New Jersey Devils: 5 Pleasant Surprises This Season

4. Jimmy Vesey

Jimmy Vesey was once considered a phenomenal signing, but like other PTOs that turned into contracts before him, his impact fell off as the season got further into it. Vesey was asked to change how he played the game coming into the season, and to his credit, he was really good at what the Devils were asking him to do. He became a phenomenal penalty killer after only averaging about a minute per game of PK time in his career.

Vesey turned into the Devils top PK forward. No other player had more minutes when the other team had a man advantage, and Vesey was a huge reason the Devils PK was able to have the type of turnaround it did. He took on a certain mindset, and it really proved GM Tom Fitzgerald right for giving him a chance.

There were issues finding the right partner for him at 5v5. He didn’t exactly fit with McLeod and Bastian. They tried to make him part of a jumbled third line with Jesper Boqvist and Andreas Johnsson. The Devils even tried to throw Tomas Tatar in there for good measure. None of it really led to production.

Vesey was still someone who proved himself beyond expectations. Someone should sign him to one-way contract this offseason for his penalty killing alone. He proved he was still an NHL-caliber player at his age. This was something that wasn’t a certainty coming into training camp.