The New Jersey Devils did their best to add to the depth at every position this offseason. In Sunny Mehta’s first season as GM, he added depth at every position, including goalie. That depth is coming in handy right now.
With Anthony Mantha out with a long-term injury after taking a high stick to the throat, the Devils are able to call up Stefan Noesen and Lenni Hameenaho from the AHL. Both players have been playing really well with the Utica Comets, and now they get another shot at the NHL.
While this is good news for the Devils, as far as injuries go, there’s some really bad news coming.
The Devils will be without Brett Pesce and Johnny Kovacevic on Thursday night against the Washington Capitals. Pesce’s issue is short term, as he’s just dealing with the sickness that has been going around the room for seemingly weeks, but Kovacevic is dealing with a much different issue.
The Devils will quickly learn how important Johnny Kovacevic is now that he's hurt
The Devils defense started playing much better once Kovacevic returned from an injury that kept him out of training camp. He felt like the final piece of the puzzle. However, after an injury against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night, it could be a problem for the Devils again.
Kovacevic plays on the right side, which is already a difficult position to replace. It’s even worse for the Devils because of the depth issues they are facing. Pesce also plays the right side, which puts them in a strange position. The only healthy right hander is Dougie Hamilton.
They went into the season with depth at the position, but that was impacted when Seamus Casey went down with a serious injury in training camp. The Devils called up Vladislav Kolyachonok, and he will immediately jump into the lineup. That still puts the Devils in a position where someone has to play on their off hand.
Declan Chisholm did it earlier this season, but it severely impacted him play and made him a much worse defenseman. Luke Hughes has done it in college, spending a large portion of his time at Michigan playing on the right side, but putting your best defenseman out of position seems like a bad move against a divisional opponent.
Brendan Dillon is already struggling, so putting him out of position would be a bad idea. Truly, there’s no good decision to make here, at least until Pesce returns.
Kovacevic makes life for the Devils so much easier. The injury looked bad, and Sheldon Keefe said it will be “more than a day-to-day” situation. Kovacevic has a history of knee injuries, tearing his ACL and missing most of last season because of it.
The Devils might have to seriously look at adding someone if Kovacevic is going to be out long term. Who that is would be a question for another article, but there are interesting names that could be out there.
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