The New Jersey Devils signed one of their top prospects from the NCAA to an entry level deal on Wednesday. Jeremy Davies can really make a difference going forward.
It is a great day for the New Jersey Devils and their fans. They have signed one of their top prospects Jeremy Davies from Northeastern University to an entry-level deal. The Devils defense and franchise as a whole takes another step forward with this move.
Davies had a great career with the Northeastern Huskies men’s hockey team. He established himself as one of the best defenseman in the NCAA and also one of the best in team history. With the Huskies, he won the Beanpot twice (a yearly tourney with all the Boston-area teams), a Hockey East Championship, and made two trips to the NCAA tournament.
He certainly leaves behind a great resume in college hockey. In 111 games for Northeastern, he scored 22 goals and 72 assists for 94 points. Great numbers for a defenseman at any level. The hope is he can bring some of this ability to the NHL level. A puck moving defenseman like this can absolutely help out the forwards with breakouts.
The Devils all of the sudden look like a team that have a surplus of defenseman at the NHL level. Andy Greene is the aging veteran who will likely finish his career out with the Devils and you would assume that Sami Vatanen, Will Butcher, and Damon Severson are locks to make the team. That really only leaves a bottom pair of roster spots available for defenseman. Then, there’s Ty Smith looming and ready to go next season.
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Davies, Smith, Mirco Mueller, Steven Santini and Connor Carrick could all be in and out for those final two spots if all are healthy and playing well. There will always be injuries to some extent so it is nice to have depth at the position because you never know what the health status will be in crunch time. If the forwards could all stay healthy and get some good goaltending this could be a really nice team in 2019-20.
The entire outlook of the team remains positive when you look towards the future. The playoff team that was the 2017-18 Devils was just a glimpse. This year was a step back in the standings, but there were lots of correctable variables that led to that. It also could be a blessing in disguise, especially if they land a top two or three pick out of this tough year. A guy like Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko would make a serious impact right away on an already decent team.
Davies will travel with the club on their final road trip of the season to Carolina and Florida but he will not play. He will make his NHL debut next fall assuming he makes the team out of camp. Great things are ahead for this young man and his team.