4 New Jersey Devils Players Who Benefit From Long Layoff

P.K. Subban

This one is the most obvious. P.K. Subban needed a break from the ice more than probably every single player in the NHL. He went from being a Norris Trophy caliber defenseman to one of the worst contracts in the league seemingly overnight. He was able to play big minutes last season, but they weren’t quality minutes.

There are multiple theories as to what happened to Subban. The most obvious one is his back injuries are still lingering. They really derailed his last season with the Nashville Predators. Sometimes, it takes rest to finally get a back injury fully healed. Maybe this will help Subban move around better. He was clearly not as agile last season, so maybe there was still some pain when he was playing. With all this time off, that rest has to have helped.

The other possibility is Subban was over working out. This has been floated multiple times, but he was likely going to learn his lesson this offseason. The same thing happened to former football star Steve Slaton. He was a stud running back, but he tried to build a lot of muscle to get better at pass blocking, but he lost a lot of what made him great in speed and agility. That seems like a much likelier situation for Subban.

With all this time off, he can figure out what’s best for him to build back up that speed. He’ll never get it back completely since he’s past the age of 30. He will likely never be one of the three best defensemen in the NHL, but he can still be a good first-line player.