New Jersey Devils Should Have Given Beau Bennett An Offer
By Nick Villano
New Jersey Devils General Manager Ray Shero decided to move on from Beau Bennett. The move didn’t make much sense.
The New Jersey Devils made multiple confusing moves regarding Beau Bennett this offseason. After sending a third-round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins last offseason, the Devils had multiple chances to keep him. The team left him open during the Vegas Expansion Draft, but the Golden Knights took Jon Merrill instead. Then they had the chance to hold his rights as a restricted free agent, but Shero didn’t extend him a qualifying offer. Then, after Bennett said he wanted to stay in New Jersey, Shero and the Devils didn’t even reach out to him on day one of free agency.
Bennett is now a member of the St. Louis Blues. He will add to the team’s immense depth.
The Devils don’t have enough players that can play right wing to lose one for nothing. While there are some younger players that may be able to fill those spots, most are centers.
Michael McLeod is one of the Devils top prospects. Last year’s first-round pick has the offensive skill to play wing, but he’s only played center in Juniors up to this point. It’s hard to tell how he would get used to the right side.
The Devils could choose to move Adam Henrique to wing, but he’d likely play better at left wing over right wing. Also, he would fill a completely different role than Bennett did.
There’s also John Quenneville and Pavel Zacha who may move to wing, but there are still question marks surrounding what putting them on the right side will do.
Bennett was a known commodity on the bottom six. When most of the Devils depth was in question, Bennett provided a role when in the lineup. He was doing more than just taking up a spot in the lineup.
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Bennett was an advanced stats darling. His Corsi For percentage was 53.4. That was better than every single player on the Devils. Better than Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Damon Severson. While those advanced stats can’t be the be all end all, they definitely show the Devils, a team in desperate need of better possession numbers, could have used Bennett on the team next year.
At the end of the day, the Devils will move on from Bennett. While he was a fan favorite, fans will move on to another player to love. There’s a lot of momentum on the Devils right now. They added Marcus Johansson, Nico Hischier and Brian Boyle in just the past two weeks. This move won’t break the team, or change its fortunes. That doesn’t mean letting Bennett go for nothing wasn’t a mistake.
Shero could have signed Bennett for the league minimum. He wouldn’t have scored 20 goals, or do anything amazing on the stats sheet. He would have been great in the locker room and provided energy from the fourth line. What more can you ask for from a player making the minimum?