{"id":434492,"date":"2026-01-29T16:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:11:19","slug":"ex-devils-veteran-reflects-on-devils-end-islanders-role-revealed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434492\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Devils Veteran Reflects on Devils End; Islanders Role Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ondrej Palat<\/a> knows it didn\u2019t end well personally for him with the New Jersey Devils<\/a>. For the last few days, he\u2019s known it was coming to an end with New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a couple of days that I knew something was going to happen,\u201d Palat explained<\/a>. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know when. It was going on for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n

The morning after Palat was traded to the New York Islanders with draft picks in exchange for Maxim Tsyplakov<\/a>, he participated in a fully attended morning skate that revealed his new deployment under head coach Patrick Roy.<\/p>\n

Palat, for now, is playing on the Islanders\u2019 second line with Bo Horvat and Emil Heineman. The Islanders have had a void to fill ever since Kyle Palmieri went down with a torn ACL in his left knee, shelving him for 6-8 months.<\/p>\n

Palat explained he knew it didn\u2019t end well for himself in New Jersey, explaining he hopes to offer more on Long Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had, obviously, a bad year in New Jersey. They traded me, and now I\u2019m here. I want to be better and help the team to win. I would love to produce a little bit more than I did [with the Devils], but I\u2019m not here to score 50 goals a season. I\u2019m here to bring the two-way game that\u2019s important in this league,\u201d Palat said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd wherever the coach puts me, I\u2019ll do my best to help the team win\u201d<\/p>\n

Palat scored four goals and 10 points in 51 games with the Devils this season, playing in several roles between the first and fourth lines.<\/p>\n

After signing a five-year, $30 million contract with the Devils in 2022, his best season in New Jersey was during 2023-25, scoring just 11 goals and 31 points. He scored a Devils tenure high 15 goals in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

On the motivation to acquire Palat, Islanders GM Mathieu Darche explained<\/a>, \u201cHe\u2019s a competitor, he\u2019s an awesome person, and he\u2019s an awesome teammate. I didn\u2019t make the trade because, oh, I love him so much because we had him in Tampa\u2026 he can help us. He\u2019s a real pro. He\u2019s got great leadership; he competes every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders take on the New York Rangers on Wednesday night at UBS Arena. The Devils will face Palat and the Islanders for the first time on February 5th, before the NHL takes pause for the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is a fully credentialed New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ondrej Palat knows it didn\u2019t end well personally for him with the New Jersey Devils. For the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[201,3723,5,151,159,1768],"class_list":{"0":"post-434492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-ondrej-palat"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115979270351440800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}