New Jersey Devils: Wayne Simmonds Starts A New Chapter
With Ray Shero signing veteran winger Wayne Simmonds from the Nashville Predators, the New Jersey Devils are off to an excellent start to free agency. Over the years, it’s been very tough to deal with Wayne Simmonds playing down the exit outside Cherry Hill, New Jersey in Philadelphia, PA. Watching Simmonds play for the Flyers, he always had the durability to take abuse in front of the net, create traffic, and use that excellent stick work to make rebound goals look easy. Simmonds has proven to be very effective on the power play and on even strength.
Simmonds is signed under a great high-reward contract. New Jersey’s power play can possibly look like Hall-Hischier-Simmonds. That combo has speed, smarts, grit, and also traffic with lots of skill. What this scheme looks like is you also have possibly Will Butcher and P.K. Subban quarterbacking the power play.
On the power play, Simmonds is the kind of guy that can get into the gritty areas, pass the puck to Hall, and peel over on top of the crease to make excellent traffic for Hall to score or even a P.K. Subban one-timer. What Simmonds possesses a big body who can get into corners, dig around, and get in the defenses faces.
The second line with Wayne Simmonds brings some speed for a veteran. His strength, skill, smarts, and his nose for the net will make it harder for goalies to pay attention to Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. Any top-six player can have a field day getting nice points increases. Simmonds is the kind of guy who can draw a lot of penalties, and give his new Devils team a key advantage to win.
With a player like Miles Wood around, and if Simmonds does play 3rd line minutes, the Devils can have a mix of speed and extra body banging while roughing up opposing defenders. This is an excellent feeling for when Coach Hynes switches the Bratt- Hughes- Boqvist line this team can drive a team like the Rangers, Flyers, and Capitals fans insane like a house of horrors.
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No matter how you slice the bottom-six combos, you have that depth thanks to having Wayne Simmonds. This team is beginning to look like a playoff contender again. Adding Hughes (drafted), Subban (trade), and Wayne Simmonds (free agency), this team is getting better each time Shero adds another player.
This is a smart move to have the connection of Wayne Simmonds, who was teammates with PK back in Nashville. Simmonds was also All-Star teammates with Taylor Hall, and this is a great pairing for these three to all be teammates. Coach John Hynes can have a lot more player chemistry to work with this upcoming season. This is going to be an excellent time for Devils hockey.