The New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers will always be rivals. There will always be overreactions, and these two teams will always take offense if the other signs a player in free agency or claims someone on waivers. The Devils took Mason Geertsen from the Rangers this past preseason, and it likely had as much to do with taking some of that toughness away from this Rangers team.
Two years ago, the Rangers acquired Jacob Trouba and the Devils acquired P.K. Subban. We thought then that would be the rivalry to watch on the ice, but both players have been seriously disappointing since joining their new teams. Luckily for the Devils, they can either move on from Subban or bring him in on a serious discount in the offseason.
Now, it’s clear that the Devils and Rangers got it right for top-line defensemen. The Devils signed Dougie Hamilton to a seven-year deal in the offseason, and the Rangers signed Adam Fox to a seven-year extension on Monday afternoon. The two are making a similar price ($9 million vs. $9.5 million), and they are here for almost the same exact time. They are also two of probably the top five best defensemen in the league to start the 2021-22 season.
These two are at different points of their career, with Hamilton already 28 years old and Fox just 23 years old, but this should definitely be the part of the Devils-Rangers rivalry the Devils social media team and marketing team focus on. These two are going to be really good for a really long time, and it will cause year-long arguments between Devils and Rangers fans about which player is better.
The Devils should go a step further. Find little bits and pieces that show Hamilton is better and put it in the mentions of every Adam Fox tweet the Rangers official Twitter account puts out. Make this complete and utter warfare. Learn from the Carolina Hurricanes account, which is probably leading to new fans for that team.
The Devils and Rangers are very happy with their very expensive top-line defensemen. They both kind of fell into them, with two bad Devils seasons leading to making the space to sign Hamilton and Fox making it clear he would play for one team and one team only. Now, the Devils have a perfect opportunity to reinvigorate this rivalry. It might not feel like the days of Peter DeBoer and John Tortorella, but it will still put pure skill against pure skill. It will be more of a rivalry to be the most dynamic team in hockey. The Devils should throw the first shot now that it’s clear these two defensemen are going to be two of the best in the division for a long time.
Hamilton and Fox might not seem like the “rivalry” type, but that doesn’t matter. Build something out of thin air for all we care about. It’s about fun with the fans and making it a rivalry amongst the fanbase.