Are the Devils Stanley Cup contenders with Connor Hellebuyck?
The New Jersey Devils and their front office led by new general manager Sunny Mehta made the biggest of splashes last Friday when they came somewhat out of left field to acquire three-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets.
The move represents a massive upgrade between the pipes for a Devils team that is posting some of the best underlying numbers of any team in the NHL to start off the season and has backed that performance up with a solid 7-4-0 record that has them third in the Metropolitan Division.
With good advanced metrics, top end forward talent in the form of Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier, improved depth up front and a healthy (and deep) defense, it seems like New Jersey has all the pieces to make some noise now that Hellebuyck is in the mix.
Can the marriage between a goalie who has accomplished pretty much everything in the sport except winning a Cup and a team that has had plenty of promise but never been able to get over the hump result in the Devils’ first championship since 2003?
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL defensemen Colby Cohen and Cameron Gaunce to discuss whether New Jersey now stands among the legitimate Cup contenders.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We’re just going to kind of clean things up from Friday with the Connor Hellebuyck news now that everyone’s kind of had 72 hours to stew on it and the return and all of that, but we’ll begin with the New Jersey perspective of things, boys. And listen, you don’t go make a move like this if you’re Sunny Mehta if you don’t have Stanley Cup aspirations, if you don’t feel like your team is one piece away from competing, you don’t go acquire a goalie who is considered one of the best goalies, if not the best goalie on the planet. So Cam, I’ll start with you, does this move for you push the Devils into that elite tier in the Eastern Conference?
Cameron Gaunce: No. I don’t see them with Carolina, with Tampa, even Montreal. When you think about Connor Hellebuyck, what he brings to a team. Great regular season success, which New Jersey has had at times, and nothing in the playoffs. So if you’re going to be an elite team, I’d like to see a bit more consistency in that essence, and also, their best player Jack Hughes has only played over 62 games once in his career, so his sustained health is something that I’d like to see. They’re a very good team, they’ve had very good numbers so far this year. Goaltending was the one big outlier, but at the same time they also got rid of some depth scoring which is something they struggle with… I’d put them around the same spot as like a Washington, as like a Boston right now. I need to see more to put them up with the Carolinas and Tampa Bays of the East.
Colby Cohen: Yeah, I think it was a necessary move, and I think on paper, they certainly look a lot better, because you bring in the guy who pretty much wins or is up for the Vezina Trophy every season in the NHL, but I’m with Cameron here. I don’t think that the Devils play this winning brand of hockey. I think their game revolves a lot around East-West. I think it revolves a lot around high-risk, high-reward. You look at the guys that lead that team in ice time. They’re guys that haven’t added that next level and that next layer of managing the puck, leadership, all of the crucial things that we see teams, we saw Jack Eichel do when he went to the Vegas Golden Knights… I think Luke Hughes, who leads that team in ice, has all the skill and talent in the world, but 24 minutes of high-risk, high-reward hockey, like, I’m just waiting to see those types of players take the next step before I sit here and say Hellebuyck makes them the legitimate elite of the East.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…