The New Jersey Devils sent Sami Vatanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in a trade that many felt brought a somewhat underwhelming return. It ends a player’s very complicated time in New Jersey.
On November 30, 2017, the New Jersey Devils finished a trade that sent fan favorite Adam Henrique to the Anaheim Ducks. It was a day most Devils fans hated, for one because one of the most beloved Devils was no longer with the team and two, Henrique literally had his charity soiree just days earlier.
Add in a 3rd-round pick and Joseph Blandisi, and the Devils turned that into the defensive help they desperately needed. They did add Will Butcher in the offseason, but Sami Vatanen was the piece to play top-line minutes that they just didn’t have. He came in and was incredible that season. Was he the right player to secure that top line long term? Probably not, but he was as good as they were going to get, and he was one of the few reasons they made the postseason that year.
Looking at his time in New Jersey as a whole, it’s so unabashedly average, when the Devils needed much more. The team went into last season continuing with him as their best defenseman, and coming off a major concussion that was a mistake. It was a mistake in general, but the concussion made it worse.
He did his best, but his role is not to be a top-line defenseman. He’s a very good second-line defenseman, but when he is asked to do more than that and play against the very best in the game, he falters.
How will we look at Vatanen’s time with the Devils overall? Ray Shero traded probably the player more people saw as their favorite player for Sami Vatanen. Many people were out on the trade immediately just because Henrique was involved. The truth is Henrique was likely always going to be traded, but some fans will never forgive Vatanen for being the player who was on the other side of that trade.
That first season went so well in New Jersey. He was carrying a blue line with Andy Greene, Ben Lovejoy, John Moore and Damon Severson. Then, Nikita Kucherov knocked him out in Game 4 of the first round of the playoffs. The Devils had such a small chance to win that series, but that went immediately to zero when Vatanen was knocked out.
An even more complicated legacy was trying to figure out whether Vatanen was good or not. He was the human embodiment of eye test versus advanced stats. When he was healthy, Sami Vatanen has been really good this year, right? He worked his way on the first-team power play, knocking off the team’s top defenseman in P.K. Subban. We see how he’s been playing, so he’s doing well. Actually….
Sami Vatanen is a bottom pairing defenseman pic.twitter.com/oiE1RoMXkj
— Evolving-Hockey (@EvolvingHockey) February 24, 2020
That’s not great.
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There was a time that Vatanen looked like a player the Devils needed to lock up for a long time. We were waiting for this season for a long time, because it was the season both Vatanen and Taylor Hall‘s contracts were up. It’s not even March, and both are now gone.
It’s hard to describe the word “legacy” when talking about less than three years in one place. That’s why things aren’t going to be seen as positive in terms of how we see his time in New Jersey. Honestly, we’ll see Vatanen’s time as similar as Marek Zidlicky‘s time with the Devils.
Zidlicky was really good for one season, was well above average for two others and kind of on the fence that last season when they traded him to the Detroit Red Wings. That 3rd-round pick ended up being the one they traded for Beau Bennett. Hopefully, Janne Kuokkanen turns out to be a better Devils than Bennett was long term.
Vatanen was a great team player, a fun locker room guy, at times the player who can carry the blue line, and someone we could rely on when on the ice. His main problem was he was hurt quite often. He’s been hurt at least six times since joining the Devils.
His legacy will always be one of a player we liked, but never really lived up to the hype he brought in that first season. His value is much less than it was when he came into the Devils locker room, and sometimes that’s a hard pill to swallow.