Welcome to our live New Jersey Devils trade tracker on deadline day!

It’s NHL trade deadline day, and the Devils are quietly in the mix, especially with regard to their blueline.

The Devils are in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division, and are likely to miss the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs.

However, the latest Devils trade discussions indicate that general manager Tom Fitzgerald is interested in making a “hockey trade.” What does it mean?

By Friday morning, all healthy Devils were on the ice for practice. This includes some of the latest names in the rumor mill, which will be named at a later date.

Let’s see what we know so far.

Devils adds so far

Fitzgerald was active before the NHL trade deadline, making deals to bring in Maxim Tsyplyakov from the New York Islanders and Nick Bjugstad from the St. Louis Blues.

The only significant subtraction at this point is Ondrej Palats who went to the Islanders in the Ciplakov deal.

Devil’s Wave Three

Yesterday, the Devils waived three players. Evgeni Dadonov, Luke Glendening, and Maxim Tsyplyakov are all on waivers as of 2PM today.

If/when all players are cleared, the Devils will open up some cap space.

Here’s more on the Devils salary cap implications based on a trio of waived players.

simon german

Simon Nemec’s name is at the forefront of Devils trade rumors.

Multiple reports, including New Jersey Hockey Now’s own, indicate that the Devils are willing to move Nemec in a deal that would significantly upgrade the Devils’ top-six.

There has long been a vacancy for Jack Hughes’ wing for a winger, however, with Pierre LeBrun hinting on Thursday that the Devils are hoping to bring in a top-six centre.

dougie hamilton

Indications are that the Devils would like to resolve this by the deadline, but trading Dougie Hamilton has proven difficult.

Hamilton is due a $7.4 million signing bonus on July 1, hindering Fitzgerald’s ability to move defensemen.

Hamilton also has a $9 million cap hit on his contract, which is for two more years after 2025-26.

remaining devils blueline

The Devils have made available every defenseman named Luke Hughes and Brett Pace.

We’ll see if it goes anywhere, but names like Brendan Dillon and Johnathan Kovacevic currently have full no-move clauses. On July 1, full safety Dillon was downgraded to the 10-team no-trade list.

Jonas Seigenthaler is another name to watch. His favorable $3.4 million cap hit with two years remaining on his deal is certainly attractive to inquiring clubs.

Devils forward trade candidate

It’s been relatively quiet on the Kodi Glass front, however, with the central market scoring.

The prices paid for centers — not all of whom are as good as Glass — have yielded big returns, such as Nicolas Roy who went to the Colorado Avalanche for a 2027 top-10 protected first-round pick and a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick.

Makes you wonder what the Devils will get for Glass.

Nick Bjugstad and Paul Cotter are the other leading names to watch until today’s 3pm trade deadline.

Keep it here for our live Devils trade tracker which will be updated as the day progresses.

James is the fully certified New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on SportsNote and … More about James Nicholls

We’re three days away from the 2026 NHL trade deadline. The New Jersey Devils are in a precarious position, with the possibility of them missing the playoffs after a disappointing 2025-26 season that had a lot of expectations. Heading into Friday’s deadline, it appears defenseman Simon Nemec is generating Devils trade interest.

According to Pierre LeBrun, NHL Insider, “It will be interesting to see what happens on the Simon Nemec front. The Devils are taking a call on the second overall pick from ’22. There’s no shortage of teams investigating. New Jersey is happy to keep him, but if a deal comes along that upgrades their forward in a real way, they’re going to be listening…”

Nemec improved his stock significantly this season, scoring some clutch goals to either send New Jersey to overtime, or win a game in extra frames.

He then went on to the Olympics where he played top pairing, No. 1 defenseman minutes for Slovakia and played his part in almost helping Slovakia get a medal and surprisingly finish fourth in the tournament.

General manager Tom Fitzgerald has been open about his desire to add a forward. The Devils continue to look for a top-line solution to play alongside Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.

“I’d like to add further. I want to continue to add more depth,” Fitzgerald said in January. “I think the whole league is probably looking for the same thing. You can figure it out. But you know, that hasn’t changed from two summers ago. We tried to add last deadline. When you’re just trying to add you, you identify those areas and stick your nose down hard and do the work.”

Dougie Hamilton is another name on the Devils trade block. He has generated considerable interest, however, his $9 million cap hit has proven difficult to exceed, especially with his $7.4 million bonus due on July 1.

The Devils appear to be following the path of least resistance with a ton of defensemen at their disposal, but perhaps too many of them have trade protection.

We’ll see what happens between now and Friday.

James is the fully certified New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on SportsNote and … More about James Nicholls

Calle Makar, Quinn Hughes, Miro Heiskanen, Roman Josi and Rasmus Dahlin are some of the best defensemen in the NHL. All play for their respective countries in the 2026 Winter Olympics, making them among the best blueliners in the world. And yet, during the preliminary rounds, none of them rank as top defenders in the offensive zone. That ranking goes to New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec.

This is correct. The 22-year-old blueliner was taken second overall in the 2022 NHL Draft and is proving to be an international phenomenon. After all, there’s a reason why the devils took him so high when he was only 18 years old.

Nemec’s exposure at the international level is nothing new. He scored one goal and nine points in eight games at the U18 World Juniors in 2022, leading Slovakia to the gold medal.

He has been a major contributor for Slovakia at all levels during the international game leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics, and he is continuing on that path this winter.

Slovakia was the biggest surprise among the winners of their group. Everyone expected Team USA and Team Canada to earn byes. A good performance was also expected from Finland. However, they were not expected to earn a bye as the best second-place team in the tournament. That’s because Slovakia ruined his and Sweden’s plans by winning Group B.

A lot of the oxygen around Slovakia is taken up by Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky.

Three goals and three assists in three games will do that for the 21-year-old Habs star.

However, where Slafkowski has dominated among the forwards, Nemec has been doing the same on the blueline.

His raw stats don’t jump off the page like Slafkowski’s with two assists in three games. However, according to Jeffres Viz HockeyStats, Nemec is the top chance-creating defenseman in the Olympics.

Through three games in the prelims, Nemec created an average of two scoring chances and made 3.7 chance assists for a total of 5.7 chance creation. This is 1.4 more chances than the next leading creator (Dahlin) in the tournament.

And the most interesting thing about Nemec’s success at the Olympic level is the competition she had to go through to do so. Sure, Slovakia beat Italy, but they also had to overcome Sweden and Finland, and Nemec had a lot to contribute to their success and earning a bye into the quarterfinals.

Nemec has been playing top pairing duties next to Washington Capitals defenseman, Martin Fehrvary. The Devils defenseman has taken on the responsibility as Slovakia’s No. 1 blueliner, averaging 22 minutes on ice per game.

The Devils will need to take some notes on how he has been unlocked in Milan and apply them when Nemec gets back to New Jersey as soon as possible.

James is the fully certified New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on SportsNote and … More about James Nicholls