The New Jersey Devils’ latest trade haul brought in three forwards, but Evan Rodrigues is the name that jumps off the page.
On Tuesday, the Devils sent goaltender Jacob Markstrom and forward Angus Crookshank to the Florida Panthers and came back with Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Ben Steeves. Rodrigues arrives with championship experience, a long road to the NHL and one year left on a contract worth roughly $3 million before he becomes an unrestricted free agent after next season.
His path to this point was anything but straight. Rodrigues started at Boston University, where he spent four seasons and served as an alternate captain in 2014-15.
After college, he signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabres and spent most of 2015-16 in the AHL with the Rochester Americans, putting up 30 points in 72 games. He got his first NHL look on April 8, 2016, then stayed up for the next game on April 9 and made it count, scoring his first NHL goal and adding his first assist.
For the next two seasons, he bounced between Buffalo and Rochester before finally sticking in the NHL full-time in 2018-19. That year, he played 74 games and totaled 29 points. Buffalo then dealt him to the Pittsburgh Penguins with Conor Sheary for Dominik Kahun on Feb. 24, 2020, and Rodrigues finished that season in Pittsburgh with seven games and one goal.
The moves didn’t stop there. In August 2020, the Penguins sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs with Filip Hallander, David Warsofsky and Pittsburgh’s 1st-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft for Kasperi Kapanen, Pontus Aberg and Jesper Lindgren. Rodrigues never played for Toronto, because Pittsburgh brought him back two months later as a free agent.
An injury slowed him in 2020-21, limiting him to 35 games after a lower-body issue. But he bounced back in a big way the next season, playing all 82 games for the first time and setting a career high with 43 points.
That strong year sent him back into free agency, where he signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche. He delivered there too: 69 games, 16 goals, 23 assists and a career-high 17:51 in average ice time.
Then came Florida. Rodrigues lasted just a day on the market before the Panthers signed him to a four-year deal worth roughly $12 million.
In his first season there, he played 80 games and scored 39 points, then added 15 points in 24 postseason games as Florida won its first Stanley Cup. He followed that with 32 points in 82 games and 15 points in 21 playoff games during the Panthers’ second straight title run.
This season, he appeared in 69 games and posted 31 points.
For New Jersey, the fit is pretty clear. Rodrigues played in Florida’s top six, but the Devils have their top six mostly set for next season.
That should leave him as a major piece in the bottom six, where his veteran presence can help younger players like Lenni Hameenaho and Arseny Gritsyuk. And with two Stanley Cup rings on his résumé, he gives the Devils another player who knows exactly what it takes to win it all.
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