The Luke Evangalista trade is why New Jersey signed Sunny Mehta?

When Sunny Mehta was announced as the New Jersey Devils general manager, a little tear came to my eye. As a Florida Panthers I knew that the Panthers would have some big shoes to fill. Sunny was well known to be an analytics guru and, as head of the analytics department and assistant general manager, he sure seemed to do some great work. He was in Florida for the acquisition of Carter Verhaeghe, EetuLuostarinen, Sam Reinhart, San Reinhart, Gustav Forsling and Matthew Tkachuk all of whom were fairly well known for their strong underlying numbers. I am sure he was not the only one involved with the moves but they sure screamed analytic guru plays for sure and look at that team now.

Now that Sunny is G.M. of the New Jersey Devils i was on the edge of my seat to see how he would work his magic there. So far he hasn't disappointed. First picking up a low-risk, high-reward contract with Anthony Mantha and then brought in the very underrated Evan Rodrigues from his old team in the Panthers. Both have solid underlying analytics and add significant forward depth. Yesterday, though, he made a move that shows the same savvy that brought Florida a Stanley Cup roster with the acquisition of Luke Evangelista .

Luke is the type of player that can often go unnoticed to the eye test. Not overly big or physical and not a lot of pop in the goal department but has gradually worked his way into becoming a premier young defensively aware play driver with borderline elite play making skills. He has been deployed against top lines a fair amount, especially last year, and has done an admiral job for such a young player. He is like a much more offensive Luostarinen with better offensive tools. It is these kinds of moves that can get teams lower cost high producing players that compliment top offensive players and help defenses in ways that seldom get the credit they deserve. The Mehta era is looking bright.