It’s been a few days since the NHL Trade Deadline passed and now that the dust has settled, this New Jersey Devils roster looks quite different, namely on defense. The team shipped out captain Andy Greene and pending UFA Sami Vatanen—two of their lineup regulars and most tenured veterans.
Although they’re in the second wave of a rebuild, this trade deadline left New Jersey’s defense in bigger shambles than they were before — somehow. In Tuesday night’s matchup versus the Detroit Red Wings, they brandished three defense pairings featuring Connor Carrick and Mirco Mueller (we know what they bring), Dakota Mermis (career AHLer who’s only appeared in 13 NHL games) and Fredrik Claesson (a journeyman defenseman with 150 NHL games under his belt who spent 2019-20 in the AHL), along with veterans Damon Severson and P.