Rumor: Potential trade between the Bruins and Devils.

All the talk right now in the National Hockey League surrounds the New Jersey Devils and if you are a Devils' fan it is for all the wrong reasons. The start of the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season has been an unmitigated disaster for the Devils and it now sounds like the organization has resigned itself to trading away arguably their best player in former Hart Memorial Trophy winner Taylor Hall.

All of the talk around the NHL over the past 24 hours has surrounded the speculation that a trade involving Hall could be coming at any moment now, and to be honest that is likely because it is coming sooner rather than later, but when there is such a big spotlight on one story it is sometimes easier to miss the stories lurking in the dark just beyond the edge of that spotlight. In fact according to one NHL analyst there may be another trade in the making here for the New Jersey Devils, one involving another veteran player that could soon be moved off of the Devils' roster. 

The Boston Bruins have been in desperate need of adding some strength on their wing this season and as a result they have often been mentioned as one of the potential candidates to land Taylor Hall in a trade. The problem of course is that Hall would be an extremely expensive rental player and thus far it sounds highly unlikely that he will sign a long term deal prior to becoming a free agent in the summer of 2020 which would not be ideal for a Bruins team hoping to compete for several more seasons to come. WEEI's Matt Kalman however believes that the Devils have another player on offer that could interest the Bruins and more specifically Bruins general manager Don Sweeney.

From Kalman:

If Sweeney’s going to look for a player with term like last season’s Charlie Coyle trade, (Kyle) Palmieri comes into focus. A 27-goal scorer last season, Palmieir’s cap hit is just $4.65 million for this season and next. Again, the price would be steep but it might be worth it to finally solve this wing problem.

Palmieri is off to another solid start this season with 11 goals and 9 assists for a combined 19 points over 31 games played and currently boasts a plus minus rating of +2 on the season. Those numbers become all the more impressive when you realize that he has put them together on a very bad team, something that the Devils undoubtedly are thus far this season. Palmieri would also be under contract for both this current season as well as the next at his cap hit of $4.65 million and that, like in the Coyle trade before it, give Sweeney some measure of control over the player's future moving forward after a trade. 

Prior to the comments made by Kalman I had not heard any mention of Palmieri as a potential trade candidate, however for a team that appears to still be several years away the move would make sense. Unless the Devils plan on signing Palmieri to another long term deal when this one ends, which would carry him well into his 30s, then you have to imagine they would be open to a deal of this nature.