New Jersey Devils: 5 Players To Consider From Minnesota Wild
By Nick Villano
Ryan Hartman
Ryan Hartman was one of the last transactions GM Paul Fenton made before his ouster atop the Wild. He signed a two-year deal paying him $1.9 million per season. He’s a decent bottom-six winger to fill some roles the Devils love to fill. He was actually by advanced stats one of the best forwards on the Wild during their series with the Canucks. He had a 58 percent CF% at 5v5.
When really digging into the stats, one can see he was shutting down the Canucks when his line was on the ice. His line was able to hold the Canucks to just two high-danger chances at even strength. Meanwhile, his line was able to get nine.
His counting stats are usually terrible. He had zero points during the playoffs, and just 20 points this season. However, this is a bottom-six forward that brings a certain kind of grit without taking penalties. He only had 16 total penalties taken at 5v5.
He’s also a really good penalty killer. Hartman was on the ice for 74 penalty killing minutes this season, and the other team was only able to get 22 high-danger chances. The Wild penalty kill was awful this season overall, putting up a 77.2% conversion rate, however, Hartman is the outlier to this unit.
This wouldn’t get anyone terribly excited, and maybe Joey Anderson could also fill this role, but it could be something to build a really gritty team. Hartman in the right system could really blossom into a nice player. He’s shown a scoring skill in the past (19 goals with Chicago in 2016-17), but even if he’s a 10 goal scorer, he brings enough other things to the table to make him a worthwhile acquisition.