Devils Should Pursue Disgruntled Jets Prospect

The Winnipeg Jets top pick (14th overall) from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Rutger McGroarty , has requested a trade. Many teams are interested in acquiring the 20-year-old left-winger/center, and the New Jersey Devils should be one of those teams.

The Devils currently have Ondrej Palat (33), Timo Meier (27), Tomas Tatar (33), and Paul Cotter (24) as their left wingers for the 2024-25 season. Their centers include Nico Hischier (25), Jack Hughes (23), Erik Haula (33), and Curtis Lazar (29).

The team's core and offense run through Hughes and Hischier, and both players are set to begin their prime years. However, the franchise has played 12 playoff games in the past six years, all in one run back in 2023.

According to Logan Horn at The Hockey Writers, New Jersey has the 19th-best prospect pool, meaning there's room for improvement. The reinforcements outside of Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec are not ready to help bring the Cup back to Newark yet.

That's why, with a couple of wingers and center hovering around 30 years old, General Manager Tom Fitzgerald should pursue McGroarty to avoid signing high-priced free agents in a couple of years to complement both Hischier and Hughes who will want to win a championship before 30.

At just 20 years old and coming off a season when he was a Hobey Baker Award nominee, all 31 teams outside of Winnipeg will be interested in acquiring McGroarty, who has 91 points in 75 games with the University of Michigan in the past two seasons.

Even though the asking price will likely start at a first-round pick, which the Devils do not have in 2025, they could sweeten the deal and offer up one of their 2026 and 2027 picks plus one of their many second-round picks in 2025.

McGroarty is ready for a chance to play at the AHL level and in the NHL. Whoever acquires him will give him a nine-game trial, and with his skillset, he could prove to be like a Matthew Poitras of the Boston Bruins who sticks when given the opportunity.

Ultimately, if the Devils contend for the Stanley Cup next year or the year after, their first-round picks would end up later anyway, so why not take a chance on an impact player today who could grow up skating alongside the Hughes brothers and help the club win its first title in two decades?