Ray Shero has his eyes on another Penguin.
This time it is former Devils defenseman Paul Martin, who is expected to walk from Pittsburgh and test the open market on July 1.
If, as expected, Martin does hit free agency Shero and the Devils are expected to be at the front of the line for his services.
Via Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe: It’s a good bet that the Devils will chase Paul Martin aggressively on the free market. New Jersey picked Martin in the second round of the 2000 draft. The smart, all-around defenseman played for the Devils for six seasons before signing with Pittsburgh as an unrestricted free agent. The Penguins would prefer to keep their No. 2 defenseman. But Martin would get more as a UFA. In New Jersey, he’d be reunited with former Pittsburgh GM Ray Shero. Martin is 34 years old, but the veteran plays an understated, low-mileage game. Martin would be a good mentor for Adam Larsson, the first defenseman picked in 2011.
He makes a good first pass, is positionally sound defensively and is awfully smart with the puck.
Martin still makes a positive impact on most he plays with and is not only respectable in terms of helping generate shots but he's extremely good at suppressing them.
As you can see six of the eight bubbles on that chart fall at least partially into the 'Better O / Better D" square. That's certainly ideal.
Beyond Martin still having some good hockey left in the tank, and the connection with Shero as well as the team, he makes sense for the Devils.
In the latter half of the season Adam Larsson played on a pairing with Andy Greene and we saw the best hockey from Larsson to date.
Damon Severson was very good with Greene but was still solid when he was paired with Jon Merrill. Ideally your 2nd pairing isn't Merrill-Severson, though, and signing Paul Martin would give the Devils a legitimate left-handed top-4 defenseman to go alongside Severson.
New Jersey's defense could look something like this:
Greene - Larsson Martin - Severson Merrill - Gelinas
It's quite possible one of Merrill or Eric Gelinas is traded this off-season but even then that's a solid defense core mixed together with reliable veterans and young blue liners whose best days are ahead of them.
Martin won't come cheap but the Devils have some cap space to work with and, if he's willing to sign a short-term pact (let's say 2-3 years), I think bringing him back into the fold would be a smart move.
It sounds like Shero feels the same way.
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