Thursday offered the first glimpse of the New Jersey Devils' forward lines and how head coach Sheldon Keefe looks to utilize his off-season acquisitions.
One of those new faces is 36-year-old Evgenii Dadonov, who signed a one-year, $1 million contract on Jul. 1, 2025.
On Aug. 6, Kristy Flannery of The Hockey News appeared on DLLS Sports and questioned if Keefe would place Dadonov on Jack Hughes' wing despite a public assumption that the veteran would fill a bottom-six role.
"My question with Dadonov is will he end up playing himself into the top left winger (position) with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt? [...] I wonder if Dadonov, who is coming off 20 goals, ends up in that position.
"I know that (general manager) Tom Fitzgerald went out (searching) for depth, but I see a world where both Connor Brown and Dadonov end up in the top six."
Sure enough, when the Devils' first practice group hit the ice, Keefe did in fact deploy the trio of Dadonov - Hughes - Bratt.
"He has been a solid complementary player in the league for a number of years," Keefe said on Thursday. "Playing with two guys like Jack and Bratt, they are two guys that are puck dominant. They have it a lot. Dadonov has the ability, when the puck comes to him, to make a play. When you watch all his goals, he has a real knack of scoring in and around the net."
Bratt and Hughes, who are widely known as "peanut butter and jelly," were complimentary of the player known as Dads and Daddy.
"He is such a smart player," Bratt said. "Me and Jack were watching him do his thing out there. It's a really exciting player to play with. He has been in the game for such a long time. He has got a lot of routine under his belt."
"That was fun," Hughes added. "We were snapping it around a bit. I don't know him too well, but I am sure we will get to know him over camp here."
Ondrej Palat, who has been deployed with Hughes and Bratt, skated on a line with Cody Glass and Brown.
There is still plenty of time, and Keefe can mix and match to see what he thinks is the best combination moving forward, but it is a good sign to see the coach try something new that could lead to a very creative line with the regular season opening on Oct. 9
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