The Devils acquired Declan Chisholm from the Capitals on June 25, 2026, sending Washington a 2027 fourth-round pick and adding another name to a blue line that has already been turned over this week.
The move matters because Chisholm is not arriving as a long-shot project. He is 26, has 125 career NHL appearances, and has already bounced through three organizations since Winnipeg drafted him in the fifth round in 2018. For New Jersey, that kind of experience is useful when the regular season starts and the depth chart has to be sorted out quickly.
Chisholm’s path explains why he keeps getting another look. Minnesota claimed him in late January after he had been a healthy scratch for almost every game, then signed him to a one-year, $1MM contract that offseason. He answered with a career-best 66 games and 12 points in 2024-25, enough for the Capitals to buy in last summer with a two-year, $3.2MM contract after they had already acquired him on the second day of the draft for a fourth-round selection and a sixth-round pick.
But the fit did not hold. Chisholm played only 26 games for the Capitals in the past season and produced seven points, which helps explain why a team that had just committed to him moved him again so quickly. That is the part of the trade that gives it weight: Washington signed him after his best season, then used him sparingly, and now takes back a draft pick instead of waiting for the contract to play out.
For the Devils, the logic is easier to see from the roster side. Their back end is listed at $36.5MM by PuckPedia, and they have already made another move on that side of the ice after trading away Simon Nemec earlier this week. Chisholm does not arrive as a headline defender; he arrives as someone who can fill a reserve role or serve as the seventh defender when the season gets underway, which is often where a player with his résumé can matter most.
That is also where the friction sits. Chisholm has shown enough at different stops to keep earning contracts, but not enough to hold a job without interruption, and the Capitals’ quick exit after a fresh commitment underlines how thin the margin can be for a depth defenseman. New Jersey is betting that the next opening on its blue line comes before another team decides his value is better measured in a pick than in minutes.
