Kovacevic Could Be a Sneaky Good Addition for Devils

Though Johnathan Kovacevic may not move the needle much, he should shore up the New Jersey Devils' defensive depth.

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We knew that a makeover to the New Jersey Devils' defense was coming this offseason after the way 2023-24 went. Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon joined as free agents, while John Marino, Brendan Smith and Kevin Bahl departed via trades or free agency.

We'll review the Pesce and Dillon signings more in-depth later this week. But one under-the-radar move general manager Tom Fitzgerald made this offseason was acquiring Johnathan Kovacevic from the Montreal Canadiens for a 2026 fourth-round pick.

Kovacevic is not a needle-mover, but he is one of the better bottom-pair defenders in the NHL. At worst, he'll be the team's seventh defenseman, but the Devils shouldn't have many concerns plugging him into the lineup if they have to.

Kovacevic Can Play

It's not surprising that Fitzgerald wanted to load up on defensive depth after last season. Part of that is because of poor play, but injuries also forced Luke Hughes and Šimon Nemec into bigger roles than the organization likely wanted a season ago.

Hughes and Nemec will be better off for that in the long run, but I'm sure that's a scenario the Devils want to avoid again. That's where Kovacevic comes in and plays a part. His counting totals aren't overly impressive, but he had some solid underlying numbers in his time with the Canadiens.

Kovacevic's play was worth a total expected goals above replacement (xGAR) of 5.9 this past season and in 2022-23. He ranked in the 65th percentile in GAR/xGAR over the last two seasons, so there's plenty to suggest he's an NHLer.

Aside from fancy numbers like GAR and xGAR, Kovacevic excelled in some areas where the Devils struggled defensively a season ago. One of those was defending the rush, which was a team-wide problem. That'll probably change with a new system under Sheldon Keefe, but adding the right personnel to change that helps, too.

Kovacevic defended the rush quite well this past season, ranking in the 84th percentile in entry denial rate. Another area where the Devils struggled was on defensive zone retrievals. Part of that was because they had two U21 defensemen playing top-four minutes, but they also didn't have the right personnel to handle opposing forechecks.

That should change a bit with Pesce and Dillon but also Kovacevic, who ranked in the 87th percentile in retrieval success and 72nd percentile in defensive zone retrievals this past season: