The Devils have traded Ondrej Palat to a divisional rival

UPDATE: The deal is done, Palat, a 3rd round pick and a 6th round pick are heading to New York Islanders for Maxim Tsyplakov.

From the Islanders' press release announcement:

The New York Islanders have acquired forward Ondrej Palat from the New Jersey Devils, along with a third-round pick in 2026 and sixth-round pick in 2027, in exchange for forward Maxim Tsyplakov.

Palat has played the past four seasons with New Jersey, scoring 92 points (38 goals and 54 assists) in 248 games. Over his 14-year career, he’s scored 181 goals and 334 assists for 515 points and has a +133 rating in 876 career games with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Devils. He was a member of the Lightning’s two Stanley Cup championship teams in 2019-20 and 2020-21. The Frydek-Mistek, Czechia native has 103 points (51 goals and 52 assists) in 155 career Stanley Cup playoff games. In his final season with Tampa, 2021-22, he scored 21 points (11 goals and 10 assists) in 23 playoff games.

The 34-year-old forward was a seventh round selection by the Lightning (208^th overall) in 2011. He played two seasons in the American Hockey League, totaling 82 points (22 goals and 60 assists) in 117 career AHL games, all with Tampa Bay’s affiliates, the Norfolk Admirals and the Syracuse Crunch. He was a member of the Admirals’ Calder Cup winning team in 2011-12. Palat played two seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Drummondville Voltigeurs. In his second season, he scored well over a point-per-game with 96 points (39 goals and 57 assists) in 61 games. He finished his QMJHL career with 136 points (56 goals and 80 assists) in 120 games.

Palat was selected to represent Czechia at the upcoming 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina.

Read below for our earlier report on this developing story.

The New Jersey Devils have pulled forward Ondrej Palat from their lineup for tonight's game against the Winnipeg Jets for "roster related reasons".

Typically when a team does this sort of thing, it means that there's a trade coming down the pike. And, in fact, there are multiple online reports that Palat is indeed expected to be traded in short order.

The question is... "where to?"

It's worth noting that Palat has a 10 team trade list so he has a considerable amount of control on where he ends up. It's believed that he would most welcome a trade back the the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that he won two Stanley Cups with back in the early 2020s.

Palat is in year 4 of a 5 year deal that pays him $6 million per season.

Stay tuned for official word of a deal.