Sheldon Keefe has an abundance of options on defense

The Devils' revamped defense core offers plenty of appealing choices for the new bench boss.

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Sheldon Keefe may not have a 69-goal scorer on his team anymore but he has to be over the moon about the roster he’ll take over in his first season as bench boss of the New Jersey Devils.

In particular, the talent and balance on defense looks to be night and day to what Keefe grew accustomed to with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Maple Leafs essentially had one high-end puck mover in Morgan Rielly. He was mostly surrounded by one-way, defensive defenders playing above their proper slotting. That severely handcuffed Keefe and gave him few quality options to choose from when trying to find the optimal defense. There just wasn’t enough balance.

It’ll be a much different story with the Devils – particularly after the additions Tom Fitzgerald made on the backend to support an already dynamic core.

Ultimately, preseason play (and game situation) will determine the route Keefe goes down with the defense.

What’s exciting is just how many legitimately good options Keefe has at his finger tips. Let’s take a closer look at some of the combinations that could make sense.

Go with what you know

Brenden Dillon - Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler - Dougie Hamilton
Luke Hughes - Simon Nemec

This train of thought is simple. You pair the two newcomers together and then roll with a couple of pairings who have played together and enjoyed success in the past. This version of the defense would likely be most optimal on home soil.

Dillon is a physical, brusing defenseman who can make some plays with the puck and handle himself against top competition. Dillon has won his minutes vs. the toughest caliber of opponents in four of the past five years, including last season where he posted a +12 goal differential with the Jets against elite comp.

Pesce has also posted a positive goal differential against top tier competition in four of the past five years. He’s not nearly as physical as Dillon, instead relying on strong positioning, stick work, and smarts to defend.

If those two could help transition well enough – likely aided by the help of a do-it-all center like Nico Hischier – then they could eat up a lot of minutes against opposing team’s best players, freeing up the other two pairings to dominate. And dominate they shall.

It was not Jonas Siegenthaler’s best season by any stretch of the imagination. He still managed to post a 57 xGF%, 58 CF%, and 60% HDCF with Hamilton while only being -1 over 250 minutes. This despite bad goaltending and a painfully low 5.95 on-ice shooting percentage. The underlyings suggest those two can still play very well together and, with any luck at either end, the scoreboard will reflect that.

That would leave the youngsters Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec on the 3rd pairing. A decent chunk of their ice as a duo came when trailing and pushing for offense but it’s certainly encouraging they managed a 61 xGF% 64 HDCF%, and +5 goal differential over 176 minutes of 5v5 ice last season.

It’s worth noting Hughes was +7 with a 55 CF% vs bottom-tier competition while Nemec also won those minutes.

With the continued development of each player, and cushy minutes mostly against bottom-6 opponents (at home, anyway), this duo could be scary.

The balanced approach