New Jersey GM Sunny Mehta: No Fourth Line, Depth Is Our Strength
Devils general manager Sunny Mehta says New Jersey built two first and two second lines this season, so the team relies less on Hughes and Hischier.
New Jersey have no fourth line this season, according to general manager Sunny Mehta, who says the club has built two first lines and two second lines.
Mehta said the depth covers the whole roster, and he was not talking about players outside the lineup. "Our strength is in our depth, and I am not talking about the players who are not in the main lineup. I am talking about our 12 main forwards and 6 defencemen. We have a lot of attacking power, skill and hockey sense in all the lines," he said.
He said he had raised it with Connor Brown, asking how he was finding playing alongside Amadeus Lombardi. "I told him that this season we have no fourth line. We have, as it were, two first lines and two second lines. Our so-called bottom two lines could be top-6 lines on other teams," Mehta said.
Mehta pointed to what went wrong last season. "Last season the team was good when Jack Hughes or Nico Hischier was on the ice, but without them it was not so good any more. Instead of simply looking for the best players for the fourth line, our aim was to add second-line players and rebuild the lineup accordingly. This depth should make us much stronger," he said.
If the bottom two lines do score at the rate Mehta describes, New Jersey would lean less on Hughes and Hischier than they did last season. That is the reading, not a result, and it will only be tested once the games begin.
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