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New Jersey Devils player profile: John Hayden

April 5, 2020, 10:58 AM ET [11 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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With absolutely nothing happening in the hockey world right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ve decided to take the plunge and write player profiles for each member of the New Jersey Devils.

As was the case when I did them last summer, we’ll be looking at the season they just put together and expectations moving forward.

I’ve written up 12 players thus far, with Nikita Gusev being the most recent.

Today we’re going with John ‘Hollywood’ Hayden.

Counting stats: 43 games played, four points (three goals, one assist), 9:43 average time on ice

5v5 underlyings: 0.60 points/60, -10.22 CF% Rel, -0.74 GF% Rel, -12.43 xGF% Rel, 100.2 PDO

2019-20 review: The Devils acquired John Hayden to add some more jam to the lineup. He did provide that. Hayden averaged 12.8 hits per 60 minutes of 5v5 play, which led the Devils. Hayden was also willing to stand up for teammates whenever necessary, and surprisingly drew more penalties than he took. The problem is that physicality came at a cost, and a big one: on-ice performance.

He produced just four points in 43 games. Not one of those points was a primary assist. More importantly than the lack of production is the fact the Devils were absolutely obliterated when Hayden was on the ice.

The Devils’ shot share with Hayden was just 38.56%, and they controlled only 36.85% of the expected goals. Taro Hirose and Brendan Perlini – a pair of players on the historically bad Detroit Red Wings – were the only forwards with lower xGF percentages than Hayden, and the differences were small.

Hayden had an objectively poor season across the board.

Fun fact(s): John Hayden was one of six forwards to a) play 350+ minutes at 5v5 and; b) not record a primary assist.

2020-21 outlook: Honestly, I didn’t have a big problem with Hayden being on the roster. It was a little annoying when he’d play over certain kids but the Devils were out of the playoff race from the get go. Having Hayden submarine the 4th line wasn’t really a big deal.

My tune will change if he’s on the roster come October. The Devils want to be competitive next season – at least that’s the message they’re trying to get across – and having Hayden in the mix would be counter intuitive.

If the Devils want to re-sign him, try and slip him to Binghamton, and use him a couple times for a rivalry game; sure, by all means. Go for it. But if he’s going to essentially make one line useless every night, and take a spot from a better player, then the Devils deserve to have another season like this.

The team has sucked for almost an entire decade. They need to make every spot count and optimize the roster as best they can. That means not having Hayden on it.

numbers via naturalstattrick.com and hockey-reference.com

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