With New Jersey turning the keys over to the next generation, it seemed likely there would be cap casualties, and Ryan Graves is among them. It was just a matter of where he'd land and he's in Pittsburgh on a six-year deal, per Elliotte Friedman. The AAV works out to $4.5M a year.

Graves posted 14 goals and 54 points in 153 games with the Devils, skating 20:20 a night while managing 252 shots, 173 hits, and 287 blocks. That works out to (roughly) 8 goals, 29 points, 135 shots, 93 hits, and 154 blocks every 82 games. Not a bad peripheral defenceman in fantasy multi-cat formats, especially for those that caught him for his plus-34 performance in 2022-23 in leagues counting that stat. That plus/minus made him a top-36 defenceman in Yahoo!'s standard scoring, or easily rostered in any league with at least 10 teams and three defence slots. He was relevant.

It isn't as if Graves was merely a passenger on the high-octane Devils roster, either. Tracking data from 2022-23 shows Graves exiting the zone with possession as often on a 60-minute basis (6.52) as names like Adam Fox (6.57), Jeff Petry (6.53), and Jared Spurgeon (6.18). He was above average in limiting opposition scoring chances on entries against and initially denied the blue line to the opposition at a rate (12.7%) similar to K'Andre Miller (12.8%) and Jakob Chychrun (11.7%), which was well above average. He was also the only Devils defenceman to be above-average by zone-entry rate as the team often deferred to their forwards. Graves, meanwhile, carried the puck a lot in transition and the team replied by scoring more goals per minute with him on the ice (3.17) than Damon Severson (2.64) and John Marino (2.44). This is all despite the fact that he was stuck most often in the defensive zone among their blue liners (from Frozen Tools):

Over the last three seasons, Graves has a higher points/60 rate at 5-on-5 than Rasmus Andersson, Miro Heiskanen, Hampus Lindholm, Thomas Chabot, and Josh Morrissey. All in all, not bad.

Of course, there are issues. His propensity for carrying the puck means turnovers: official NHL stats have him in the 35^th percentile for giveaways per minute from a defenceman over the last two years. He isn't a great playmaker, overall, and can get running around in his end when he does allow a controlled zone entry, leading to some middling defensive metrics as a whole. That can drive a coach up the wall, but there is so much more good than bad here that it's simply a balance that needs to be found. It may not be a great addition for the Penguins goaltenders.

The largest problem, from a fantasy perspective, is the lack of power-play production. Graves has exactly zero power-play points in his career, having played behind some pretty good defencemen in Colorado and New Jersey. He has fewer than 20 minutes of total PPTOI in his career so if he does get time now, it'll be a bit out of nowhere. Even just 70-80 minutes on the second unit could give him a few points and every little bit helps for a peripheral defenceman like this. But going to a Pittsburgh team with Kris Letang and Jeff Petry puts him third, at best, for meaningful power-play time.  

Graves has been consistent across two different teams with slight variations in ice time: anywhere from 0.28 to 0.38 points per game in his last four seasons, or between 23-31 points every 82 games. This Pittsburgh team will not be better offensively than the team he's just coming from so expecting much deviation from what he's done for his career is misguided.

This signing is pretty bad news for Pierre-Olivier Joseph. With Petry, Letang, Pettersson, and Graves, the top-4 is locked until an injury hits. Defenders like Joseph and Jan Rutta may not see much of a role in 2023-24.

Who this helps

Luke Hughes

Jonas Siegenthaler

Who this hurts

Pierre-Olivier Joseph

Jan Rutta