Devils' Dillon Needs a Puck-Moving Defense Partner

There are some concerns in Brenden Dillon's game, but fortunately, the New Jersey Devils may have the perfect defense partners for him.

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We talked about Johnathan Kovacevic and how he was a small part of the New Jersey Devils' defensive makeover this offseason. Now let's get into their two main additions, starting with Brenden Dillion, who signed a three-year contract with the Devils at a cap hit of $4 million.

Dillon spent the last three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets and generally performed well for them. While he's not the high-end defensive defenseman he used to be, he'll add some new elements to the Devils' back end. And as long as he has the right defense partner, he should find success in New Jersey.

Dillon Posts Good Results, But There Are Some Concerns

How the Devils use Dillon remains to be seen, but even until the end of this season, the Jets were using him in a top-four role. He played 33.9 percent of his minutes against elite competition and 37.3 percent against the middle of the lineup. That's just over 71 percent of his minutes against top-nine players.

Dillon's results in those minutes were generally good, too. He finished this season with an expected goals above replacement (xGAR) of 6.5, with his even-strength offense worth an xGAR of 7.8.

His results last season were pretty good, too. Dillon finished 2022-23 with an xGAR of 7.1, with his even-strength defense worth an xGAR of 8.8. There is a valuable player here, but there are some concerns with his game when looking at his microstats.

Most notably, Dillon struggled to defend the rush this past season. His entry denial rate ranked in the 14th percentile, while his possession entry prevention and entry chance prevention ranked in the 34th and third percentiles. That's not great and is a bit concerning, given the Devils struggled to defend the rush this season.

Another area where Dillon struggled is in transition. He ranked in the fifth percentile in zone exits and second in zone entries. The zone entries are less concerning to me because I doubt Sheldon Keefe will ask Dillon to lead the rush into the offensive zone very often if at all. The Devils have plenty of other players more than capable of doing the heavy lifting on zone entries.

The zone exits are concerning, though. The Devils will want their defensemen to break the puck out to their forwards to jumpstart the attack. If Dillon struggles to exit the defensive zone cleanly and is just chipping the puck off the glass consistently, there could be some problems.

So how exactly did Dillon get away with some notable flaws in his game? His most common defense partner this season was Neal Pionk, whose on-ice metrics were so-so. However, his microstats were quite good, and he excelled in areas that Dillon struggles with.