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7 Free Agents New Jersey Devils Should Watch In Stanley Cup Playoffs

By Nick Villano

Ville Husso #35 of the St. Louis Blues looks on against the Minnesota Wild in the first period in Game One of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center on May 2, 2022 in St Paul, Minnesota. The Blues defeated the Wild 4-0 to take a 1-0 series lead. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
Ville Husso #35 of the St. Louis Blues looks on against the Minnesota Wild in the first period in Game One of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xcel Energy Center on May 2, 2022 in St Paul, Minnesota. The Blues defeated the Wild 4-0 to take a 1-0 series lead. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) /
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New Jersey Devils
St. Louis Blues goaltender Ville Husso (35) is: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports /

Ville Husso – St. Louis Blues

This is some Devils fans’ and analysts’ number one free agent target. Ville Husso was phenomenal in Game 1 against the Minnesota Wild, shutting them out. The Blues chose to start Husso over Jordan Binnington, their goalie who took them to the Stanley Cup Final and won back in 2019. Since then, he’s struggled to be the true number one he looked like that season. Now, Husso took some time to get up to speed, but now he looks great.

Husso is becoming a free agent after a very strange career. He’s 27 years old and just enjoyed his first actual season in the NHL. He played 40 games, which is much more than the 17 he played in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season. He was also ridiculously better. He had a .919 save percentage this season after an .893 save percentage last season.

So, what happened? He tells The Athletic that it took him a while to get comfortable last season because it had been a year since he was really on the ice. He changed the way he practiced, and that turned into big moments in games this season.

However, it has to be scary to give the money it will take to get Husso away from St. Louis and put all the Devils chips in Husso’s basket. He only has one good year in the NHL. He has four very inconsistent years in the AHL before it. It took Husso a long time to get to the NHL, but he’s hitting his stride at the perfect time, just in time to get to unrestricted free agency.

The Devils need to see what he does in the playoffs for the signing to make sense. He needs to prove his season isn’t a fluke. It will be hard to do that in one postseason run, but it would sure help.

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