Trade grades: Devils, Ducks both get top marks

The New Jersey Devils showed the rest of the league that they aren't messing around when they acquired Sami Vatanen to shore up their back end Thursday.

Related: Ducks trade Vatanen to Devils for Henrique, Blandisi

And the Anaheim Ducks aren't letting a rash of injuries to key players stop their push for a sixth consecutive postseason berth, as the addition of Adam Henrique should go a long way toward replacing some of the scoring punch they lack with a few of their offensive weapons sidelined.

Here's a breakdown of Thursday's trade from each team's perspective, with corresponding letter grades attached.

Ducks: B+

The fact Anaheim could afford to offload a talented puck-moving D-man in Vatanen has a lot to do with the stellar play of unsung Ducks rearguards Josh Manson and Brandon Montour.

Manson and Montour have been nothing short of sensational on the back end for Randy Carlyle's group, logging heavy minutes and serving key roles on special teams - two things that Vatanen also did, making the 26-year-old Finn expendable.

As for the return, Anaheim's tied for the sixth-fewest goals scored in the league with 66 as the club's forward group has been decimated by injuries. Getting an offensively talented player like Henrique, who can play center and wing, should go a long way toward rectifying the Ducks' scoring issues, as he's racked up 54 goals since the start of the 2015 campaign.

Sprinkle in the offensive talents of a former 50-goal junior player in Joseph Blandisi and a conditional 2018 third-round pick (the Devils get it if the Ducks re-sign Henrique), and from where general manager Bob Murray is sitting, this deal looks just fine.

Devils: A-

The team that gets the best player in any given trade usually wins that trade.

Such is the case with the Devils and Vatanen. The slick-skating blue-liner has the potential to be a top-pairing defenseman and the ability to put up solid offensive numbers.

In 280 regular-season games for Anaheim, Vatanen racked up 33 goals and 93 assists for 126 points while rocking a solid Corsi For rating of 50.6 in just over 20 minutes per night.

Those numbers alone should make hockey fans in New Jersey excited, but what should really fire them up is considering what Vatanen can bring to a defense corps that already includes stud rookie Will Butcher and the criminally underrated Damon Severson.

The Devils have been one of the biggest surprises of the season, and currently find themselves third in the consistently tough Metropolitan Division.

With Vatanen in the fold at an affordable $4.87 million per year until July 2020, the Devils have gone from Metro pretenders to Eastern contenders in a matter of months.

Chalk up another win for general manager Ray Shero in a deal that should benefit both parties.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)