Expectations for the Devil’s Arseni Gritsyuk should be tempered – Hockey Writer – New Jersey Devils

Understandably, the hype of the New Jersey Devils fan base in Russian winger Arseni Gritsyuk is huge. For a team that often struggles to score goals in 2024-25, Grisick’s arrival provides some lights at the end of the tunnel. His one-year entry-level contract is just $925,000, giving the Devil more swing rooms during the offseason, where General Manager Tom Fitzgerald himself said: “We’re not going to come back with the same team, I can tell you because that’s not good enough.”

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Still, it wouldn’t be fair to expect Gritsyuk to release monster numbers in his first National Hockey League (NHL) season immediately. Let’s break it down.

Arseni Gritsyuk’s NHL Arrival

Last season, Gritsyuk did stand out for Ska St. Petersburg in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), scoring 44 points in 49 games – the highest point (P/GP) of each game was among the 250+ U24 skaters. However, only four U25 Russians have scored more than 34 points in their first NHL season since 2010: Artemi Panarin in 2015-16, Andrei Svechnikov in 2018-2019, Kirill Kaprizov in 2020-21 and Matvei Michkov in 2024-25.

In that first season spanning all 72 Russians, almost all Russians came out directly from the KHL, just like Gritsyuk. In fact, even if you lower the threshold above 25 points, there are still only 11 out of 72 (15.2%). The point is: finding instant success is not easy.

“You don’t know how he will react,” Fitzgerald said at the end of the season. “It’s a whole new environment. The size of the ice (and) system-wise environment will be different, but he will have a chance.”

Thankfully, for Gritsyuk, his game seems to be more suitable for the NHL than many of the players who have come here. His shooting and skating speed will certainly appear NHL caliber and are very responsible in defense. Despite limited ice time (15:37 per game), he is a team-leading plus 22.

Additionally, Gritsyuk did all this while dealing with some personal issues. Russia Export RT explained that his family was not satisfied with the time he invested in hockey, especially during the 2024 Gagarin Cup playoffs, when his daughter was not long after. He and his wife, gymnast Victoria Danilchuk, later agreed to a divorce.

“I want to be very focused on hockey. At some point, unfortunately, the family gradually disappeared,” Grisick said in an RT interview in 2024, translated into English.

For comparison, Gritsyuk is a teammate of the Montreal Canadaens’ highly regarded 2024 first-round draft pick Ivan Demidov. In 16 games less, Grisick only lost 5 points. Although Demidov was four years younger and equally limited ice time, this was still very convincing.

It is almost impossible to know exactly how Grisick’s game will translate before the game begins. But if fans can ease their expectations and hope he can successfully play six of the six, it will still be a huge win for the Devils who are desperate for deep scores.