The New Jersey Devils were possibly the quietest team in the league on free agency’s first day. The one move they did make, signing Eric Gryba, had many scratching their heads.
The New Jersey Devils found a way to make even less moves on day one of free agency than they did a year prior. While the Devils were tied to the likes of James Van Riemsdyk and Calvin De Haan (the latter of which is still possible), they ended up with defenseman Eric Gryba.
The signing did not give fans much hope for what’s to come. When looking at the signing announcement on the New Jersey Devils official Twitter page, the responses were a mixture of bored GIFs and fans asking about James Neal. It’s not the best look when talking about the team’s biggest signing on day one.
Listen, today was an overall loss for the Devils. There’s no denying that. However, it’s one day. There’s plenty of free agency left, and we all know Ray Shero has tricks up his sleeve. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at this signing in a vacuum.
Gryba is an interesting name to add to this group of defensemen, but is obviously not the answer to anything. He’s basically insurance. The Devils lost Mirco Mueller for more than half the season last year, Sami Vatanen ended the season with a serious concussion and Andy Greene and Ben Lovejoy are getting up there in age. Gryba can easily fill in a role of defensive defenseman that will suppress shots.
However, his roof and ceiling are both very low. He’s a sixth defenseman on his best day, and his skill set seems to equate a better version of Dalton Prout.
The Devils probably didn’t expect this to be their big move, but with how much money that was being spent, he likely didn’t want to partake.
His advanced stats don’t look terrible from last year, at least in the 21 NHL games he played. He posted his best Fenwick For Percentage Relative (2.5) and his Corsi For Percentage was also a career high (55.2). That’s not saying much, but it’s something to hold on to.
For most of his career, he started a large majority of his zone starts in the defensive zone. He’s used to having his back against the wall, and that can help when the Devils need it most.
More from Pucks and Pitchforks
- Should New Jersey Devils Try Load Management With Vitek Vanecek?
- New Jersey Devils Will Prove That Last Year Wasn’t A Fluke
- New Jersey Devils: Luke Hughes’ Playmaking Will Outshine His Mistakes
- New Jersey Devils: Chase Stillman’s Performance Causes Concern
- Can Devils Fans Separate Zach Parise Heartbreak From Achievements?
He’s never going to give an ounce of offense, but he could help the Devils penalty kill. It’s one of the things that helped the Devils get to the playoffs. Making a strength even better can only help.
The big problem with the signing is many fans would rather give a shot to players already in the system. The team did lose John Moore to the Boston Bruins, but Gryba doesn’t do anything to replace that. In fact, fans will likely want a mixture of Mirco Mueller, Steve Santini and even a (hopefully returning) Jacob MacDonald to get a shot at those minutes. Gryba, on the other hand, is closer to what Prout was last season. He’s a player who will sit in the owner’s box when up in the big leagues, and will spend most of the season in Binghamton.
It’s okay if this isn’t the Devils biggest signing. Like I said before, Calvin De Haan is still available. Also, after Brian Boyle was the Devils only move on day one of free agency last season, the team traded for Marcus Johansson on day two. This will likely be a blip on the radar of the Devils offseason, but right now we want more.