Prior to the New Jersey Devils’ game against the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night, it was announced that forward Ondrej Palat was being held out of the game for “roster management,” reasons. Then, during the game, that the Devils went on to lose 4-3, it was then reported that Palat was being shipped to Long Island along with a couple draft picks in exchange for forward Maxim Tsyplakov.
The team announced the trade shortly thereafter confirming New Jersey was sending Palat, a 2026 third-round pick, and a 2027 sixth-round pick to the New York Islanders in exchange for Tsyplakov. Importantly, there was zero salary retention in the deal.
Palat And The Picks
From the moment it was announced that the Devils were signing Ondrej Palat in free agency back in July of 2022 to a five-year, $30 million contract red flags were raised. Palat, albeit reportedly a strong veteran presence and at the time had very strong on-ice impacts, was entering his age-31 season. With New Jersey, he was never able to come close to the tangible offensive output he did with Tampa Bay (0.67 points per game with Tampa Bay, 0.37 points per game with New Jersey) and saw his on-ice impacts steadily tank. What seemed as a potential overpay at the time ended up being exactly that by tenure’s end.
With that being said, it was not all bad for Palat. During the Devils’ magical 2023-24 season Palat graded out as one of the league’s best defensive forwards (93rd percentile on-ice defensive metrics per Evolving Hockey) and played a major role in the team’s Game 7 victory against the New York Rangers. Everyone around the team also cited how much of a positive impact Palat had on the locker room. Regardless of all that, as was alluded to above, he was just never able to live up to that contract that was dished out to him back in 2022.
With all the above being said, if the Devils were unable to move Palat, he would have been a strong buyout candidate come season’s end. After the conclusion of this season, the Czechia winger is due $6 million more next season before seeing that five-year deal expire and him hitting the open market come 2027 as a 36-year-old. Fortunately, the Devils now do not have to do that as they importantly got all of Palat’s remaining owed money off the books.
To do so, the team added a couple future draft picks. The parting of the team’s 2026 third-round pick leaves the Devils without any third-round selections in 2026. However, they do have two fourth-round picks that year. As for the sixth-round pick in 2027, New Jersey now has six draft picks that year instead of the customary seven.
Tsyplakov
Despite this being a “cap dump” type of deal for the Devils, they were able to get something of some substance back. Maxim Tsyplakov, 27, was signed as an undrafted free agent by the New York Islanders out of Russia prior to the 2024-25 season. Tsyplakov had a strong 31-goal season for Spartak Moscow of the KHL as one of the team’s alternate captains in 2023-24 spring-boarding the NHL opportunity for him.
In all, Tsyplakov posted 121 points (63 goals) across 327 career KHL games. By far his best season was the aforementioned 2023-24 year where he posted a career-best 47 points. Prior to that, his previous best was 25 the year prior. From 2019 through 2022 he posted 40 points across 148 KHL games.
The 6-foot-3, 203-pound winger had a very strong debut-season for the Isles in 2024-25. He posted 35 points across 77 games while playing 14:58 a night. During that time he added 116 shots and 140 hits (would have ranked fourth on the Devils). The underlying metrics were strong as well.
According to Evolving Hockey’s goals above replacement statistics, defensively his on-ice impacts ranked in the 87th percentile. Among 18 Islanders forwards to play a game last season, he ranked fifth in Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and fourth in expected goals-for percentage (xGF%).
Unfortunately for Tsyplakov, 2025-26 has been a much different story. His play time has tanked, as he has only averaged 9:39 of ice time a night over 27 games. Across these games, he has only mustered two points. On the flip side of that the underlying metrics are still decent despite the limited ice time.
His xGF% ranks second on the team and CF% fifth. The fact that the goaltender behind him is posting a woeful 0.843 save percentage while he is on the ice surely did not help the overall optics of his play and may be playing a key role in why his ice time has decreased dramatically. For reference, among 429 skaters to play at least 200 minutes of five-on-five ice time this season, that save percentage ranks second-to-last.
Worth noting, the former Islanders power forward is on a miniscule two-year, $4.5 million deal. He will be under the control of the Devils next year at only $2.25 million. He is the definition of a strong buy-low candidate.
Final Analysis
Before getting into any analysis of this trade it must be prefaced by the fact that general manager Tom Fitzgerald was the one who created the mess that he then had to get out of. The moment the Palat deal was signed, it was looked at as an overpay and almost four years into that said deal New Jersey had to work hard to move it.
With that being said, Fitzgerald did a tremendous job in orchestrating a way to do so. Being able to offload that full contract and creating much-needed flexibility going forward while still getting a potentially valuable asset in return all while only parting with a couple of picks is great work. The trade not only netted New Jersey $3.75 million in cap space this season, but also did the same next year as well.
As mentioned, bringing in Tsyplakov is a strong buy-low move as well. He showed to be a quite valuable piece for the Islanders last year. And despite the ugly surface numbers this season, the strong on-ice impacts are still there but are being buoyed down by unsustainable woeful goaltending behind him. Not to mention, the power forward, who loves to throw his body around, is under contract again next season at a very cheap $2.25 million price tag.
Overall, it was indeed a mess he created for himself, but general manger Tom Fitzgerald did a terrific job of getting out of it. A very strong piece of business for an individual who desperately needed it.