New Jersey Devils Should Keep John Quenneville All Season

The New Jersey Devils announced that former first-round pick John Quenneville will get another shot with the NHL club. This one really needs to stick, because they need to see what they have in the kid.

Finally, the New Jersey Devils return John Quenneville where he belongs.

Quenneville played the first five games of the season on the big league club. He looked alright, but wasn’t scoring. However, the Devils were 4-0-1 in those five games. The Devils are 6-12-6 since they sent Quenneville down to the minors. Now, we’re not saying that correlation implies causation, but we are saying those are the records with and without Quenneville.

Hopefully, this call up sticks for the 22-year-old forward. He was playing well above his head in the AHL, and all signs point to him growing to his peak on that level. Quenneville has 19 points in 19 games since he was sent down, including nine goals. He is definitely scoring for the Binghamton Devils, the very issue that caused Quenneville to get sent down in the first place.

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The Devils would be smart to keep him in the lineup for the rest of the season. He’s fought about as hard as anyone to try and make this team. He plays in every prospects game, spends time with the team in the offseason, he’s done everything they possibly could ask of this kid. On top of that, he’s producing on the ice at a point-per-game pace in the minors. The Devils could use that kind of production from the bottom six.

Quenneville is coming back at a perfect time. Miles Wood and Travis Zajac has been re-united, which were the linemates JQ had at the beginning of the season. The Devils can choose to slot him right back in his old spot, or keep Blake Coleman there and put him on the fourth line in the place of Drew Stafford.

Either way, the Devils need to give this player a legitimate chance to keep his roster spot. They shouldn’t keep him on the roster while Stefan Noesen is out, just to oust him when he’s ready in a week. Let him figure out the speed and skill it takes to make it in the NHL. See if he’s part of the future, and if he’s not make a move on him in the offseason.

This team will never know what to do with him if they don’t play him every night in the NHL.