New Jersey Devils: 5 Pleasant Surprises This Season

2. Jonas Siegenthaler

Let’s go with another obvious option. Jonas Siegenthaler didn’t have the best numbers on the team. He had just 14 points in 70 games including just one goal. So, how could someone with such a small offensive impact have such an impact overall on a terrible team? Siegenthaler, despite the issues of the Devils, had one of the best defensive impacts in the league.

Siegenthaler played just under 1,100 minutes at 5v5 this season. He allowed a total of 176 high-danger chances. That was the lowest on the team in terms of the top-six defensemen in terms of minutes.

Siegenthaler was also a huge reason why the penalty kill went from one of the worst in league history to well above average. He allowed just 47 high-danger chances when the other team had an advantage. Damon Severson and Ryan Graves had more minutes, but they both had 65 and 69 HDCA respectively. Siegenthaler was even on the ice for 10 high-danger chances for when on the penalty kill. He was the only one who was in double digits on the team. (All stats from Natural Stat Trick.)

There are 149 defensemen in the NHL who played 1,000 minutes at 5v5 last season. Siegenthaler ranks 17th in high-danger chances against. He was one of the best defensive defensemen in the NHL by any metric, and the Devils must be excited for him to do it again next season.