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Report: New Jersey Devils’ Patrick Maroon Signing With St. Louis Blues

By Nick Villano

TAMPA, FL - APRIL 21: New Jersey Devils left wing Patrick Maroon (17) celebrates his goal that brings the Devils within one goal with three minutes remaining during the third period of an NHL Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Playoffs between the New Jersey Devils and the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 21, 2018, at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL. The Lightning defeated the Devils 3-1 to win the first round series 4-1. (Photo by Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - APRIL 21: New Jersey Devils left wing Patrick Maroon (17) celebrates his goal that brings the Devils within one goal with three minutes remaining during the third period of an NHL Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Playoffs between the New Jersey Devils and the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 21, 2018, at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL. The Lightning defeated the Devils 3-1 to win the first round series 4-1. (Photo by Roy K. Miller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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A new report states that New Jersey Devils‘ forward Patrick Maroon will sign with the St. Louis Blues. Yet another Devils free agent is choosing to “go home” over returning to the Garden State.

News came out on Sunday morning that Patrick Maroon would be signing with his hometown team the St. Louis Blues. The New Jersey Devils sent a third-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers to obtain Maroon at the very last second of the trade deadline, and he honestly helped a lot.

Basically, the Devils sent a second-round pick, a third-round pick and Yegor Rykov just to sneak into the playoffs and win one game. You know what, I’m totally okay with that. The playoffs were so important to this team this early in the rebuilding process that losing a few picks was worth the price of admission.

Now, let’s take a look at the loss of Maroon. It would have been nice to re-sign Maroon, but I can’t see Ray Shero offering him a long-term deal. He was nice to have on the team, but does not fit the model of the current Devils system.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t add something the Devils needed, he’s just slow. He is possibly the best puck possession guy on the team. Maroon can drop the gloves on a dime, and at 6’3, 225 pounds it’s a scary sight when he does. He brought things to the table that the Devils needed, but not so bad they needed to break the bank.

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Apparently, Maroon has a kid back in St. Louis. That’s extremely hard to negotiate against, especially since that team is the Blues, who are attempting to build a Stanley Cup contender. If this was Ottawa we were talking about, Maroon would probably stay. This is a much different story.

We have not seen the rumored contract for Maroon. That’s mostly due to it being Sunday, and the big gun reporters are focusing on the Erik Karlsson saga. Either way, it’s either a long-term deal that Shero wasn’t willing to do, or Maroon was given the opportunity to go near his kid and couldn’t turn it down. Either way, it’s not the end of the world.

Devils fans wanted the team to do something riding off their success last season. Maybe Shero could have made the trade for Ryan O’Reilly, or made a bigger offer to Calvin De Haan, but right now it seems like it’s full speed ahead with the kids. The prospects will get a chance to shine again this season, and hopefully it goes as well as it did last year.

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