The New Jersey Devils started this year by signing two defensemen from the free agency frenzy. Brett Pesce came to terms and was announced just after noon. The other defenseman is former Winnipeg Jet (and former Dallas Star, San Jose Shark and Washington Capital) Brenden Dillon. The Devils signed him for three seasons, which equates to a salary cap hit of $4 million per season, according to Elliott Friedman via former Devils slugger and current Sportsnet analyst Luke Gazdic. No other clauses have been announced as of this writing.

Who is Brenden Dillon?

Brenden Dillon is a 33-year-old (he turns 34 in November), left-shooting defenseman who has been in the league for a while. He has played 892 regular season games for Dallas, San Jose, Washington, and most recently Winnipeg. With 196 points in those 892 games and a career-high 23 points in a season, Dillon is not known for his offensive production. The 6'4″, 220-pound defenseman is more known for using his frame to score on people and play defense. According to PuckPedia, Dillon just signed a four-year, $15.6 million contract with the Jets. His salary cap hit was $3.9 million. With this new deal with the Devils, Dillon is getting a slight raise.

How well did Brenden Dillon do?

Offensively, Dillon has fluctuated around one shot per game and anywhere between 2 and 3 expected goals per season over the course of his career. That's consistent with his 5-on-5 stats. Dillon doesn't take power plays; he's 91:06 in nearly 900 NHL games. Again, don't expect Dillon to be a scorer. I would say he's reliably put up double-digit assists at 5-on-5. It will be unusual, but not surprising, to see him get a point here and there.

What often happens is Dillon is on defense. At 5-on-5, he has been reliably stable for most of his career. With the exception of last season (60.93) and the 2021-22 season (59.83), his teams' CA/60 has remained under 58 when he took a shift since he started playing regularly for the Stars in 2013. Likewise, his teams' SA/60 has remained under 30 when Dillon took a 5-on-5 shift, with three exceptions: last season (30.42), 2021-22 with Winnipeg (31.95) and 2019-20 with Washington (32.76). His expected goals against ratio has been well under 2.5 with a few exceptions: last season (2.53, which isn't bad at all), 2021-22, and 2014-15, when Dallas' xGA/60 with Dillon was exactly 2.5. His chances against guess states have been reliably under 30 on all chances except the 2021-22 season, and under 13 on high-danger chances.

I think the 2021-22 season, Dillon's first with Winnipeg, was difficult in terms of adjustment. He rebounded in 2022-23. Dillon's numbers rose in an unfavorable way last season with the Jets. Whether that was due to the adjustments they made, Dillon's age starting to get to him, usage, or something else remains to be seen. However, they weren't exceptionally bad numbers on their own; they were just higher than what he's made his name with in his career.

Dillon has played 15-17 minutes per season at 5v5 with all four teams in his career. He can certainly be viewed as a second-line defender, as that is what he often was in 5v5 play.

Dillon has also played a lot of shorthanded in his career. Since 2019-20, Dillon has averaged at least 1:40 of shorthanded ice time per game, and at least two minutes per game in his last two seasons, according to Natural Stat Trick. The on-ice rates for his play fluctuate wildly. In a secondary unit, they were pretty low. Not so much against the other team's primary power play units. But a penalty killer can't do everything. Still, it's pretty good when his shorthanded teams keep an xGA/60 with Dillon under 9.2 per 60. Before his last two seasons, his on-ice penalty killing xGA/60 rate was an exceptional under 8.6 in each season. It's fair to say Dillon can handle penalty killing duties and does a pretty good job.

Oh, and Dillon throws hits. He also takes calls. His penalty minutes per 60 minutes have been consistently above 2.5 in the NHL, and in some seasons, like last season with the Jets, it's even been above 3. Dillon is an older player, but discipline can and should be an attainable goal for everyone.

General thoughts

Dillon has the profile of a solid defenseman. He's been doing that for a long time and his role will likely be the same as it was before. I'm happy that he filled his role well, although I hope last season was more about the Jets than Dillon himself. I want him to spend more time outside the box as he can do more on the ice than off it. Dillon is also big and physical so that side of the “People Who Matter” and GM Tom Fitzgerald obsession is also happy.

What I'm not so happy with is the contract. Giving a soon-to-be 34-year-old player a three-year deal is basically a bet that he will age gracefully. That may not be the case with a player as physically strong as Dillon. I can understand giving him a slight raise as a cost of free agency. If it was a one- or two-year deal, I would be happier with the signing itself. It's far from the worst, and if you want to call it nitpicking, then so be it.

Fitzgerald clearly wanted to get bigger and more physical on defense. Adding someone who can do that and can actually defend pretty well is a good move. I agree. This assumes we don't see Dillon relegated to his mid-30s in Newark. Also: No additional terms were announced with the contract. Hopefully Fitzgerald won't handicap himself by giving Dillon a partial or full no-trade/transfer clause.

your opinion

I agree with the Dillon signing. Now I want to know what you think. Are you happy that the Devils are adding Brenden Dillon to the team? Are you OK with the three-season contract? Are you OK with the $4 million salary cap? What do you expect from Dillon in New Jersey? Please leave your reactions and other thoughts on Dillon in the comments. Thanks for reading.