New Jersey Devils: Physicality Key for Damon Severson

Damon Severson has been labeled as a top prospect in the New Jersey Devils organization for a few years. Now is his chance to become an elite talent, and increasing his physical presence is a first step to doing just that.

The Devils traded away a big piece of their franchise, losing probably their best defender in Adam Larsson. They were able to feel confident in their ability to sacrifice defense for offense and still improve as a team due to the potential of their young defenders, and Damon Severson is at the top of that list.

Severson will turn 22 years old in about a month, and he is about to enter his third season in the NHL. He has shown some solid play so far, and he may be able to take the leap from promising young prospect to high quality NHL defender this year.

Severson has a relatively big body. At 6-foot-2, 205 pounds, he is similarly sized as other Devils defenders John Moore, Jon Merrill, and new signing Ben Lovejoy. One key aspect he needs to improve on in order to make the leap is his physicality. Having a big body is not enough in this league- you need to impose your size to not only stop scoring chances but also to intimidate offensive players.

Severson was 9^th on the team in blocked shots and 12^th in hits. He was 6^th out of all defenders in blocked shots (including 13 behind Jon Merrill despite playing 25 more games than Merrill), and he was 4^th out of all defenders in hits. Simply put, offensive players were not afraid to go at Severson. As he becomes more comfortable with the level of play in the NHL, he will probably be willing to take more risks and enforce his will a bit more, but he must make more of an impact on preventing scoring opportunities for opponents. Those two stats are definitely not the only barometers of strong defensive play, but they are something he should look to improve.

A big bonus would be that opponents would be aware of Severson’s physical presence and less willing to go at him. Players know Ryan McDonagh blocks a lot of shots, and they adjust accordingly- opposing players are less likely to want to shoot near him knowing there is a decent chance it is blocked and going the other way. Players know Dustin Byfuglien hits and hits hard, and they are reluctant to attack him with the possibility of getting banged up very real. If Severson can get some sort of mental edge and make opponents hesitate to attack him, that would add a lot to the team.

Adding more physicality would improve a player with an already solid level of play in the league. Severson had the second best Fenwick percentage of all Devils defenders, with his rating of 48.3 being 1.7 percent above the Devils 26^th ranked average. The team had a 2.7 percent higher Fenwick rating with Severson on the ice, which puts them close to average. If the team were to raise their Fenwick percentage last season by 2.7 percent, they would have expected to increase their win total by about two wins according to regression analysis predicting wins. His relatively high Fenwick rating shows he does have the ability to prevent shots for opponents, as well as create some for his team.

That is a key strength of his that makes him such a valuable prospect for the Devils: he has the ability to create offense. He racked up 20 assists last season, 6^th on the team and 5 more than the second ranked defender on the team. He has the ability to create plays from the point, which is extremely useful. For comparison, most of the widely considered top defenders in the league also have at least reasonable offensive capabilities. Only one Norris Trophy winner since 1984 has finished with fewer than 50 points, and that was PK Subban in the lockout shortened 2012-2013 season. He was on pace for about 65 points per 82 games.

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The Devils feel Severson is an integral part of their present and future. He already has a strong base to start off, as he was 10^th on the team in Points Shares last season at only 21 years old. It is very reasonable to expect him to improve as he becomes more comfortable with NHL play. He does have a long way to go to become the caliber player they may feel he can become, and improving his physical presence is a good first step towards making that leap from promising to elite.