The value is there, but the hang up is Fitz will never ever pay Nylander more than Hughes, Hirscher Meier.

The Devils current payroll structure is such that Nylander is purely a rental, and I have to think Devils fans would never ever move Mercer for a rental.

I mean, the reality is a Nylander 1-1 deal landong another forward simply won't happen anywhere. It is a more.complex deal where it is a package whereby the sum is greater than the part, and even those aren't growing on trees.

A more make sense construct I would say is an expiring deal that can fill the roster spot with an above average efficiency, a solid young NHLer and a high pick - and that may depend on that particular team's ability to extend.

Mercer is arguably more valuable than Nylander when you factor in age and contract status. Asking for a 1st on top of him is ridiculous

He’s no where near the player nylander is

Nylander age 21 season: 20 goals, 61 points
Mercer age 21 season: 27 goals, 56 points

Yes Nylander is better right now, but it’s not worth giving up a 21 year old who’s already a good top 6 player + a 1st for a pending UFA, especially when Mercer is producing similar to Nylander did at his age

Add in a pending ufa who wants to be grossly overpaid and has extended history of him and his family being nightmares to negotiate with

FFS we still on this. LET IT GO man you are so pathetic. Devils will never do this and im sorry the devils dont want Nylander and his overprice contract wanting. Ppl like you are pathetic make the same trade 24/7 and refuse to move on, this is your 15th time trading more mercer. learn how cap space work and plz explain how they can afford him, but i get you want the devils to struggle with cap space in the future making it hard to sign Luke. Clown. This and the helly to NJ BS just hurts the devils in the long run. GIVE IT UP PLZ.

This. Mercer is way more valuable to the Devils, they have several years left with him under team control, and he's still developing.

You're right, Mercer is going to cost $5-6M less than Willy and that money will be spent in other places of need. The difference in talent is hardly worth it.

NJD wants nothing to do with this. Learn the concept of surplus value

Haven’t made this trade in at least 3 days and I’ve never done this exact trade but similar ones 5 other times

Mercers next contract is going to be around 7M so it’s 2.5M difference and nylanders worth that 2.5M extra

Mercer's contract will almost certainly be better value than nylander's based on leverage and UFA vs RFA.
Nylander is/has:
-a pain to work with in negotiations
-all the leverage if we trade for him and in general being a UFA
-no loyalty to NJD
Mercer is/has:
-RFA control limiting his leverage
-loyalty to the team

Negative

If Nylander is worth so much more in addition to having ALL the leverage, why would he be able to be secured on a reasonable deal? There is no evidence in the past to show that he's been easy to negotiate with, in fact he's the exact opposite.

I’m sure he’s no more difficult than any other player

Name some other current NHLers who held out half a year? Or have had the demands that nylander reportedly wants

27 games* and really the argument could easily be made he was underpaid last season, and probably this coming season. So can you really blame a guy for wanting to make what he's worth, all the other star nhlers do it, difference here is he wears a maple leafs jersey. So instantly people diminish his value and inflate any perceived negativity.
The amount of leafs hate on this site is embarrassing and why I've really stopped paying much attention/commenting on threads.

Lol this is great

It’s nice that you would do this trade. New Jersey would not. It’s terrible for New Jersey.

Yeah getting a 40 goal scorer and point per game player would totally suck how could I forget

You can easily resign him and Hamilton makes 9M so what if nylander is half a mil above that

When we’re giving up a player who is a better goal scorer than Nylander was at the same age and is cost controlled? Who plays exactly the style we need in our lineup? And we’re also giving up multiple picks? And when we can’t even be sure we’ll be able to re-sign Nylander and even if we do the probability is we’ll completely blow up our cap structure and make it next to impossible to sign Hughes and Nemec to their impending extensions?

No matter how good you think the value is here, it makes absolutely no sense for New Jersey to do this. We’re better off actually using our picks to try to fill other roster weaknesses (like goalie) rather than increasing what is already a position of strength for us (winger), and sticking with Mercer.

I don’t actually think there’s any universe in which it makes sense for New Jersey to trade for Nylander, unless we’re first trading Bratt or Meier. And that isn’t going to happen.

So I'm still waiting on the names of guys who held out recently.

I don't see Hamilton finishing that contract in New Jersey for 1.

Secondly, they will have Hughes Jr to resign in shorter order than they want... amd Nemec.

Mercer isn't likely to command what Nylander wants (why it is the only trade you would make), making keeping both Mercer and Hughes much easier while also dealing with the goaltending.