Spittin’ Chiclets is the most popular hockey podcast out there. At least so I’ve been told. Recently, the fellas on there suggested that Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk would make a lot of sense as a trade target for the New Jersey Devils. There are obvious links there that we’ll go over a bit. And we’ll also look at their hypothetical trade and why it wouldn’t work. From there, we’ll throw out some more realistic options for a Senators-Devils trade surrounding Tkachuk. Again, this is just a rumor and not a report but there appears to be some legs there. Let’s get into it.
Brady Tkachuk trade rumors
First, we’ll state the obvious. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is cousins with Brady and Matthew Tkachuk. We know that Fitz tried to trade for Matthew before he landed with the Florida Panthers. Or at least Fitz kicked the tires with the Calgary Flames, whom he’s dealt with in trades in the past. Because of that, there might always be speculation that Brady could be dealt to New Jersey. Apparently, per Spittin’ Chiclets, Tkachuk’s now-wife is from New Jersey and he’s bought property in the state. Could mean nothing. Could mean something.
Getting into the details of the hypothetical deal the podcast threw out there, it wouldn’t work. At all. They said it would be defenseman Simon Nemec and F Alexander Holtz for Tkachuk and D Thomas Chabot. That’s it. It’s an insane deal that is very, very lopsided in favor of New Jersey. It also wouldn’t work out at all for the Devils in terms of salary cap.
Tkachuk and Chabot would be taking on around $16.2 million in cap for the Devils, who are already committed long-term to Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, John Marino, Ondrej Palat and Jonas Siegenthaler. Not to mention the team would need to hand out new contracts to F Dawson Mercer and D Luke Hughes. Those two could command a combined salary cap hit of anywhere from $10 million per season to $13 million. There’s no way Fitzgerald can fit all of that under the cap while also upgrading the goaltender position. It’s almost impossible.
So what would need to happen is a different deal, likely just involving Tkachuk to the Devils for multiple assets.
The first move that sticks out to me, and it isn’t going to be popular, is captain Nico Hischier going back to Ottawa for Tkachuk. Both Tkachuk brothers don’t like Hischier much after a few empty-net goal incidents. As a Devils fan, it seems dumb and I side with Nico here. But if your Fitzgerald you don’t want to bring in an existing captain in Brady Tkachuk to mesh with your captain in Hischier and just assume it’ll all work out.
There’s also the salary side of things. Tkachuk and Hischier’s salaries almost match up; Brady is owed $8.205 million per season and Nico is at $7.25 million. Both are All-Star caliber players. The Senators get a top-6, two-way center. The Devils get a tough-as-nails forward to play with Jack Hughes. You could feasibly do a one-for-one of Hischier for Tkachuk, swapping captains. It’s a bit outlandish but could benefit both sides.
If it isn’t Nico for Brady straight up, the Devils need to get creative. Spittin’ Chiclets suggested Nemec. My feeling is the Devils will have to trade at least one of Nemec or Seamus Casey. New Jersey has pretty good depth in the defenseman prospect pool and that’s not including a potential first-round pick in this year’s draft at No. 10. That pick can also be dangled with Nemec and either Mercer or Holtz.
Devils fans likely won’t want to give up Mercer but the reality is he could command $5-6 million on a long-term deal. With an already crowded top-6, the Devils wouldn’t want to overpay Mercer to be a third-liner. And again, the Devils need to pay Luke Hughes, who could command a salary similar to Sens D Jake Sanderson, who will make $8.050 million starting in 2024-25.
In a perfect world it’s Ondrej Palat’s $6 million per season deal going back in any trade this offseason. Palat is sort of washed and more of an overpaid bottom-6 forward. Perhaps if the Devils give up Nemec, Mercer and the No. 10 pick, plus send Palat to Ottawa, in exchange for Brady Tkachuk, that would work. It feels like a lot but you’d also be looking at a core of Tkachuk, Jack and Luke Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton. That seems pretty ridiculous and lethal.
From there, Fitz would need to find a goalie on the cheaper side, perhaps Filip Gustavsson, and hope Marino and Siegenthaler can get back to a high level like in 2022-23. There would also be some issues in the bottom-6 but that core might be able to compensate for those shortfalls depending on who is hired as head coach. Tkachuk is a perfect fit and solves some of the toughness and leadership issues the Devils faced this past season. He can hold everyone accountable while playing at a high level. Tkachuk would also be competing in the playoffs regularly with this core.
It still feels like a pipe dream at this point. Until we get concrete reports from media sources, this is all just speculation. But again, there are some legs here and this type of deal makes sense. Hischier for Tkachuk straight up is less messy. It may also make sense for the Devils to not go after Tkachuk and instead look to add depth at center, get another puck-moving defenseman and add a legit goalie like Jacob Markstrom, Juuse Saros or Linus Ullmark. But when you think of the Devils of old and the type of player and leader Tkachuk could be in New Jersey, you can’t help but feel excitement.
