Do the New Jersey Devils have another big move in their plans?
Sportsnet: Was the New Jersey Devils acquisition of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck just step one of GM Sunny Mehta’s plan? Could there be another big move?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “(Devils GM Sunny Mehta) talked about the randomness of the position. What he’s gone out and done is acquired a goalie who you can take the randomness out of it. He’s been one of the most predictable goalies in the last decade.
Friedman: “Well, I think there’s a couple of things. Number one, even though, even though New Jersey’s goaltending save percentage hasn’t been very good, their underlying numbers are very good.
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So, you know, it reminds me of remember that year the Jays traded for David Price, right? You know they were a 500 team basically, but (GM Alex) Anthopoulos looked at the run differential and he said, “We’re better than that.” So that’s, that’s one. So it kind of reminds me a little bit of that.
Look, like there’s no question here that one of the things we’ve learned, like there’s no question here that you try to build a book on every general manager, right? And, you know, I think Meta was pretty honest about how he felt about goalies, but I also think sometimes there are external forces.
And what are those external forces? Number one, your team is better than the results maybe show based on your underlying numbers. But number two, like, you know, New Jersey, they want to contend.
And all of a sudden, Dylan, all of a sudden, Dylan Larkin’s put you on his list, and we all know about this overarching Quinn Hughes scenario. Plus, there’s a guy on the Devils right now who kind of knows Hellebuyck really well. I mean, you can’t help but look at this and wonder if this is just one step as part of a bigger play, right?
So you know, like we all have philosophies, but sometimes you have to bend them. And I think the other thing we know is we all know, Mehta is a poker player, right? He’s a bluffer, and he bluffed a bit on us this time. But that’s good.
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Like, you know, we, you know, sometimes you can’t. Like, the world isn’t black and white. There are shades of gray, and, and, you know, that’s the one thing we learned about, we learned a little bit about the GM here.”
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