With the first 31 of 82 regular season games in the books for the New Jersey Devils, they are looking to get out of a funk that has been puzzling, to say the least. One of the keys that have been missing is the presence of Nathan Bastian. His shoulder injury eliminated the impact of the BMW Line. Now, the Devils’ bottom six is missing serious grit and perseverance.
The recalibration of the team has been harder to figure out, especially after hearing veteran winger Ondrej Palat is out until the start of the 2023 calendar year. Bastian returning around March is a major possibility.
This Devils team has a lot of talented and skilled players, but there is little to no grit and sandpaper with former Mississauga Steelhead forward Nathan Bastian out for a bit. One of the options after the holiday break is to make a trade. There is a sense of survival of the fittest, and the Devils have to add some grit to this team very fast.
LW Nick Ritchie, Arizona Coyotes
Nick Ritchie, the Orangeville native of Ontario, Canada, has a 6’3″ frame and weighs 230 pounds. Now that’s some serious beef. He averages two to four hits a game and can be an effective bottom-six winger that can bully opposition players. Nick Ritchie has seven goals and 12 points in 26 games played this season for the Coyotes. He has the potential to be a two-way threat making the Devils a very scary team to play against before and after the trade deadline.
Any team going up against a Nico Hischier or a Jack Hughes with him around will suffer a lot of consequences with a crazy Chewbacca-like skater going after an opposition player. Even if the Devils don’t have him going out there to pound a guy, teams will think 3 times more than taking liberties as the Florida Panthers did on Nico Hischier.