Johnny Kovacevic News: Assist in season debut

Kovacevic notched an assist and blocked two shots in Sunday's 4-3 loss to the Jets.

Kovacevic missed the first three months of the season while recovering from knee surgery. He logged 18:14 of ice time in his season debut, playing on the second pairing. He'll be more of a shutdown defenseman than a scorer -- he had a career-high 17 points in 81 regular-season outings last season while adding 102 hits and 99 blocked shots. The bigger change with Kovacevic's return is the potential exit of Dougie Hamilton, who was a healthy scratch Sunday. The Devils are deep on the blue line and can afford to make a move, but it'll likely be Simon Nemec who benefits the most if Hamilton is ultimately traded, while Kovacevic may still pick up some extra defensive minutes.