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Looking Back At P.K. Subban’s Time With New Jersey Devils

By Luke Garrison |
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MARCH 14: P.K. Subban #76 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates an overtime goal that was disallowed against the New York Islanders at the Prudential Center on March 14, 2021 in Newark, New Jersey. The Islanders defeated the Devils 3-2 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MARCH 14: P.K. Subban #76 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates an overtime goal that was disallowed against the New York Islanders at the Prudential Center on March 14, 2021 in Newark, New Jersey. The Islanders defeated the Devils 3-2 in the shoot-out. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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The date is September 20, 2022, and the NHL world was shocked by three retirement announcements. P.K. Subban, Keith Yandle, and Zdeno Chara announced their retirements within a few hours. While Yandle and Chara will have their own celebrations, we’ll examine P.K. Subban’s time in the NHL. More specially, though, this retrospective will be about Subban’s time with the New Jersey Devils. For the past three years, P.K. Subban as a Devil has been a very underwhelming experience. However, let’s look at how his three years in Jersey started.

2019-20: P.K. Subban Gets Traded to the Devils in the Draft and Starts to Slow Decline

The story begins at the 2019 NHL Draft. The Devils drafted Jack Hughes 1st overall, and everyone seemed satisfied so far in the offseason. Then the following day, the Devils pulled off a draft day trade that made headlines around the league. The Devils traded prospects Steve Santini and Jeremey Davis along with two second-round picks to the Nashville Predators to acquire P.K. Subban. Trading for Subban made sense at the time. In the past few years with Nashville, Subban was still an elite defenseman. It looked like the Devils got exactly what they needed on the blue line.

While he may not have been what he was in Montreal with the Canadiens, he was still a good enough player, making him a target that off-season. The idea of getting Subban was to fix up the defense and get a defensive player to help the young guys like Damon Severson and Will Butcher. Unfortunately, in his first year, a steep decline started for Subban, keeping him from being who he once was. While he was nowhere near awful, he wasn’t looking like how he played in Nashville.

Offensive-wise, he was not very good, only scoring seven goals and 11 assists. On defense, Subban was okay, but he wasn’t as above average as everyone hoped him to be. While he did bring personality to the team, it wasn’t a promising start to his new career stop, but then it got worse than he realized.

New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban (76): Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports
New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban (76): Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports /

2020-21 to 2021-2022: Subban’s Decline Continues and Reaches a Bittersweet End.

The following year, Subban did not look any better. Scoring-wise, Subban was better. In the COVID-shortened year, he actually had one more point than the previous year. He continued to underachieve. What made it worse for him was his contract. Because he signed an eight-year contract in Montreal, the teams following had to pay it each year. The Devils had to pay P.K. up to $8 million the final two years he played, following a cap hit of $9 million.

In his last season with the Devils, it managed to be both good and bad at the same time. Subban scored 22 points, which was his best season with the Devils in terms of points. Unfortunately, Subban suffered a lot during this season and had multiple problems throughout the year.

During multiple times during the previous season, P.K. got a bad reputation from fans across the league for slew footing players, which is nothing new. It happened to Ryan Reaves in an early preseason game against the Rangers, Sammy Blais in an early November game against the Rangers, and one month later against the Winnipeg Jets to Nikolaj Ehlers. Another major problem during that year was the Devils. During the trade deadline, the season got so bad for P.K. Subban that the Devils tried looking for a trading partner to take on Subban. Nobody ended up taking on the contract and finished his career with the Devils. However, there was a positive at the end of the train wreck season. At the season’s end, P.K. Subban got announced as that year’s winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which he beat out Ryan Getzlaf and Darnell Nurse.

dark. Next. P.K. Subban Has Devils To Thank For New Reputation

The P.K. Subban contract was a gamble and ended as a dud. However, he was a great person throughout his career. It’s also nice that his final season was in a Devils uniform. Not many free-agent players the Devils signed can say that.

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