Logjam On Defense Cost New Jersey Devils Jacob MacDonald
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils have depth at defense, but are missing top end talent. Their plethora of players cost them a good prospect in Jacob MacDonald.
The New Jersey Devils lost out on a defenseman with a ton of offensive upside when Jacob MacDonald signed with the Florida Panthers on a two-year deal. It was a deal that was likely happening when the Devils signed Eric Gryba and John Ramage.
The Devils already have Joshua Jacobs, Michael Kapla, Brian Strait and Colton White as locks to play in Binghamton next season. Add in a possibility of Steve Santini returning, and that’s six defensemen on the Bingo roster already. Add in the fact that Gryba will likely start the season in the minors, and that makes seven.
This doesn’t even consider Egor Yakovlev, who was a very good Russian defenseman who’s now the property of the Devils. It’s yet another young defenseman that MacDonald must compete with.
Looking at the NHL roster, MacDonald’s biggest asset is running a team’s power play. At 25 years old, he had a major breakout season scoring 20 goals from the blue line, and adding 35 assists. He would have been very good on the Devils major league club, but there’s a problem there.
The Devils already have Will Butcher, who is basically a better version of MacDonald. He runs the Devils first power play unit. Then, on the second unit, the Devils already have Sami Vatanen and Damon Severson. Obviously, MacDonald could have slotted in on the second unit next to Vatanen, but he needed to do much more than that in order to keep his value high.
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I really wanted the Devils to keep MacDonald in their system. Apparently, GM Ray Shero made an offer, but it was declined. It happens, and MacDonald went to an organization where he had a better chance to make the NHL.
The Devils are flush with defensive depth. A major problem is most of the players on the team are just that; depth. Outside of Vatanen, Butcher, and Severson on some nights, the Devils have seven players who can fit the sixth defenseman spot. That’s not what you want. That’s what made MacDonald such a loss, because he had immediate upside to get a very good defenseman on the cheap. If he didn’t work out, you could just leave him in the AHL. There wasn’t much risk in his signing.
Again, Shero made the attempt to sign him. Who knows what he was asking for, but he accepted a two-year, two-way deal with the Panthers that pays him $750,000 on the NHL level. Maybe that second year was the deal breaker. Either way, the Panthers are getting a very good player if it all works out.