The New Jersey Devils are ready to take the next step in their development. Devils President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald had a busy off-season. He addressed several areas of need by acquiring Jacob Markstrom and signing Brett Pesce, Brenden Dillon, Tomas Tatar, and Stefan Noesed. He also traded for Paul Cotter and Jonathan Kovacevic, making his team more challenging to play against.
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However, it seems the Devils need stud defenseman Brett Pesce, who may not be ready for the start of the season. Fitzgerald listed him as week to week after season-ending surgery.
“With Brett, we all knew prior to signing him that he had season-ending surgery with Carolina, and he’s made great progress since he’s been in town, where our medical staff has done an incredible job with him,” Fitzgerald said. “Everything looks great. It’s just the comfortness with the skate and then get your agility and working on those muscles. So I consider him, you know, week to week.”
It’s not great news for a Devils team that needs to improve defensively from a season ago. The Devils moved out John Marino to sign Pesce to a six-year deal with a cap hit of $5.5 million. While the goaltending was the issue, not having those veteran players to go with Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec only made things worse for the Devils. Pesce was going to fill that void. Plus, he is a sturdy stay-at-home defenseman. One of the best in the league. His presence will be missed even during this brief absence.
Devils News: Defenseman Luke Hughes Sidelined Six to Eight Weeks with Left Shoulder Injury
Speaking of Luke Hughes, he will be six to eight weeks old with a left shoulder injury. Pesce and Hughes are key pieces to the Devils defence core that could be missing in action.
That is why depth is so important; they need to adopt that next-man-up mentality. Hence, Fitzgerald acquired Kovacevic from Montreal to fill in. Nick DeSimone is there. They also brought Jakub Zboril and Andy Welinsky, both defensemen on PTOs. So, depth is not an issue if two guys miss the time to begin the season.
Simon Nemec Good to Go
However, it was not all bad news for the Devils. Tom Fitzgerald updated the media on defenseman Simon Nemec, who was injured in an Olympic qualifying game playing for Slovakia against Hunry but is now cleared to play.
“That was a scary Friday night, for sure, when I watched that,” Fitzgerald said. “Yeah, he’s good. He’s cleared to go. When will he get into an exhibition game that will make that judgment with the medical staff, whether we throw them right in on Sunday or wait a few extra days.”
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Remember, Nemec did not play in Slovakia’s final game and was going to be reevaluated after crashing hard into the boards during the second period against Hungary. Given the injuries to Hughes and Pesce, the Devils need Nemec to be healthy.
There are expectations that Nemec can build off the season he had last year. So there is some good news on the Devils injury when it concerns their defense.
