Devils GM Ray Shero took care of some housekeeping today in signing John Quenneville to a three-year entry-level contract.
The 19-year-old center is coming off a solid but unspectacular regular season where he tallied 47 points in 57 games with the Brandon Wheat Kings. Quenneville followed that up with an impressive 19 points in 19 playoff games.
Quenneville is in New Jersey for development camp this week.
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The Devils have a plethora of young, NHL caliber defensemen and they desperately need some help up front.
This has led many to speculate that GM Ray Shero could parlay one of his young blue liners into a forward - like Kyle Palmieri - that can help the team's 28th ranked offense.
A few different names have been mentioned but the one that people seem to want to push out the door the most is Eric Gelinas.
Gelinas probably has the hardest shot on the team and has been an elite point producer on the man advantage, however, some feel his defensive issues outweigh the good he does.
I looked into his numbers and either a) his defensive game is better than many suspect or b) his offensive abilities outweigh what deficiencies he has.
Admittedly Gelinas forces a pass or makes a bad pinch at times - and it's often easily avoidable - but despite his faults he still leads the Devils in 5 vs 5 Goals For Percentage over the last two seasons.
The goal in hockey is to outscore your opponent and Gelinas has done a better job of making that happen than every other player on the Devils.
Gelinas has fared pretty well in possession, too, as the Devils have generated 50.8% of the shot attempts at full strength (from 2013-15) with him on the ice. That ranks Gelinas 5th among 16 eligible Devils in that span.
I'd be ignorant if I didn't note that the Devils have given him a good chunk of offensive zone starts - which surely helps his numbers - but regardless of where he begins his shift he still has to go out and produce and he's done that.
Gelinas is far from perfect, and his defensive game certainly could be cleaned up, but he's still an effective player despite his deficiencies.
Note: numbers via stats.hockeyanalysis.com. Recent posts