Next in the line of Devils from one of the worst periods in franchise history is defenseman Eric Gelinas.
A glimmer of hope
The mid-2010s were an era where the Devils were notoriously old in terms of roster makeup. Eric Gelinas was a 22-year-old defenseman who had a promising start. In the 2013-14 season, Gelinas had 7 goals and 22 assists for 29 points in 60 games. He looked like a future piece for the Devils who didn’t have much in terms of youth.
The downward spiral
However, that’s where the NHL success ended for Gelinas. He followed up his rookie year with a lackluster 6 goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 61 games in the 2014-15 season. That year was rather depressing for the Devils overall. They finished 32-36-14 and had the oldest average age in the NHL at 30.5 years old. They were in the worst place to be as a franchise, not good enough to compete, not bad enough to tank and too old to be promising. On top of all of that, they spent their first round pick on Pavel Zacha. They could’ve drafted Mikko Rantanen or Timo Meier, they’ve since corrected that mistake.
As for the 2015-16 season, Gelinas put up 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points in 34 games. That was the end of his Devils career as he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for a 2017 3rd round pick at the 2016 trade deadline. He played a combined 33 games and only had 1 assist. Gelinas hasn’t seen the NHL since the 2016-17 season and has mostly played in Europe after 2018. He made an attempt to come back in the 2021-22 season but only played 9 AHL games, scoring 2 goals and having no assists.
Reflection
After a promising start to his Devils and NHL career, Eric Gelinas didn’t see the league past the age of 25. He’s an interesting piece of Devils lore among die-hard fans as they reminisce about how bad things used to be. He was once viewed as a future piece of the team. Then he became the answer to a few puckdoku prompts.
Stay tuned for more New Jersey Devils and NHL content, including trades, signings, and various updates.
Featured image courtesy of NHL.com
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