New Jersey Devils: Sami Vatanen Concussion Has Major Consequences

The New Jersey Devils announced a surprise when we learned that Sami Vatanen would be out with a concussion. This injury will have an impact on seasons beyond this one.

New Jersey Devils fans got the worst possible surprise on the team’s off day when we learned that Sami Vatanen would be out for an unknown time after a hit to his face caused another concussion. This would be his second concussion in ten months, and one that caused a pretty serious cut on his face.

The hit looks innocent enough. It wasn’t exactly clean, but it also wasn’t Tom-Wilson-level bad. Derick Brassard lifted himself slightly off the ice in a game that was 4-1 with 10 minutes left. It was extremely unnecessary, but the Pittsburgh Penguins likely feel like they are never out of the game, especially against the Devils on home ice. Still, he hit Vatanen from behind hard enough to cause a cut next to his left eye, and clearly it caused a concussion.

This is just about the worst news the Devils could get. John Hynes says that things were fine after the game, but he started getting symptoms later. That’s bad when concussion symptoms come out of nowhere.

Obviously, you’d want Vatanen to get just about any other injury, even if it ended his season. Recovering from a broken ankle or a torn ACL has a defined timetable. This concussion could take more than a season to recover from, or it could take a week. We saw what happened with Marcus Johansson last season when he dealt with a similar situation. If this is similar, this will be the last time we see #45 this season.

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Vatanen’s last concussion came in the Devils second-to-last-game of last season. Nikita Kucherov came up into his head for a hit during Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was the kind of hit that looks like it causes concussions, unlike the hit Vatanen took Monday night.

Before this injury, Vatanen was likely going to start negotiating an extension in the offseason with the Devils. Ray Shero and company knows what they have in the Finnish defenseman. However, they don’t know how these concussion symptoms will impact his game in the future. The Devils know all too well what concussion symptoms can do to change a player’s game, and in some cases it ends careers.

Vatanen is just 27 years old. We haven’t had any indication his career could be over, it’s way too early for that kind of talk. However, whenever a player gets this injury twice this close together, then the conversation has to happen. These concussions are just impossible to predict. It would be a devastating blow to this team, and the hockey community in general.

For now, the Devils are going to use Egor Yakovlev, Steve Santini and Mirco Mueller to replace Vatanen’s minutes in the lineup. This is a short-term solution. Even though I’ve advocated for Yakovlev to get a chance in this lineup, he’s nowhere near the player Vatanen is. The Devils lost the only guy who has a semblance of a number-one defenseman, and now he’s out the dreaded “indefinitely.”

Obviously, this just adds to what is already a lost season. If you consider Cory Schneider the Devils top goalie, that means the team’s top goalie, forward and now defenseman will miss significant time. No team is going to have a good season with those issues. Taylor Hall still isn’t skating with the team, Schneider is down in Binghamton looking bad, and now this.

The Devils could be looking for two defensemen this offseason if Vatanen is still dealing with issues. This will completely change Ray Shero’s plan. Obviously, he can’t predict these injuries, but he does have to work around them. Vatanen is a huge loss now, and possibly in the future.