Andrew Hammond & Evaluating Progress
The Devils only 2022 trade deadline addition signals the transition from 'adaptation' to 'evaluation'
The 3:00 PM trade deadline came and went, and the only move the New Jersey Devils made was a small one — sending prospect Nate Schnarr to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for goaltender Andrew Hammond.
And yes — it’s that Andrew Hammond, of Hamburgler fame, who put together one of the most unbelievable runs we’ve seen in recent years to close out the 2014/15 with a stunning 20-1-2 record.
Hammond never lived up to the impossible standard he set during the miraculous 2014/15 run, but he’s hung around the game. He primarily played in the AHL in recent years, getting starts with San Antonio, Iowa, Rochester, and Laval. He played in 4 games for Montreal this season (3 starts), going 3-0 with a .920 Sv% and 2.40 GAA. He’s been an effective stop-gap on a Montreal squad that — until recently — struggled to win games.
The interesting thing about Hammond is that he hasn’t played in the NHL much in recent seasons. He is only credited with 11 NHL games since the start of the 2016/17 season.
So this is not a permanent solution to the well-documented goaltending problem. But he is — as advertised — an interesting stop gap.
Hammond, who again has only played 11 NHL games in the past 6 seasons, is currently the Devils leader in both Sv% and GAA, and it’s not particularly close. Nico Daws is the next closest goalie, and his .902 Sv% and 2.99 GAA stand a ways back from the Devils newest addition. That should underscore to what extend the Devils 2021/22 goaltending has sunk the season.
So, with the season lost, why would GM Tom Fitzgerald spend an asset on a clearly short-term goaltender?
To evaluate.
Devils fans are likely sick of hearing about the inspiring underlying numbers the team has put up, wanting wins instead of mere potential. I can certainly sympathize. Take a look at where the Devils currently sit on March 21, 2022 (stats via Natural Stat Trick)
51.60 xGF% (13th in NHL)
52.50 Scoring Chance-For percentage (10th in NHL)
56.28 High-Danger CF% (3rd in NHL)
.897 Sv% (31st in NHL)
The numbers certainly suggest that the team’s on-ice impact is positive. They’re controlling play, generating more chances, more high-danger shot attempts, and so on. But the team isn’t getting saves, and so a team that is in the upper half of the league in expected goals finds itself with a .395 points percentage, and a likely top-5 pick again in the upcoming draft.
How are we as fans, and more importantly the hockey ops staff, supposed to evaluate this team when their record is so different than some key indicators would expect?
Hammond is a low-risk option to provide the team with some much-needed stability in net. The Devils aren’t making the playoffs, and Hammond is not pulling off another miracle, but even league-average goaltending with give Fitzgerald and his staff the opportunity to see what Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, and others can do. The team’s record in the final 20 games of the season will be a more realistic measure of where the team stands, who deserves a spot on the roster long term, and how ready the team is for playoff contention.
This season has been a disaster in terms of actual results, barring individual performances from Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Siegenthaler, and a few others. Hell, the team has only had one consistent stretch of games with Hughes, Hischier, and Hamilton all healthy at the same time. As those players begin to gel, and as players like Wood come off of LTIR, having something resembling league average goaltending gives the fans and the organization an opportunity to see what it is the Devils have.
Am I happy that the team’s answer to the short-term goaltender is a player who has 11 games in the past 6 seasons? No. But at the very least he’s proven to be competent on a team with a comparable record to the Devils’, if only in a small sample of games. If Hammond can post even a .908 Sv% in 10 games, and give Nico Daws some breathing room to develop, than the price will have been worth it.
This move shows us that the team is investing in figuring out what they have, and what they need in order to improve next season. I can understand the reasoning behind the Hammond acquisition, even if I find it ultimately lacking.
But make no mistake, as much as this trade tells us that the team is in evaluation mode, it should make another thing extremely clear — this team is not going anywhere until the goaltending situation is resolved. That it has come to this to give the team some stability in net this late into this season is concerning.
I understand that both the 1A and 1B goalies are injured, but recent circumstances have made clear the discrepancy between the performances of the skaters and their goaltenders. With rumours of a rocky relationship between Mackenzie Blackwood and the Devils, the future remains even murkier.
It’s possible that the team will have to go back to the drawing board this summer to fix the situation in net. I was a fan of the Bernier signing. I also like the Crawford signing. I also believed that Blackwood had a promising future. But right now Crawford is gone, Bernier is nursing a serious injury, and Blackwood is recovering from injury after a series of mixed or disappointing seasons.
I’ve never been so excited about a group of skaters as I am about the current young core, but the situation in net should be setting off alarm bells in the Devils front office every day. The Hammond trade is a prudent, if underwhelming, step that will allow the team to evaluate the team and plan for the future.
But that evaluation should be critical of the goaltending situation. Without change, the team won’t be able to live up to the promise of its talented young core. The team cannot rely on a Hamburgler-type miracle to compete next year.
They’re the Devils — no miracles are coming.