The re-signing of Will Butcher on July 31st gave us somewhat of an idea of what our defense is going to be like this year. The possibility of Ty Smith is still unknown to the New Jersey Devils at this point, but one thing that was definite from this signing was that the Devils will not be heading into this year ill-prepared at defense. Last year we saw injuries pile up and the defense suffered immensely because of the lack of depth at the position.
The Butcher signing capped off an offseason of re-signings three defensemen including Connor Carrick and Mirco Mueller.