WIth the signings of Brett Pesce and Brendan Dillon, the Devils have become bigger and more physical. But what does that look like? Let’s take a look at a couple of stats today that help show it.
With the signings of Brett Pesce and Brendan Dillon specifically, the idea for Tom Fitzgerald seems to be making the New Jersey Devils a bigger, more physical squad. Yes, they added some playmaking ability by bringing back Stefan Noesen and Tomas Tatar, but cap-wise, the bigger signings were with these two defensemen, and the initial reaction is that they bring size and physicality to this blue line. You can like that philosophy or think the money would have been better spent on trying to find skill instead of size, but nonetheless, it seems that is the route that Fitz went with.
What I just wanted to look at today was how much more physicality do these two bring to this lineup. Are they just big but still have more finesse to their games? Or do they have the size and use it? And there are two simple ways I want to check how and if they use their bodies today: hits and shots blocked. Both involve using their bodies defensively, but in different ways: one involves being physical with another player, and the other involves allowing your body to take hits from opposing shots. Good, true physical defensemen will usually be fairly high on the charts for both of these stats, so let’s take a look at these two new defensemen for these categories.
Here is a chart showcasing both hits and blocks from last season for both Pesce, Dillon, and some Devils defensemen as well as a reference. Ranks are for all defensemen last regular season with at least 500 minutes in all situations, and info comes from Natural Stat Trick:
So despite signing two large, physical defensive-defensemen, the numbers tell us that Pesce and Dillon are almost polar opposites in the way they defend their own zone in at least one sense. Dillon had the third most hits among defensemen in the NHL last season, behind only Jeremy Lauzon and Simon Benoit. That’s it. Out of 225 qualified defensemen, he had the third most hits at 221. So obviously, he hits a lot and hits often. That is a major part of his game.
Pesce, on the other hand, rarely hits anyone at all. He only had 22 hits total for the entirety of the regular season. Out of those 225 defensemen, that ranked him tied for 207th. So even though Pesce still plays a very defensive game and has size, he does not use it for hits at all. It is an interesting dynamic because these two are very different in the way they use their bodies on the ice.
Comparatively, most Devils defensemen last season did not hit that much, although most did so more than Pesce anyway. Kevin Bahl had 131 which is a decent amount and got him in the top 100 among defensemen. But really, no one focused on hitting and used their bodies often to hit opposing teams. Dillon definitely does that and will bring that aspect to the Devils’ blue line. Pesce will definitely not, but he is very good in other ways.
In terms of blocked shots, interestingly enough they all were mostly similar except for Luke Hughes. All of them in that chart had between 89 and 113 blocked shots across the regular season. All things considered, that is all fairly similar. It is a decent amount of blocks which is good, but not too many, which is also generally good as it means they are using other means to prevent shots on net.
So overall, of these two bigger defensive signings for the Devils, one hits a ton, and the other rarely hits anyone at all. It is interesting as it means Fitzgerald was good with both styles of play and was not looking for one thing in particular, at least in this regard. He definitely was looking for size in a big way, but not necessarily for one brand of physical hockey only. Both play physically and defensively in different ways.