New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero has been a busy man this off-season.
He acquired Beau Bennett via trade, he acquired Taylor Hall via trade, he signed forward Vern Fiddler for added depth, and began to fill the void created with the Adam Larsson trade by signing Ben Lovejoy.
Still, I think Shero has more to do - particularly on the blue line.
Lovejoy is an adequate defenseman who can eat up some minutes without being a disaster on the ice. In saying that he isn't going to move the needle for the Devils and surely isn't capable handling himself while getting almost exclusively defensive zone starts against top competition.
Assuming the Devils don't want to waste Damon Severson's offensive skill set by spoon feeding him minutes, where it's almost impossible to produce, it seems like Lovejoy is the prime candidate to play alongside Andy Greene on the top pairing - at least for now.
I don't know about you guys but to me this defense doesn't instil a lot of confidence:
Greene - Lovejoy Moore - Severson Merrill - Santini/Helgeson
As I mentioned above Lovejoy would be playing over his head under these circumstances. He played less than 19 minutes per game last season against mediocre competition and he didn't kill it. Bumping him up to 22-23 minutes per (like Larsson played) against the league's best players doesn't seem like a recipe for success.
A Moore - Severson pairing would be decent if they're given some sheltered minutes/lots of offensive zone starts but otherwise that pairing isn't great.
The possibility of Merrill, who has been quite bad over the last two years, playing with a possession anchor like Seth Helgeson or a first year pro in Steve Santini isn't exactly spectacular, either.
I don't know that there's much out there (maybe James Wisniewski?) but I don't think things will end well if the Devils go with this defense next season even with Cory Schneider mending the crease every night.
If the Devils are serious about contending for a playoff spot I think they need one more quality defenseman.
Luckily there is still time to get one.
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