New Jersey Devils: A Case For Michael Grabner To Be Re-Signed
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils have plenty of decisions to be made this offseason on free agents, but one people don’t expect is a case for Michael Grabner. However, there is a world where re-signing the mid-season acquisition makes sense.
Michael Grabner did not work as a New Jersey Devils player. Devils GM Ray Shero made the first trade with the rival New York Rangers, and it looks like Jersey’s team was fleeced.
Grabner just couldn’t get it together after traveling across the Hudson River. In 21 games with the Devils, he only scored two goals. He had a ton of chances that he couldn’t convert. His shooting percentage went from 19.1% with the Rangers, which to be fair was not sustainable, to 5.6%. The only players on the Devils with a worse shooting percentage are all defensemen.
It didn’t help that Grabner wasn’t taking shots. With the Rangers, he was taking more than two shots per game. With the Devils, Grabner was taking just over one shot per game. In fact, he only had three games with the Rangers where he had zero shots. Once he came to New Jersey, he recorded four games with zero shots out of 21.
Once he was traded, Grabner was pressing on every shot. That much was clear. There are many reasons why that could be. Maybe he wasn’t happy that the Rangers ousted him so easily. It’s possible that his impending free agency came to the forefront of his mind after he was moved. It’s clear that things weren’t right in his head. It showed when Grabner went on multiple breakaways during the season, yet he couldn’t even get the shot on net. He was clearly overthinking.
Things came to a head when Grabner was benched during the playoffs. He provided nothing to this team against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
These stats don’t show he should get another shot, but let’s play Devil’s advocate here (pun intended).
Grabner is a player who clearly has a ton of skill. His speed should fit right in with this Devils team. While he never fit in with the lineup, most of that was his mental state rather than his skill set. Taylor Hall had a similar issue once he was traded, and we saw what he did in his second year with the Devils. Obviously, Grabner is in no way Hall, but head coach John Hynes is very good at pressing the reset button during the offseason. He can find value in players who need to figure out things in their own heads.
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Grabner is going to come cheap for a player close to 30 goals. He’s currently making $1.65 million per season. He signed that off a similar season-long slump with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He might be willing to do a reset himself, signing a one-year deal for a slight pay cut. Even if the Devils give him $1.5 million for a one-season shot, it might be worth it.
The Devils lost a second-round pick and a defensive prospect in Yegor Rykov in the deal. If Grabner re-signs, then he has a chance to make this deal look less bad. This deal is still bad. It was made for the 2018 playoff push, but one more year can at least redeem some of the value.
The Devils shouldn’t re-sign Grabner. However, it’s not the “absolutely not” that many make it out to be. Grabner is a good player who had a terrible stretch. If the Devils could get his head right, he’d be a serviceable player on this team.