Damon Severson could have big offensive numbers for the New Jersey Devils.
The New Jersey Devils have a lot of players in the organization that are supposed to be good enough one day to produce copious amounts of offense. With kids like Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and Jesper Bratt developing nicely, this team’s outlooks seems to suggest that they are going to be able to score some goals over the next few years. As they develop, it would be nice to have a somewhat young guy there on the back end to help them produce offense.
Damon Severson could be one of those guys for New Jersey. He has had 30 or more points in two-straight seasons and three of the last four. The one that he didn’t, he had 24. He is absolutely capable of contributing some offense, but the players around him need to help him out more often. He isn’t going to turn into the old P.K. Subban or Erik Karlsson any time soon, but he can become a sturdy offensive presence on the blue line.
He has been in the league for a while but he is only going to be 26 by the time the next season rolls around. The ability to create offense like he does from the back end doesn’t grow on trees, so giving up on him might not be a good idea because we don’t know if we’ve seen his best. Sometimes it takes defenseman a bit longer to reach that next level.
Severson takes a lot of heat because of his defensive abilities. He is not that great in his own end but he can for sure be worse. His offensive talent is where his bread is buttered in the National Hockey League. It would be nice to see his skills develop and be put on display more often and that could absolutely come with the development of the young forwards in front of him.
His ceiling is hard to predict. He could have reached it in the mid-30s point range or he could be a guy who pushes 50 one day. You never know with these young defenseman. They should definitely give him opportunity to play on a good Devils team so he can show what he can actually do when the situation around him is good. Don’t be surprised if there is a fair amount of offense that comes from Severson in 2020-21 and beyond.