say that right now, a defensemen like Savard, with his shot blocking, physical play, offensive capabilities, and ability to eat minutes is ahead of Schneider. That's not a knock on Schneider, Savard has 11 years on him and has won 2 Stanley Cups.

I get that you don't want to do the deal, but the over the top refusal doesn't really make sense.

Of course it makes sense. The Rangers moved up in the draft specifically to draft him and they traded away a very highly touted prospect in Nils Lundqvist because they have Schneider. He is a foundational type of RD that they can rely on for a decade or more. Big, physical, skilled RD do NOT grow on trees, so when a team finds one that is only 21 and cost controlled in a cap world, they KEEP them. The Rangers have ZERO interest in trading him, and eventually he will replace Trouba when his NMC burns off in 2 more years and his cap hit becomes untenable. You don't agree with that, that's fine, but that is reality. Schneider isn't going anywhere.

LW but devils need holtz to turn into a player they have no shooting threat on the PP