New Jersey Devils: 5 Left-Handed Defenseman To Target This Offseason
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils came off another embarrassing loss to the New York Rangers. One thing is clear after allowing six goals, they need to find a way to fix the left side of the defense this offseason.
It’s January. We understand that it is way too early to start looking at free agency and what the New Jersey Devils should be doing in the offseason. Still, it’s so clear what the Devils weakness is, and it’s not getting fixed this season. We need something to look forward to, so we took a hard look at the left-handed defenseman market that’s coming this offseason.
The Devils desperately need someone who’s going to eat up a ton of minutes with P.K. Subban on the top line. When looking at the Devils going into the season, this was clearly the biggest weakness. It was an even bigger weakness than goaltending. The left side of the defense consists of Andy Greene, Mirco Mueller and Will Butcher. It’s just not nearly good enough.
Both Greene and Mueller are free agents at the end of the season. Greene at least provides something to the team, but losing both of them might allow the Devils to hit the reset button on the position entirely.
When looking at the free agents available in the offseason, a lot of the defenseman who’s contracts are ending actually play on the right side. Alex Pietrangelo, Jake Muzzin, Justin Schultz, T.J. Brodie, Kevin Shattenkirk, Tyson Barrie and Mike Green are all right-handed defensemen. That’s not even including Sami Vatanen, who’s having himself a career year for the Devils.
On the left side, the Devils should talk to a couple free agents, but it looks like the more likely route will be trading for one. Either way, it is crucial for the Devils to add to this position if they want this rebuild to end. These five players would help the Devils go a long way to improving their entire core.