How will the Devils deal with their logjam on defense?

The New Jersey Devils are off to a great start, tied for the NHL lead in wins with a 9-4-0 record. After a 6-3 loss to Carolina on Opening night, New Jersey rattled off eight straight wins in impressive fashion to establish themselves as one of the top teams in the league in the early going.

But after an injury to key shutdown defenseman Brett Pesce, the situation has soured. The Devils have lost three of their last four, and all three of those losses have come by at least three goals.

Pesce is an integral part of the team’s defensive identity, but the blue line as a whole is loaded. With Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brenden Dillon firmly entrenched. An ascendant Simon Nemec looking more and more like a piece of the team’s future core, and a promising offensive defenseman in Seamus Casey, what will give with that unit when Pesce returns?

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now to discuss the Devils’ defensive logjam and whether a trade might bring about a resolution.

Tyler Yaremchuk: A lot of outsiders kind of look at the group of defensemen. Hamilton, Hughes, Pesce, Dillon, Kovacevic is hurt, Siegenthaler, and then Seamus Casey, Simon Nemec. I think the feeling outside of New Jersey is that something’s got to give eventually and one of those guys has got to go. Do you get the sense that that’s the same feeling in the organization, or are they totally fine holding on to all these defensemen for as long as they want to?

James Nichols: Yeah, I think they’re okay holding on to them, but I would anticipate that they do make a big move at some point this season with the anticipation of not just making the playoffs but making some noise there, making a deeper run than they have before. I think they’ve been hoarding these assets for something. I don’t know what that is, what it looks like right now, but they’re going to certainly need something as the deadline approaches.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…