Three games into the 2025-26 season, one of the more pleasant developments for the New Jersey Devils has been the play of Arseny Gritsyuk.
Gritsyuk has followed up a strong preseason with three assists in three games despite relatively limited ice time. Perhaps none of those helpers has been more impressive than the one from Monday’s win over Columbus in the closing seconds of a power play, where Gritsyuk and Dawson Mercer caught Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk in a 2-on-1 situation. Gritsyuk made a cross-ice pass that Mateychuk actually did a good job to get a stick on, but there was enough sauce on that pass for Mercer to make an equally impressive play and rifle a bouncing puck past Columbus netminder Jet Greaves for a 2-1 lead, giving Gritsyuk a well-deserved primary assist.
Aside from his playmaking ability though, where Gritsyuk has really impressed me in a short time is with his decision making with the puck. Even though his NHL experience is rather limited, you can tell that he has played a lot of hockey and has plenty of experience at a professional level. He knows where he needs to be on the ice. He’s done a good job knowing what to do with the puck and knowing where to put it on the ice if he isn’t in a position to make a play. That particular skill set is a much-welcomed addition to a Devils bottom six that lacked that type of player one year ago. It might just be little flashes that Gritsyuk has shown here and there in a relatively small sample size of three NHL games, but you can tell from watching the games that there’s something there.
Of course, it’s easy to see all that and be tempted. It’s tempting to want to pencil Gritsyuk into that LW1 spot once occupied by Evgenii Dadonov, currently occupied by Ondrej Palat and put him alongside Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. And I’m sure the longer we go where Gritsyuk looks promising while Palat simultaneously is just kind of there, those calls will get louder.
I suspect there will be a time where putting Gritsyuk in that spot is the right play and the Devils will be a better team because of it. For the time being though? The Devils are better suited leaving the Top Nine as is and not messing around with the lineup.
As promising as Gritsyuk’s good start is, at the end of the day, its still three games. There’s still an adjustment period after coming over from the KHL, and he probably hasn’t had his “Welcome to the NHL” moment yet that he’d sooner rather forget. I don’t write this to be negative or pour cold water on the hype train, but its something that happens to every player and I doubt Gritsyuk will be exempt from a rough stretch of play once there is more tape on him and word gets out around the league.
As easy as it would be to yell “move Gritsyuk up the lineup”, I credit Sheldon Keefe for finding a way to protect him during the three game road trip. The Devils had three tough matchups on the road against three playoff-caliber teams. If there’s an obvious forward to pick on in the Devils lineup in terms of trying to exploit matchups when you have last change, its probably the 24 year old “rookie” in Gritsyuk. Gritsyuk has played well in a limited role, and is already in the process of gaining the trust of the coaching staff with more and more ice time with each subsequent game. I think Keefe has been smart not to put too much on his plate out of the gate and to rely on his more experienced forwards who have more experience in his system to play the tougher minutes. Perhaps that changes as Gritsyuk gets more experience. Perhaps that changes once the Devils start playing home games and they can dictate the matchups that they want via last change. Perhaps that changes once the schedule flips to November and the schedule is easier to navigate in general.
For now though? The Devils don’t need to force it. And a big part of the reason why they don’t need to force it is because through three games, scoring goals hasn’t been a problem. They have 11 goals in three games. Seven of those goals have come at 5-on-5, two on the power play, one shorthanded, and one in an empty net situation.
The one “yeah, but” to that is that the Jack Hughes line hasn’t really gotten going yet, and with Palat’s reinsertion onto the top line, I get why some might think that putting Gritsyuk in that spot would be the spark they could use. But it’s also easy to forget that the Palat-Hughes-Bratt trio was one of the best lines in the NHL last season. Of all lines that played 500+ minutes together, they were Top 7 in xGoals%, xGoals For, xGoals per 60, Goals for per 60, and CF% (according to MoneyPuck). They were tied-9th in goals.
It would stand to reason that Hughes and Bratt are the straws that stir the proverbial drink on that line and Palat was just along for the ride, so there’s room for growth. I would agree with that assessment. But it would also stand to reason that that trio knows how to play together and knows how to play off of each other. Jack and Bratt are going to figure this out….they’re too talented not to…..and once they do, they’ll put up points in bunches and the Devils will win hockey games as a result. I don’t mean this as a slight, but they don’t need an Arseny Gritsyuk to “get going”. They’re more than capable of figuring it out.
With no other obvious spot to try to shoehorn Gritsyuk into in the Top Six, the best spot for him in this Devils lineup is the one he currently occupies on their third line with Connor Brown and Cody Glass.
Brown has been as advertised when it comes to 5-on-5 offense, and he’s also impressed me in the early portion of the season with the little things with his game. His skating ability, his decision making, his hockey IQ. All of that. You can see why he played a prominent role on a team that went t0 back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. I think its fair to question whether or not Cody Glass is productive enough offensively to be a 3C on a team with playoff aspirations, but that’s a Cody Glass problem more than it is a Gritsyuk problem. But we’re also talking about a Gritsyuk-Glass-Brown line that’s played a grand total of just under 16 minutes together over two games. The jury is still very much out on whether they’re a long-term fit, but if we like what the players bring to the table from an individual standpoint, it’s worth giving it some time to see if they can form a functional third line. And that last part to me is key.
The Devils did not have a functional third line last year. They did not have a functional fourth line either, for that matter. It’s the reason why they revamped their bottom six this summer in the first place.
What if the Devils have a good third line and Gritsyuk being slotted where he is is a big part of the reason why? What if Gritsyuk can be the offensive catalyst behind that line and elevate his linemates in the process?
It’s too early to say with certainty that he is going to be that or do that, or that the Devils will definitely have a good third line. But its one of those things where if they do, all of a sudden this team looks so much better than it did coming into the season. Having a third line that can push the pace of play and is capable of scoring makes the Devils all that much more dangerous.
Look no further than Florida who just won a Cup with a third line of Eetu Luostarinen, Anton Lundell, and Brad Marchand. On most teams, that would be a first or second line. But on a team like Florida that is insanely deep, that’s a third line. I’m not saying the Brown-Glass-Grisyuk line will be what Florida’s third line was, but when you have that type of depth where anyone on your top three lines can score at any given time, you can get away with having an Evan Rodrigues and the 32 points he provided during the regular season last year as your top line winger. It makes you that much tougher to play against when the opposition can’t focus on just stopping one line, or even two lines.
Only time will tell what Arseny Gritsyuk winds up becoming in terms of his NHL career. I don’t doubt that he has a Top Six skill set, or that he will be a fixture on the Devils top line at some point. But for now, he’s doing just fine in the role he’s being asked to play by Sheldon Keefe and the coaching staff. Rather than rushing to toss him into the deep end of the pool and seeing if he can indeed swim, the Devils are probably better suited letting him continue to get his feet wet in the shallow end as he learns the NHL. The top six is still deep enough where they shouldn’t have issues scoring goals, and if they’re patient by playing the long-game with Gritsyuk, him being a potential catalyst on a really good third line would all of a sudden make the Devils all that much more of a threat.