Kyle Palmieri was held out of a 5-4 home loss to the Washington Capitals on Sunday for precautionary reasons, the Devils said.
The right wing's agency, Bartlett Hockey, tweeted that Palmieri was kept out of the game in anticipation of a trade in the coming days or week.
Palmieri is a pending unrestricted free agent who has been the subject of trade rumors. He has scored 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) in 34 games this season.
The Devils are seventh in the eight-team MassMutual East Division, 11 points out of a Stanley Cup Playoff spot. The top four teams qualify for the playoffs.
"We all know it's that time of year," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said after the Washington game. "I think the players know that. I think we've got a young group that maybe don't realize how hard it is for us, for management, for myself to not have a guy like that in the lineup, but it is a product of where we're at right now. We haven't won enough games to put us in position where we'd be in better shape. We spent too much time this year talking about missed opportunities and missing opportunities. I'll just use the phrase it is what it is right now, and it's a hard place to be."
The Athletic reported Saturday that Palmieri and the Devils were talking about trying to come to an agreement on a new contract, but those talks clearly haven't materialized into anything tangible and now a trade appears likely.
"It's weird, obviously," New Jersey defenseman Ryan Murray said "I think the writing's on the wall sometimes. I think there's so much media nowadays, you hear the rumors and everything going on, so I don't know if guys were super surprised. Obviously, [Palmieri] is a great guy, and it's tough when he's not coming to the rink because he's a huge leader for this group. I don't know what's going to happen there, I don't want to speak too much on it, but not having him there is obviously a hole."