New Jersey Devils player profile: Brenden Dillon

The 33-year-old defenseman will chew up plenty of hard minutes for the Devils at even-strength and on the penalty kill.

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With most of the off-season fireworks in the rearview, and league-wide activity really starting to slow down, now seems as good of a time as any to profile the newest members of the New Jersey Devils.

Up first is defenseman Brenden Dillon, who signed a three-year deal worth $12 million on the opening day of free agency.

2023-24 review

Dillon had a strong season with the Jets in every sense of the word. He logged upwards of 19 minutes per game and garnered excellent results.

The Jets outscored opponents by 11 with Dillon on the ice at 5v5 – that tied the second-best goal differential of his career – and they were able to grind out a slight edge in terms of high-danger chances.

Nate Schmidt and Dylan Samberg were the only regular Jets defensemen who posted better numbers than Dillon in terms of limiting expected goals. They were the 5th and 6th most-used blueliners on the team, though. Nobody in the top-4 suppressed xG better than Dillon.

His penalty killing impacts were top-tier; at least when it came to preventing good old-fashioned goals.

While undermanned, the Jets conceded 4.06 fewer goals per 60 minutes with Dillon on the ice than without. That differential was the second largest among the 120 defensemen to log at least 100 minutes on the PK.

Dillon found himself keeping company with Mattias Ekholm, Jake McCabe, Charlie McAvoy, Drew Doughty, and many of the better defenders in the sport.

Brendan Smith was the only defenseman who had a larger on/off differential than Dillon (go figure). Also worth noting is another Devils newcomer, Johnathan Kovacevic, had the 6th-best mark, slotting him just below Ekholm.

Be it at 5v5 or on the PK, Dillon fared very well and did a great job keeping goals off the board.

He was also one of the more physically imposing blueliners in the sport, ranking 12th among all defenders in hits per 60 minutes.

While Dillon is a defense-first guy whose bread and butter will be protecting the home plate area, he’s capable of giving the team a little offense.

Dillon almost shockingly tied the likes of Josh Morrissey, Victor Hedman, Zach Werenski, Evan Bouchard, and Rasmus Dahlin for 14th among defensemen in 5v5 goals (8). He also finished 69th in points and 92nd in scoring chances. There is some juice in there.

2024-25 outlook