Dillon wanted to stay. He was vocal that he was not even approached by Chevy for an extension, but no one should be surprised by this. I wasn't when I heard the news.
Everyone knows Heinola made the team out of camp last season & that Samberg spent the season as a bonafide top 4 defender. Add in Morrissey & it was abundantly clear who the three starting left side defenders would be.
There's all this noise about not promoting prospects to the show, but when the space is cleared for this to happen there's uproar we let a veteran walk.
Dillon signed for $4 million with Jersey for the next 3 years & is turning 34 next month. Not only is he due to regress this season, I wouldn't want to allotting $4 milllon in cap space to him when he's 36.
Further it's been made abundantly clear that the Jets most recent post season loss was on the Jets defense inability to move the puck out fast & efficiently. Size wasn't what cost us in the playoffs. Colorado was the smallest team by both height and weight for defenders relative to their ice time. That series made it quite clear how slow the Jets’ backend is.
Samuel Girard (13), Cale Makar (45), Sean Walker (78), Josh Manson (81), and Devon Toews (87) all placed in the NHL’s top 90 defenders for average even-strength speed.
The Jets only had two: Josh Morrissey (19) and Dylan Samberg (54).
So not only did Chevy clear space for our prospects, he identified the teams biggest defensive issue & made a change to our defence. Sadly we won't notice this upgrade until Heinola returns from surgery...sigh
As long as we're on this, the Dillon/Pionk pairing spent the season among the worst puck movers for getting the puck out of the defensive zone, this despite most often on the ice with the Lowry line who excelled at this task.
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I've got a lot of respect for Brendon Dillon & wish him nothing but the best, but it was time for him to move on.