Devils acquire Curtis Lazar, send 2024 fourth-round pick to Canucks in trade

The New Jersey Devils acquired forward Curtis Lazar in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks, the teams announced Friday. Here’s what you need to know:

New Jersey sent its 2024 fourth-round pick to Vancouver in the deal.
Lazar, 28, had three goals and two assists with 14 penalty minutes in 45 contests this season for the Canucks.
The 2013 first-round draft pick signed a three-year contract with Vancouver with an annual average value of $1 million annually in July 2022.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Lazar’s time in Vancouver

Lazar was signed in the summer to be a stabilizing force as a right-shot fourth-line center who could kill penalties and win draws. For whatever reason, it just didn’t click in Vancouver. He wasn’t able to upgrade the Canucks’ penalty kill, which currently sits dead last in the league, and wound up spending most of his time on the wing rather than down the middle. Moving on from the term left on his modest $1 million cap hit while picking up a draft pick is decent work by the Canucks. — Dayal

What Lazar brings to Devils

The Devils’ fourth line has better results than their underlying numbers show this season, and some of that has to do with what they allow back. By adding Lazar, there’s another option for the coaches to use when that line needs to tighten up in their own zone. It may even provide a bit of a safety net if one of their fourth liners, a pending unrestricted free agent, departs since Lazar has two more years left on his deal at a low $1 million in cap space. — Goldman

Backstory

Lazar has 95 points in 449 career regular-season NHL games and one goal and one assist in 24 career playoff games. He’s played for five teams: Ottawa, Calgary, Buffalo and Boston in addition to Vancouver.

The Devils are 40-15-5 this season, sitting second in the Metropolitan Division.

The trade deadline is Friday at 3 p.m. ET: Follow here for live updates.