Stu Grimson was on NHL Tonight with Jamie Hersch talking about intriguing teams to watch this season. After some nice offseason additions and hopefully having defenseman Dougie Hamilton healthy for the season, the New Jersey Devils are Grimson’s most intriguing team in the Metro Division.
Hersch: “Let’s start with that Metro Division because that might be the most wide open at this point. Who has you intrigued?
Grimson: “I fall in love with this segment. I’m so glad we did it. Was a great suggestion by Brandon in our research department, and glad we’re kind of teasing out one club in each of the divisions.
Jersey for me in the metro, for the following reason, remember, last year finished in seventh place. Go back two years in time to that was 22-23 right, 112 points, second place, a point behind the Carolina Hurricanes. They were brilliant. And came out of nowhere. That they just exploded onto the scene. Jack Hughes established himself in that year as a bona fide all-star. It was just a remarkable year.
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But a significant drop off last year without question. So here’s a couple of things to focus on, where the Rangers are concerned, and no particular, sorry, the Devils you got me thinking Rangers there. Defense core.
Dougie Hamilton, we anticipate Dougie is going to be healthy next year. They added a Brett Pesce. He comes over by way of a free agent signing from the Canes. This is a really solid defender. Got some offensive upside, but very skilled as a defender as well.
And to me, key element in this won’t show up on this slab that we’re flashing you right now, but this is the way they should dress up. But as in terms of the goaltending department, this has been a challenge, really, under the Tom Fitzgerald administration.
And Fitzy goes out and he fixes this. Markstrom comes over, important transaction. They move on, Jersey does from the (Vitek) Vanicek era. It’s been a challenge to this point to get consistent, solid goaltending.
And to me, the club in front of them, there lies a real challenge here as well. Remember Markstrom, as strong as he’s been, and going back to the 21-22 season with Calgary, had a brilliant year, as did the entire club. But they lost a couple of key personnel, (Johnny) Gaudreau, (Matthew) Tkachuk, that team dropped off. And, you know, goaltending was rather mediocre.
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So the point I’m making is, Markstrom can’t do it by himself. The group in front of him really needs to make a contribution as well. But jersey for me in the Metro is a team to keep an eye on. I think they’re capable of just about anything.
A TheDevilsNation transcription
