Fantasy Take: Marino Swapped to Devils for Smith

Note: Because the Penguins made another trade after this one, this article was updated after being published to account for only the New Jersey side of the trade. The Pittsburgh analysis on both trades can be found here.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have traded defenseman John Marino to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Ty Smith and a third-round pick in the 2023 draft.

Marino stabilizes New Jersey's defense by providing better quality two-way defense than Smith. Since this is a hockey trade of players at the same position, we can easily compare the two players last season from multiple categories:

Name	GP	G	A	PTS	PTS/G	PPP	SOG	+/-	Hits	BkS	TOI	PPTOI
JOHN MARINO	81	1	24	25	0.31	2	90	1	73	88	20:38	0:55
TY SMITH	66	5	15	20	0.30	4	77	-26	45	73	17:30	1:20

Marino is more of an all-situations defenseman who can provide some offense, while Smith plays a more offensive game that shows in his slightly better power-play numbers. The acquisition of Marino gives the Devils a surplus of right-shot defensemen, as Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson also play on that side, while recently-drafted Simon Nemec also shoots right. Severson is the most likely to be either traded or allowed to hit free agency, as he has one more year left on his contract. That could clear the way for Hamilton to emerge uncontested as the PP1 blueliner, as Severson and Hamilton had similar PPTOI totals in 2021-22.

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Players this helps, in order:

Hamilton

Smith

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