The New Jersey Devils have spent the last 18 months with their blue line in the rumor mill, and that’s made for one messy bit of reporting getting cleaned up this week.
Elliotte Friedman had said Brenden Dillon was one of two Devils defensemen who used no-trade protection last season. He’s now walked that back, and he didn’t soften the language.
"Finally, wanted to correct something I got wrong last week on Matt Marchese and Mike Futa’s The Fan Hockey Show. I said there were two Devils defencemen who used their no-trade protection last season.
One, as previously reported, was Dougie Hamilton. I named Brenden Dillon as the other.
That’s a moronic mistake. It wasn’t him.
"
Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts
That correction matters because the Devils have had plenty of defensemen floating through trade chatter. Hamilton has been the headliner, especially after Tom Fitzgerald tried to move him during the 2025 offseason. Hamilton also declined a trade to the San Jose Sharks.
But the speculation hasn’t stopped with him. Johnny Kovacevic, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Dillon have all been part of the conversation at various points, while Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce appeared to be the two defenders safest from the noise.
The front office changed too, with Sunny Mehta taking over as GM and making moves to reshape the roster. One of the biggest came when the Devils sent Simon Nemec away for a package of futures, including two first-round picks. That move cleared out some of the congestion on defense and gave the team more ammo for later deals, including the one for Luke Evangelista.
Friedman didn’t say who the second player actually was, but there are a couple of obvious possibilities. Kovacevic missed most of the season with a knee injury before coming back ahead of the trade deadline, while Siegenthaler has a no-trade clause in his contract, at least in part.
And with the Devils trying to make something work around a Quinn Hughes trade, there was clearly no shortage of movement being explored. The only thing off in this case was the name attached to the no-trade call.
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That approach naturally puts more attention on what the Devils still have coming through the pipeline. Trading a player with Commands profile is the kind of decision that can thin out a prospect group in a hurry, even if the organization still has other young talent to work with. For a team trying to win now, the calculation is simple enough, but it also leaves the remaining prospect pool under a brighter spotlight as New Jersey keeps betting on proven help over long-term patience. [Read more 🡒]