New Jersey Devils: 5 Left-Handed Defenseman To Target This Offseason
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.
Torey Krug
We will start with the obvious one. Torey Krug is the best defenseman who plays on the left side that’s available through free agency. This is a very good defensive free agency pack, as we went through in the last slide. When there’s players like Pietrangelo, Muzzin and Barrie to distract teams who need both sides filled, this could allow the Devils to jump on Krug.
It’s hard to believe the Devils will be front runners for Krug, but with Taylor Hall‘s contract no longer a factor, the Devils can afford to slightly overpay to fill a desperate hole in the lineup.
It’s true that the Devils have had trouble in the past getting the top free agents to sign here. Kevin Shattenkirk picked the New York Rangers. Pat Maroon took a massive pay cut to go to the St. Louis Blues. There are other examples throughout recent history. The Devils are not great at getting those big names to come play in front of the Prudential Center crowd.
However, Shero has the opportunity to show that Krug is the last piece they really need to turn this around. The young players in Binghamton are playing better Mackenzie Blackwood is doing Yeoman’s work in net. Subban has finally worked his way through the system. If the Devils re-sign Vatanen, then Krug and Ty Smith can fill out the final two spots on defense.
Would Krug make this a Stanley Cup contender? Probably not, but if he’s on this team now, pushing the defenders all down a peg, then they’d be in a much better position.
Niklas Hjalmarsson
Niklas Hjalmarsson is not a name you’ve heard a lot of this season. He got hurt in the fourth game of the season when he blocked a shot that cracked his fibula. It sounds like a bad idea to trade for a player that literally cracked one of the main bones in his leg, but we’ve seen in seasons prior that bones tend to heal better than tendons or ligaments.
We think the Coyotes would be willing to trade their big, tough defenseman. They proved this season that they are able to win without him. They currently have Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jakob Chychrun on the left side. This is now a strength for them.
The Devils and Coyotes obviously have traded in the past. Yotes GM John Chayka sent three prospects and two picks to the Devils to get superstar Taylor Hall. If this works out for Arizona, maybe the Coyotes would be willing to make another trade to help the Devils out.
Hjalmarsson could be a huge value play for the Devils. He’s a guy who’s proven in the past he could play that lockdown role with a superior offensive defenseman to his right. Pairing him with Subban would give the Devils a much older top line, as Hjalmarsson is 32 years old, but it would give the Devils that top pairing they’ve been missing for years.
Also, his $5 million cap hit would be very easy to fit in the cap. On top of that, he’s only owed $4 million next season. The Devils could help the Coyotes clear some space to re-sign Hall, while also fixing their biggest flaw.
Noah Hanifin
It seems every season we hear rumors that Noah Hanifin is available. He’s currently playing on the Calgary Flames second line, so he’s not as relied upon as he would be on the Devils. Pairing him with a guy like P.K. Subban might be exactly what they need to get the most out of him.
Hanifin is a defenseman that almost every Devils fan would be on board in getting. He already has 100 career assists despite only being 22 years old. He’s signed for four more seasons after the next one, so the Devils will have him price guaranteed for a long time. This is a no brainer move if Shero can make it.
That’s the problem, can Shero make it? How much is it going to cost to get a defenseman that’s only getting better? Shero is obviously not giving up this year’s 1st-round pick, but would he be willing to give up the 2021 pick? Would the Arizona pick plus an NHL player and top prospect be enough? Would they demand Ty Smith be added to the deal?
The other major issue here is the Flames could lose Brodie and Travis Hamonic this offseason. They can’t afford to lose another one. That is, unless the Devils make Damon Severson available in the deal. If the Devils re-sign Sami Vatanen, it makes sense to trade Severson. Obviously, the Devils would have to add more, but it makes the deal a lot more enticing.
This one is a long shot, but it’s also the most desirable option. Getting a player like Hanafin could make the Devils defense much closer to a strength than almost anyone else out there.
Marco Scandella
Full disclosure, we do not like this move. It doesn’t really fix things, however the Devils need help on the left side, and Shero might not be willing to give up draft capital for a second season in a row. Krug is THE piece on the left side, and unless the Devils plan on playing either Muzzin or Barrie out of position, this is the next best option in free agency.
Scandella is on his second team of the season after the Buffalo Sabres traded him to the Montreal Canadiens for a 4th-round pick. It’s not necessarily a move that would “fix” the Devils defense, because it absolutely wouldn’t Scandella would just be looking to make it better than what it is.
Buffalo was looking for a forward, so in a roundabout way they traded Scandella for Michael Frolik.
Scandella would be someone who replaces Greene, and not someone to play with P.K. Subban. He’s 6’3, 212 lbs. That’s some size the defense is missing right now, especially with an undersized Will Butcher on the same side. However, as we’ve seen before, defensemen need more than just size. Scandella is allergic to offense.
The good thing Scandella can bring is he’s going to play with Cale Fleury in Montreal. He’s going to get used to playing on a third pairing with a very young player. Ty Smith is making the Devils next year, and he’s going to need someone who’s used to playing with a mistake-prone young defenseman. Maybe this experience Scandella is getting right now will help in the future.
Darnell Nurse
Who knows whether the Edmonton Oilers are going to be willing to trade away Darnell Nurse this offseason. Nurse is not signed beyond this season, but he’s a restricted free agent. He’s going to get a considerable pay bump from his $3.2 million he’s making this season. The Oilers do have $23 million in cap space next season, but look at that team. They have seven forwards signed and three defensemen signed. That means they need to find money for seven more forwards and four-five defensemen. So, that means they have less than $2 million per player to spend on each.
Can they afford to even give Nurse $5 million per season? What if he asks for $7 million? Then, they literally can’t make that work. The Oilers are in cap hell, and the Devils can absolutely take advantage of that.
The Devils have some favorably priced forwards, and multiple players who can play in the NHL with a ton of upside. Michael McLeod, Joey Anderson, Nathan Bastian, Mikhail Maltsev and Fabian Zetterlund are good prospects who, with the right coaching, could be full-time NHLers as early as next season. That’s obviously best-case scenario, but it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility.
That would give the Oilers a lot more money to spend on filling out the rest of their team. It would cost more than those prospects, and possibly a lot more since other teams would love Nurse on their team. This could be the move the Devils make, trading that Arizona 1st-round pick along with two or three close-to-NHL-ready prospects for Nurse. (Reilly Walsh is an interesting name here.)
dark. Next. Should Devils Trade Or Keep Sami Vatanen?
Either way, the Devils have to make a move for a left-handed defenseman. Just relying on the prospects to fill the positions of Greene and Mueller means the rebuild continues for two to three more seasons. If the Devils want to change their recent misfortunes, then it’s going to take a big deal like this.