The New Jersey Devils didn’t just make a splash on Friday - they changed the shape of the Eastern Conference by landing future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets in a blockbuster deal. And while Toronto Maple Leafs fans are a long way from Newark and Winnipeg, this move could still reach them in a pretty direct way.
New Jersey’s need in goal was obvious. Nico Daws and Jake Allen as a tandem was never going to scream serious playoff threat, so the Devils went out and solved the problem in a big way.
They got Hellebuyck for what amounted to a package of spare parts - a middle-six winger, a depth forward, and a former first-round pick who wasn’t really needed. In other words, New Jersey added an elite goalie without paying a painful price.
That makes the Devils a lot more dangerous, and that’s where Toronto enters the picture.
The Maple Leafs’ goal this season is simple: get into the playoffs. After drafting first overall and coming off one of the worst seasons in the NHL, they’re not sitting around picturing a Stanley Cup parade down Yonge St. Just making it in is the mission.
Before the Hellebuyck trade, the Devils were not viewed as a major obstacle for Toronto. They looked like they might live in that same crowded middle with the Leafs, where a bunch of fairly similar teams fight for position and see how the math shakes out. Now, though, New Jersey looks like a real contender in the Metropolitan Division, and that changes the whole playoff picture.
If the Devils rise toward one of the top two spots in the Metro, that doesn’t really alter Toronto’s path directly. But what it does is squeeze the rest of the conference down a notch. Teams like the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers are now in a tighter race for wild card spots, and that is where the Leafs are most likely to end up battling too.
That’s the problem for Toronto. The more teams that get stronger around them, the fewer places there are for everyone else to slip into the postseason. The Devils may have just taken one of those premium conference spots out of circulation, and that makes the wild card fight a lot more crowded.
It’s still early, and there’s plenty of season left to play, but the bigger point is hard to miss: New Jersey clearly got better.
And yet, there may be a small opening here for the Leafs.
Toronto has a glaring need on defense, and it’s urgent. After the latest injuries, the Leafs need anyone who can skate backwards at an NHL level to help stabilize the blue line. One possible answer sits in New Jersey: Brenden Dillon.
The 35-year-old left-shot defenseman checks a lot of boxes for Toronto. He’s veteran, rugged, physical, and he fits the sort of profile the Leafs are looking for. He can help keep pucks out of the net, he brings size, and he comes at a cost the Leafs can at least consider.
That cost matters. Toronto can’t absorb much salary for next season because of the CBA’s tagging rules after re-signing Kirill Marchenko to his megadeal.
Dillon is under contract for only this season, with a pending unrestricted free agency ahead of him, and his $4-million AAV is relatively manageable. The catch is that the Leafs are already deep into LTIR just to stay under the cap, so making that number work would still be a challenge.
So yes, the Hellebuyck trade could make Toronto’s playoff path tougher by strengthening another Eastern Conference contender. But if New Jersey ends up with a roster or financial squeeze of its own, the Leafs might be able to turn that situation into something useful for themselves.
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