New Jersey Devils: Can Sami Vatanen Be A Number One Defenseman?

Now that it is clear the New Jersey Devils are basically out of the Erik Karlsson sweepstakes, it’s become clear that Sami Vatanen is the top defenseman on the team. Can he be a legit number one?

The New Jersey Devils did very little to upgrade the defense this offseason. It is just the first week of July, but as of right now the Devils lost John Moore and added Eric Gryba and John Ramage. That’s literally it. Doesn’t matter what you think of Moore, he’s a much better NHL defenseman than Gryba.

Then, it became clear the Devils would be out on the three big names in free agency next season. First, Oliver Ekman-Larsson re-signed with the Arizona Coyotes. Then, Drew Doughty re-upped with the Los Angeles Kings. Now, it looks like Erik Karlsson is either on his way to the Tampa Bay Lightning or possible the Dallas Stars. Either way, the three lights at the end of the defensive tunnel are off the table.

As of right now, the Devils top defenseman is Sami Vatanen. He came over in a mid-season trade that sent Adam Henrique and a draft pick to the Anaheim Ducks. It was a great trade for both sides, and one of the main reasons the Devils were able to make the playoffs last season. Vatanen was good enough to carry the Devils to the playoffs a year before anyone thought.

However, moving forward, is Vatanen good enough to be a top defenseman on a great team?

It depends on how you look at the situation. Vatanen was the best of a bad bunch in 2017-18. He did his best to carry his partner, whether it was Andy Greene, Ben Lovejoy or Damon Severson. Vatanen was doing his best to cover both sides of the ice.

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That fact may have effected his overall numbers. When looking at his numbers, Vatanen had a below average Corsi percentage (48.7%), below average Fenwick (49.3%) and his PDO was under 100 for the first time in his career. To compare, Roman Josi had much better numbers (Corsi: 52.8, Fenwick: 52.6, PDO: 102.1). Aaron Ekblad with the Florida Panthers, who one could argue is in a similar position with his D-pairings, still produced better numbers than Vatanen, although they were much closer (Corsi: 49.0, Fenwick: 49.1, PDO: 100.8).

Basically, what these numbers show is the ability of a player to have possession over given possession. It seems flawed, because there are a lot of variables, but they seem to hold credence in the long run.

Based on what we’ve seen, and what the stats say, Vatanen is close to a number one defenseman, but would be a much better 1b. He would be ranked somewhere between 20 and 30 if ranking the best defensemen in the NHL. Basically, he’s good enough to be considered a top defenseman for a team in the literal sense, but in the court of public opinion he’ll never be considered one of the very best. The Devils can compete with Vatanen as the top guy, but if the team has dreams of one day running towards Lord Stanley’s Cup, then will want someone better to round out this defense.

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