Severson’s Departure Only The Opening Salvo In Next Stage Of Devils’ Maturity
The first casualty of the Devils’ newfound success story popped to the surface with Friday’s report that pending unrestricted free agent Damon Severson was dealt to Columbus.
The soon-to-be 29-year old righthanded defenseman, the longest-tenured Devil since his second-round selection (No. 60 overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft and subsequent nine seasons of service, netted New Jersey a third-round pick (No. 80 overall) that originally belonged to Calgary. The Blue Jackets, meanwhile, inked Severson to an eight-year, $50 million contract, making this the second “sign-and-trade” in NHL history, according to NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky.
That price tag was always going to be too rich for the Devils’ blood, as they are paying Dougie Hamilton ($9 million AAV) and John Marino ($4.4 million) to lock down the right side for at least the next four seasons. With the team facing a salary cap crunch if they are able to retain expensive restricted free agent forwards Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt, their plan for the third pair next season has to be to entrust it to a younger player, hopefully 2022 No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec, who was named to the AHL’s All-Prospects Team on Wednesday after an excellent season at Utica as a 19-year old.
Actually, I’m pretty sure the original plan was for Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald to auction off Severson by the March 3 trade deadline as part of the organization’s annual sell-off of veteran rentals. Except the team unexpectedly took off, finishing with the third-most points in the league instead of their usual slot near the basement. Trading useful pieces at that point would have been an awful look, even if Fitzgerald might have fetched a first-rounder from a contender.
Still, a third-rounder seems pretty generous of Columbus, who basically bought the right to offer Severson an eighth year. Then again, the $6.25 AAV seems lower than what I thought he would earn in the open market.
Severson was perhaps the Devils’ most divisive player from the fans’ perspective in the last decade. A terrific puck-mover who I would argue is the league’s best stretch passer, he has been an analytics darling for the last three seasons, a guy who regularly excelled in areas like breakouts and puck possession metrics—he finished fourth among NHL defensemen in five-on-five expected goals for percentage this past season (500 minutes ice time minimum), per NaturalStatTrick.com.
However, the 2022-23 campaign was the first of Severson’s career in which he posted an actual five-on-five goals for percentage over 50%. He has too often run into problems with soft play in the defensive zone. He would be lax in tying up his man behind the net or sticks in front, the most fundamental aspects of playing the position. Given his listed 6-foot 2, 205-pound frame, it made those failings even more frustrating to fans.
Severson’s departure might just be the start of a mini retooling, with fellow defenseman Ryan Graves and forwards Miles Wood, Tomas Tatar, and Erik Haula all entitled to hit the unrestricted free agent market in a few weeks (not to mention the six other restricted free agents beside Meier and Bratt). Of the unrestricteds, I would predict that all but Haula find a new place of employment.
Fortunately, the Devils have a deep enough prospect pool to fill those open roster slots. Of course, they first have to be earned, which isn’t a given even with former first round picks like wings Alexander Holtz and Nolan Foote. From my view, the only “new blood” who has a locked-in spot for next season is defenseman Luke Hughes, who, in his fifth professional game, received the second-most ice time among Devils defensemen in their season-ending overtime loss to Carolina in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal.
That defeat concluded a highly improbable run that even Fitzgerald never anticipated. All it means, though, is that the team’s timeline is accelerated.
So, as the Devils mature into the next stage towards sustainability, Fitzgerald’s ability to manage the cap and the resulting roster will go a long way in determining whether the franchise can build upon this past season’s achievements.