During Tuesday night’s game in which they lost a tough one to the Jets at The Rock, the Devils made some news off the ice by sending Ondrej Palat to the Islanders, along with a 2026 third round pick and 2027 sixth round pick in exchange for Maxim Tsyplakov.

By dumping the struggling forward, the Devils saved $3.75 million in cap space, with team president and general manager Tom Fitzgerald attaching the two picks to make the deal happen. He was able to work with Palat, who had a 10-team trade list that sent him from New Jersey to Long Island on Jan. 27.

By finally getting rid of a player who never performed up to expectations after they signed him for five years, $30 million on Jul. 13, 2022, the Devils created over three million in cap space for either another move, or this summer. That largely depends on how the team performs over the last 29 games of the season.

In dropping a second straight game after losing to the Kraken on Jan. 25 to conclude an otherwise successful 3-1 road trip out West, the Devils are nine points out of the wild card, but only five behind the Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division. With four games before the Olympic break, they need to go on a run to close the gap. The remainder of the schedule includes the Predators in Newark tomorrow night, the Senators this Saturday, and then back home for the Blue Jackets and Islanders on Feb. 3-5. The latter two have much more significance in the standings.

Palat to Debut for Islanders Tonight

Following the trade, Palat is expected to make his Islanders debut tonight when the Rangers visit UBS Arena in Elmont for the first of a home and home series between the crosstown rivals.

A clutch playoff performer for the Lightning where he won consecutive Stanley Cups, Palat was brought in by Fitzgerald as a backup plan after he was unable to sign Johnny Gaudreau, who tragically passed away with brother Matthew in an accident on Aug. 29, 2024.

The hope was that Palat could help improve the Devils’ offense by playing with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt on the number one line. Instead, he struggled to produce consistently while getting top six minutes. His best run came during the 2022-23 playoffs when he posted three goals and four assists for seven points in two rounds for the Devils.

He never hit more than 31 points during four regular seasons in Newark. After going 11-20-31 in 2023-24, Palat had 13 goals with 15 assists for 28 points last season. He finished with two assists in a five-game first round elimination against the Hurricanes last postseason.

At 34, he was barely contributing despite continuing to play mostly in a top nine role. In 51 games, he only had four goals and six assists for 10 points while seeing his ice time go below 13 minutes for the first time since he came up with the Lightning in 2012-13. When he was scratched on Tuesday night, it was obvious that something was up. Before the game started, the reported deal that the Devils and Islanders had been working on finally got done.

In 292 games as a Devil, Palat finished with 38 goals and 54 assists for 92 points. He’ll now see if he can rediscover his game on the rival Islanders, who the Devils are chasing in the division.

Tsyplakov Gets A New Home

After having a good first season with the Islanders, Tsplakov became an afterthought under head coach Patrick Roy. Unlike 2024-25 when he had 10 goals and 25 assists for a solid total of 35 points, along with 39 penalty minutes, and 140 hits while averaging 14:58 of ice time, the Russian import only had a goal and a helper in 27 games with his ice time dwindling to 9:39. Ironically, he picked up an assist in the Islanders’ 4-0 shutout over the Flyers on Jan. 26.

The 27-year-old gets a new home, going from Belmont Park to Newark. A forward who plays with some grit as evidenced by his 46 hits, will try to carve out a secondary role under Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe.

Unlike Palat, who the Islanders are still on the hook for another $6 million through 2026-27, Tsyplakov has a more affordable $2.25 million cap hit that also expires the following season.

Hameenaho Off to A Good Start

With the arrival of 2023 second round pick Lenni Hameenaho, who’s already shown some promise with two goals and an assist in his first five games, at least the 21-year-old from Finland gives them cause for optimism.

In what’s been a disappointing season up to this point, the Devils can use more production from other secondary players aside from Cody Glass, Connor Brown, and rookie Arseny Gritsyuk. So far, so good for Hameenaho.

Defense Struggles in Loss

A big reason for the one-goal loss to the Jets was the defense, which struggled last night. Multiple times, defensemen were caught out of position in a lackluster second period that saw them outscored 3-1.

On the Jets’ second goal scored by Gabe Vilardi, the Devils were caught on a line change, which led to a three-on-two. With the changing forward scrambling back, Vilardi took a Mark Scheifele feed and beat Jake Allen to give Winnipeg the lead.

Cole Koepke finished off another odd man rush when he put in an Alex Iafallo rebound to make it 3-1. Jonas Siegenthaler stepped up at the blue line and got caught pinching, which allowed Morgan Barron to send Iafallo ahead, which led to Koepke’s goal.

The crusher was scored by Nino Niederreiter with over three minutes left in the period. This time, Dougie Hamilton lost a board battle to Adam Lowry, who chipped a puck behind him to create another two-on-one with only Siegenthaler back. He was unable to prevent Vladislav Namestnikov from setting up Niederreiter for a 4-1 lead.

Despite Jack Hughes setting up Jesper Bratt for a tip home on the power play at 19:24, the only goal the Devils got in a more inspired third period came with Allen pulled for a 6-on-4. Bratt was able to find Nico Hischier in the slot for his 17th to make it 4-3 with 1:46 left in regulation.

Some hustle from Hughes in his end nearly led to the Devils tying it late, but Connor Hellebuyck made the big saves to send the Devils to a second straight defeat.