New Jersey has acquired defender John Marino from Pittsburgh in return for Blueliner Ty Smith and Pick Third Round 2023.
#DevilsAcquire #JohnMarino #devilsacquireyes #devilsacquirey
The Devils and Penguins exchanged defense when New Jersey had acquired defender John Marino from Pittsburgh in exchange for Blueliner Ty Smith and Pick Third Round 2023. Both teams had announced exchanges. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald released the following statement:
John is a competitive and very mobile defender who strengthens the back of us. He is proud of his game from pieces and management of pieces and the ability to transition will match our style and the strength of our advanced group. This is another step that focuses on increasing our club today, while also providing certainty and stability for the flexibility of the list when we continue to build. The 25-year-old Marino made a direct impact in his rookie season in 2019-20, recording 26 points in 56 matches. Pittsburgh has gained its rights from Edmonton on the 2019 Offseason for the sixth round pick and the type of direct return is quite impressive. So much, in fact, GM Jim Rutherford at that time gave Marino a six -year contract, $ 26.4mm back in January 2021, an agreement that still had five years left. However, things haven’t been going well for Marino and Penguin since then. He struggled in the 2020-21 campaign filled with pandemic before rebounding a little last season, recorded goals and 24 assists in 81 matches while still recording more than 20 minutes a night, the numbers that jumped to more than 23 minutes per contest in their first -Round lost playoffs from Rangers. In Marino, New Jersey gets a defender who is able to play four minutes now as evidenced by the fact that he is on average more than 20 minutes per contest in each of his three NHL seasons. A back row of the right shot, Marino also gave them some insurance on the right side with Damon Severson a year from free agents that were not limited. If he departs next summer, Marino can take the Severson place behind Dougie Hamilton on the graph of their depth which is likely to be a stability for the flexibility of the list discussed by Fitzgerald in his statement. As for Smith, the 22-year-old player was the first round of demons in 2018 and made a very strong first impression in his rookie year in 2020-21 when he took 23 points in 48 matches while on average more than 20 minutes of the game alone. However, everything certainly did not go well last season because its production fell to 20 points in 66 contests while the defensive metric fell. However, he of course was young enough to recover unlike Marino last season
