Trade Bait: Boyle out, Henrique in With Brian Boyle off the Trade Bait board, TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Frank Seravalli brings in another former Devil to consider with 19 days left until the trade deadline.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

One former New Jersey Devil is replacing another on the TSN Trade Bait board.

New Jersey swapped centre Brian Boyle to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday in exchange for a 2019 second-round pick.

Boyle, 34, was No. 11 on the Trade Bait board. Anaheim Ducks centre Adam Henrique, a Devils mainstay for parts of eight seasons, joins the board in his stead at No. 14.

Wednesday marked a teary goodbye for Boyle, who preferred to stay with New Jersey but said he understood GM Ray Shero “had to do what he had to do” in moving the pending unrestricted free agent from a non-playoff team. The Predators were not on Boyle’s eight-team limited no-trade list.

“I wanted to say publicly how thankful I am to have been a part of this organization,” Boyle told reporters. “We’ll never forget our time here. It’s a place that will be very near and dear to us.”

Boyle’s two-year stay in New Jersey was a rollercoaster of emotions. He was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in Sept. 2017, around the same time that his then three-year-old son, Declan, was receiving treatment for a rare arteriovenous malformation in his jaw.

That season, in 2017-18, Boyle returned to the ice, received a spine-tingling ovation in Tampa Bay as the Devils’ All-Star representative, and was credited by Shero as a catalyst for the culture change that led the Devils back to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Boyle announced in October that his cancer was officially in remission. That Boyle is on pace for a career-best 22-goal campaign this year made him a prime trade acquisition. He said breaking the news to Declan would be the hardest part of the trade.

“It will be tough. I will have to tell my little man and tell him we’re moving on,” Boyle told reporters. “He really enjoys his life here and we enjoyed our life here. We made some great memories in a short time here. It’s difficult. It’s a range of emotions with the opportunity I have now down in Nashville to help that club.”

The Predators also re-acquired rough and tumble forward Cody McLeod from the New York Rangers for a seventh-round pick on Wednesday to add to the muscle on their fourth line.

Henrique, who turned 29 on Wednesday, has been mentioned in conversation with other teams as Ducks GM Bob Murray attempts to shake up a team that has just two wins since Dec. 18. The Ducks have lost 17 of 19 and have been outscored 27-6 over their last five games.

Henrique signed a five-year, $29.5 million extension with the Ducks last summer but that does not kick in until next season. The deal includes a modified no-trade clause, so the Feb. 25 trade deadline may be one of Murray’s last opportunities to deal Henrique without hindrance.

Elsewhere, top five mainstay Micheal Ferland slides down to No. 9, with news that the Carolina Hurricanes have cooled on dealing the rugged winger.

Here is the latest TSN Hockey Trade Bait board, which always seeks to blend a player’s prominence with his likelihood of a trade:

The Top 50 Trend Player Pos Age GP G PTS Cap Hit Years 1. Artemi Panarin, CBJ LW 27 49 20 59 $6M UFA 2. Matt Duchene, OTT C 28 43 21 48 $6M UFA 3. Wayne Simmonds, PHI RW 30 52 16 24 $3.98M UFA 4. Jets' 1st-Round Pick 5. Mark Stone, OTT RW 26 52 22 51 $7.35M UFA 6. Mats Zuccarello, NYR RW 31 37 9 28 $4.5M UFA 7. Dougie Hamilton, CAR RD 25 52 9 21 $5.75M 2 8. Gustav Nyquist, DET RW 29 53 12 45 $4.75M UFA 9. Micheal Ferland, CAR LW 26 43 13 27 $1.75M UFA 10. Sergei Bobrovsky, CBJ G 30 36 3.01 .901 $7.43M UFA 11. Cam Talbot, EDM G 31 28 3.34 .893 $4.17M UFA 12. Jimmy Howard, DET G 34 35 2.73 .916 $5.3M UFA 13. Kevin Hayes, NYR C 26 42 11 36 $5.18M UFA 14. Marcus Johansson, NJD LW 28 39 8 20 $4.58M UFA 15. Adam Henrique, ANA C 29 54 9 27 $5.83M 5 16. Charlie Coyle, MIN C 26 52 9 26 $3.2M 1 17. Brayden Schenn, STL C 27 46 9 30 $5.13M 1 18. Jeff Carter, LAK C 33 50 10 25 $5.27M 3 19. Brett Pesce, CAR RD 23 43 4 12 $4.03M 5 20. Jack Roslovic, WPG RW/C 22 51 7 16 $894K 1 21. Derick Brassard, FLA C 31 41 9 16 $5M UFA 22. Cody Ceci, OTT RD 24 48 5 15 $4.3M RFA 23. Jakub Silfverberg, ANA RW 28 43 12 20 $3.75M UFA 24. Andre Burakovsky, WSH LW 23 46 6 12 $3M RFA 25. Alec Martinez, LAK RD 31 37 3 11 $4M 2 26. Chris Kreider, NYR LW 27 51 23 39 $4.63M 1 27. Colton Parayko, STL RD 25 50 8 13 $5.5M 3 28. Justin Faulk, CAR RD 26 52 4 19 $4.83M 1 29. Alex Steen, STL LW 34 36 6 15 $5.75M 2 30. Alex Edler, VAN LD 32 37 5 20 $5M UFA 31. Jay Bouwmeester, STL LD 35 46 2 10 $5.4M UFA 32. Andreas Johnsson, TOR LW 24 45 10 22 $788K RFA 33. Ryan Dzingel, OTT LW 26 50 20 39 $1.8M UFA 34. Patrick Maroon, STL LW 30 42 4 14 $1.75M UFA 35. Jesse Puljujarvi, EDM RW 20 41 4 9 $925K RFA 36. Adam McQuaid, NYR RD 32 27 0 3 $2.75M UFA 37. Ben Lovejoy, NJD RD 34 43 1 6 $2.67M UFA 38. Jamie McGinn, FLA LW 30 0 0 0 $3.33M UFA 39. Chris Tanev, VAN RD 29 47 2 10 $4.45M 1 40. Vlad Namestnikov, NYR LW 25 47 4 16 $4M 1 41. Nikolay Goldobin, VAN LW 23 45 6 24 $863K RFA 42. Luke Glendening, DET C 29 53 8 18 $1.8M 2 43. Carl Hagelin, LAK LW 30 30 2 6 $4M UFA 44. Nathan Beaulieu, BUF LD 26 27 3 7 $2.4M RFA 45. Mikkel Boedker, OTT LW 29 51 6 28 $4M 1 46. Tobias Rieder, EDM LW 26 38 0 9 $2M RFA 47. Bogdan Kiselvich, FLA LD 28 31 0 8 $925K UFA 48. Dale Weise, PHI RW 30 42 5 11 $2.35M 1 49. Kasperi Kapanen, TOR RW 22 51 15 30 $863K RFA 50. Jeff Skinner, BUF LW 26 51 31 47 $5.73M UFA

TRADED:

No. 5: Maple Leafs’ first-round pick - Toronto to Los Angeles on Jan. 28

No. 8: Derick Brassard - Pittsburgh to Florida on Feb. 1

No. 11: Brian Boyle - New Jersey to Nashville on Feb. 6

No. 13: Chris Wideman - Ottawa to Edmonton on Nov. 22

No. 14: Tanner Pearson - Los Angeles to Pittsburgh on Nov. 14

No. 17: Jake Muzzin - Los Angeles to Toronto on Jan. 28

No. 27: Alex Petrovic - Florida to Edmonton on Dec. 29

No. 27: Nino Niederreiter - Minnesota to Carolina on Jan. 17

No. 28: Nick Bjugstad - Florida to Pittsburgh on Feb. 1

No. 28: Brandon Manning - Chicago to Edmonton on Dec. 29

No. 35: Michael Del Zotto - Vancouver to Anaheim on Jan. 16

No. 35: Jamie Oleksiak - Pittsburgh to Dallas on Jan. 29

No. 36: Luke Schenn - Anaheim to Vancouver on Jan. 16

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli