New Jersey Devils: Metropolitan Division Bolstered In Free Agency
By Kevin Whalen
Everyone take a step back and breathe. The first day of free agency obliterated our minds with fast-paced action as soon as the clock struck noon. The big signings, for the most part, were already leaked before the legally tampering period ended. However, some were surprising, some left us wondering why a team would pay that kind of money to someone and the always favorite thought of “God, I hate the Rangers”.
The Eastern Conference has improved since the end of the year, but we are going to take a look at the Metropolitan Division for now. The teams that did the most to improve themselves are the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, and it’s not up for much debate on the subject.
The cross-town rivals have done work in adding Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kaako and now the Bread Man himself Artemi Panarin. The Rangers, with an already young group of players from the youth movement a few years ago, seem poised to take that next step and are way ahead of schedule from where they were. The addition of a guy like Panarin opens up their offense and will allow Mika Zibanejad to set up both him and the speedy Pavel Buchnevich. This team will prove to be much more difficult to contain than in recent years.
After that, there really wasn’t anything within the Metro that was earth-shattering. The Flyers signed a few defenseman, one being Nate Prosser, a decent enough player to be used in a 3rd or 4th pairing.
Washington signed Richard Panik, who has been a 20 goal scorer before, so maybe the change of scenery will do him some good and in an offense like Washington he may very well do that.
Columbus reportedly made a last-ditch effort to try and keep Panarin, but in the end were unable to do so. They were able to sign Gustav Nyquist, formerly of the San Jose Sharks. Nyquist most certainly is no Panarin, but he is a solid offensive talent and someone that can contribute on the power play. They were also able to keep Ryan Murray who is a key part of their defensive core. Always a win when you can hold onto someone of his value.
Speaking of missing out on Panarin, the New York Islanders were thought to of had a done deal in place with him only to lose out at the last minute. Ouch, that one had to sting for Islander fans. It was not all lost for the fishermen. They were able to retain Anders Lee on a very expensive $7 million a season over seven years.
Look, the Islanders had to do something after missing out on Panarin. If overpaying Lee was it, so be it. He is familiar with the team and brings stability to them. It could be worse. They also bolstered their net after losing Robin Lehner by snatching up Semyon Varlamov for four years. Some would argue against the length of the deal, but the guy is solid and they are going to try and replicate that 50/50 split from a year ago with Thomas Greiss only now with Varly.
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While we are on goaltending, the Hurricanes re-signed Petr Mrazek because, well, why not? They got a good year from him and options were dwindling.
That leaves the most curious move of the day, at least to me. The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Brandon Tanev to a six-year deal worth $21 million. Tanev is someone I really liked as a low-key potential signing for the Devils, but at about $8.5 million for three years. He’s a very good 4th-line player, but has no business making that kind of money. I think Pittsburgh became the biggest loser of the division with this one.
Plenty of moves made and plenty of questions still remain. The biggest thing from the first day is that even though the Devils were relatively quiet, they weren’t silent. They made a very savvy move in getting Wayne Simmonds and they didn’t sign anyone just to sign them. We still have plenty of room to make a trade with one of the cap-strapped teams like Vegas. Besides the Panarin bomb in New York, the division remained relatively balanced, a win for New Jersey.
What’s next? The Rangers made it clear that they are ready to win now and probably have a sense of urgency to do so for Henrik Lunqvists sake, he isn’t getting any younger. The Hudson River Rivalry is sure to be as intense as ever with both teams improving their rosters through draft, trade and free agency. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Devils make some more noise by way of trade in the coming days ahead though.