The Montreal Canadiens traded defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic of Hamilton, Ontario to the New Jersey Devils according to Luc Leblanc of hockeywriters.com on Wednesday. In return, the Canadiens will receive a fourth round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. The Devils are the third NHL team that Kovacevic has played for following one season with the Winnipeg Jets and the last two seasons with the Canadiens.
This past season with the Devils, Kovacevic had six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 62 games. He was a +11 with 42 penalty minutes, 46 shots on goal, 83 blocked shots, 75 hits, nine takeaways, and 50 giveaways.
In 2023-24, Kovacevic had one multi-point game. He had two assists in a 9-3 Canadiens thumping over the Philadelphia Flyers on April 9. While the game had no significance for the Canadiens, the loss by the Flyers significantly hurt their playoff chances. Kovacevic set up Brendan Gallagher of Edmonton, Alberta twice. Gallagher’s first goal put the Canadiens up 3-0 at 10:46 of the second period. Gallagher’s second goal put the Canadiens up 8-1 at 11:19 of the third period.
The Devils are coming off a disappointing 2023-24 season. After having 112 points in 2022-23 and reaching the second round, they only had 81 points during the 2023-24 season and missed the playoffs. That was a decrease of 31 points.
