Санни Мехта Нью-Жерси Дэвилсийн бүрэлдэхүүнийг чанаржуулахын тулд эрсдэл тооцсон оновчтой шийдвэрүүдийг гаргаж байна.
Дөрөвдүгээр сард Флорида Пантерс багаас Нью-Жерси Дэвилсийн ерөнхий менежерээр томилогдсон Санни Мехта багийн үндсэн цөм болох Жек Хьюз, Нико Хишер, Жеспер Братт нарт итгэл хүлээлгэж, томоохон өөрчлөлт хийхээс татгалзлаа. Тэрээр Нико Хишерт таван жилийн 11.7 сая ам.долларын үнэ бүхий шинэ гэрээ санал болгосон нь багийн удирдлагын зүгээс гол тоглогчиддоо өгч буй дэмжлэг юм. 2025-26 оны улиралд 87 оноотойгоор плей-оффоос хасагдсан багийн амжилтыг ахиулахын тулд тэрээр илүү өргөн бүрэлдэхүүнтэй, тэнцвэртэй баг бүрдүүлэх зорилт тавьжээ.
Мехта хаалгач Якоб Маркстрёмыг Флорида Пантерс руу илгээж, оронд нь довтлогч Эван Родригес, Жеспер Боквист нарыг эгнээндээ нэгтгэв. Түүнчлэн Питтсбург Пингвинс багт өнгөрсөн улиралд 33 гоол оруулсан Энтони Мантаг хоёр жилийн 4.75 сая ам.долларын гэрээгээр багтаа элсүүлсэн байна. Үүнээс гадна ирээдүйд үр өгөөжөө өгөх боломжтой Деклан Чишолм, Амадеус Ломбарди нарыг драфтын эрхээр сольж авсан нь түүний өгөгдөлд суурилсан, тооцоотой бодлогын илрэл юм.
Флорида Пантерс багт ажиллаж байхдаа Стэнли цомын аварга болоход хувь нэмрээ оруулсан Мехта одоо Нью-Жерси Дэвилсийн хаалганы асуудлыг Жейк Аллен, Нико Доус, Дэвид Риттич нарын хослолоор шийдвэрлэхээр төлөвлөж байна. Тэрээр өөрийн хийж буй алхмуудыг урт хугацааны хөрөнгө оруулалт хэмээн үзэж байгаа бөгөөд багийн аналитик албатай хамтран бүрэлдэхүүнийг шат дараатайгаар хүчирхэгжүүлэхээ мэдэгдлээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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Given Sunny Mehta’s past career as a professional poker player, it makes sense that he talks frequently and confidently about making bets. That mindset shaped his first offseason as New Jersey Devils general manager.
“Fundamentally, the business that I’m in is a prediction business: I’m trying to predict the future outcomes of hockey players,” Mehta told The Athletic. “In a lot of ways, that’s not fundamentally different as a problem than predicting the future volatility of stocks or the future outcomes of poker hands.”
Mehta, who joined the Devils from the Florida Panthers in April to replace the fired Tom Fitzgerald, inherited a core led by Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt. The new GM said the team “has been pretty dominant” when its top players have been healthy, so he didn’t make any drastic changes to that group. If anything, he gave them a vote of confidence, extending Nico Hischier to a five-year deal with a $11.7 million average annual value that kicks in next summer.
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Instead of splashy moves, Mehta’s earliest additions were with eyes on improving around the edges. He made what he believes to be good bets — ones that, if they hit, could bring drastic improvement from the Devils’ playoff-less, 87-point season in 2025-26.
“Shoring up the depth and bringing in reinforcements for what happens (when key players are out) was definitely a priority for me and for our front office,” he said.
Though Mehta didn’t overhaul the Devils to the same degree as the Toronto Maple Leafs or New York Rangers have this offseason, he did make a few notable transactions, notably trading goalie Jacob Markström to the Panthers for forwards Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist. He also signed Anthony Mantha, a 33-goal scorer last year with the Pittsburgh Penguins, to a two-year, $4.75 million AAV deal.
“I think we got deeper as a group,” defenseman Brett Pesce said last week, ahead of the 2026 Shoulder Check charity game in Fairfield, Conn. “I know last year wasn’t great, but there’s a lot of belief in our group. I think everyone’s going to take a step forward.”
The acquisitions of Rodrigues, Boqvist and Mantha are all bets, but they’re ones on veteran NHLers whose production levels shouldn’t drastically change. Mehta’s more interesting moves were on less-established players. For example, he traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Washington Capitals for 26-year-old Declan Chisholm, who played only 26 NHL games last year, and sent a 2026 fourth to the Detroit Red Wings for Amadeus Lombardi, a 23-year-old forward who requires waivers and is yet to make his NHL debut.
Even if those trades don’t hit, they offer a look at Mehta’s general, data-backed philosophy.
“It’s all estimates that we think a fourth-round pick is worth X,” he said. “We think the bet on Chisholm was worth Y. We think Y is greater than X, so we think that’s a bet we want to make.”
In addition to analytical models, Mehta talks to his scouts and looks at player traits. He likes Chisholm’s skating, for example, and said he showed “at times dynamic offense” in the AHL. Lombardi is someone both the team’s metrics and scouts liked, Mehta said. He had 16 goals and 42 points in 47 games last year for AHL Grand Rapids.
None of that, of course, promises results. But especially given the relatively low-risk price, Mehta said, “We think it’s a good bet.”
In Florida, where Mehta worked from 2020 until his Devils hiring, the Panthers boast an excellent recent track record with making bets. It’s a big reason they won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2024 and 2025. Mehta, who started with the team as vice president of hockey strategy and intelligence before spending the past three seasons as one of Bill Zito’s assistant general managers, played a role in that.
“All of (those moves) were a group effort, and I give Bill Zito credit for that,” Mehta said. “Obviously at the end of the day, somebody has to make the decision, and that’s me now, and that was Bill in Florida.”
The Panthers made splashy moves, trading for Matthew Tkachuk in 2022 and Seth Jones and Brad Marchand in 2025. But they also nailed ones that seemed small at the time, like claiming Gustav Forsling off waivers and trading later-round picks for Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour. The process was sound, Mehta believes, but he also knows the result involved good fortune.
“It’s not mutually exclusive that you can make a good bet and kind of get lucky,” the Devils GM said. “The way I think about it is you have this predictive distribution, and even if you’re right about the distribution, it still takes luck if five guys in a row all hit their 90th percentile projection.”
The ability to take chances on players also depends on where a team is in its contention cycle. Florida, for instance, is now loaded with standout NHL players, so the Panthers don’t have much wiggle room — both in terms of roster spots and salary cap space — to take fliers on players. But that wasn’t the case when Zito arrived in 2020, quickly followed by Mehta. They were still building.
New Jersey, Mehta believes, falls somewhere between where Florida was in 2020 and where the Panthers are now.
“There’s some similarities maybe to when I first went to Florida, but I think we’re further along than that,” he said of the Devils. “So there’s some room for some of these bets, but the hope is at some point you get all your bets that worked out and now you’ve got just a stacked roster.”
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Asked if he brought any of his own analytical models to New Jersey, Mehta said everything he built in Florida stayed with the Panthers. But, he added, “it’s a little bit like telling the key maker he can’t have the key. He can just make another key.” He also credited the Devils with already having a well-functioning analytics department, led by vice president of hockey analytics and strategy Matt Cane.
Mehta was pleased when he arrived with the state of some of the Devils’ existing bets, noting potential draft wins in 2023 second-rounder Lenni Hämeenaho, 2022 second-rounder Seamus Casey and 2024 sixth-rounder Matyáš Melovský. He also mentioned 25-year-old goaltender Nico Daws, who spent most of last season with AHL Utica, as someone the team is excited about. After moving on from Markström, who struggled last season, the team will count on a combination of Jake Allen, Daws and newly signed David Rittich to carry the load in net next season.
All in all, the general manager feels good about the organization’s summer progress with its NHL roster, though he added he’s “not even close to being satisfied.”
“I’m thinking long-term,” he said. “It feels like a painting that’s kind of never done.”
