Getting to Know New Devil Thomas Bordeleau

The Devils made a sneaky-good acquisition yesterday afternoon in a seemingly innocuous trade with the San Jose Sharks.

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Yesterday afternoon, it was announced that the Devils acquired 23-year-old center Thomas Bordeleau from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Shane Bowers.

Some have given a reaction of either 1) this trade is completely unimportant to the Devils and is purely an AHL deal, or 2) Bordeleau “couldn’t crack the Sharks’ roster” so he’s “invaluable” to the current Devils squad.

I’m here to argue that acquiring Bordeleau was a sneakily excellent move for both the short-term and long-term of the Devils.

The 38th overall selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft possesses more skill than most players in the league, with excellent explosiveness, superb puckhandling abilities, and a dual-threat nature to his game as a passer and shooter.

Beginning with his stride, Bordeleau generates above-average acceleration with his generally lowered stance, putting more power into each individual movement than most are capable of. As a result, he’s quite explosive — in 27 games in 2023-24, Bordeleau logged 30 speed bursts of 20+ mph, an 82-game-pace of 91, which would have been well above the NHL-average of 73.2. He uses this to his advantage in transition, where he combines that and his puckhandling chops to dance through the neutral zone with a high success rate.

As I mentioned above, Bordeleau’s puckhandling chops are top-notch. He possesses a huge collection of dekes and dangles to pull from, and he slows the game down enough with puck possession that he can outwit and outwait defenders and goaltenders with regularity.

Habitually throughout his career, Bordeleau has performed on a mostly pass-first basis, though he has developed his shot nicely over the last few years in the AHL and can firmly be considered a dual threat at this point in his career. From a playmaking standpoint, he is adaptive and creative, a combination that makes him a threat on the cycle. He can find teammates in a pinch and threads high-difficulty passes to their destinations at reasonably consistent clips. Between that and his puckhandling, he can be prone to doing too much at times, though that is something that can both be coached out and is a product of being as highly skilled as he is.

From a shooting perspective, I’m more a fan of Bordeleau’s wrist shot than anything else in his arsenal, though his one-timer can be devastating when pulled out on the man advantage. His wrister is compact and deceptive, and he can wow with his pinpoint accuracy at times. Bordeleau’s snap shot is alright — he could use to generate more power through leveraging his lower body in situations that call for it — but his wrister and occasional one-timer are impressive.

Bordeleau plays with the puck on his stick as much as he can — despite his limited NHL time, he was keen on puck dominance and operates best as the guy on the ice. For this reason, I have a tough time seeing him playin up in the lineup, especially on a team with the likes of Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, etc., who all enjoy puck dominance themselves. He should still be able to contribute in a bottom-six capacity though (even if it isn’t this upcoming campaign), and it might even make him more valuable to the team as a fourth-line center than he already potentially is — the Hockey Gods know how desperately the team needs a true puck-carrier in the bottom six.

There are some legitimate concerns over Bordeleau’s 200-foot game, in that he can be both disengaged from the defensive side of things and overaggressive — there is no middle ground thus far into his career. I prefer the latter of the two, as he does have the explosiveness to react and recover when things go awry. Most of his positive defensive impact will come by virtue of how he supports the play — he can act as a safe, surefire breakout option once the defensemen recover the puck, and supports rush opportunities the other way particularly well. When he’s on his game, and everything is firing on all cylinders for him, I’ve been impressed by Bordeleau’s stickwork in the defensive zone — he is a bit of a pickpocket. He can also be relied upon to take faceoffs, if that’s your thing, as he has consistently been one of the go-to faceoff-takers on the Barracuda in all situations.

I don’t particularly care that he’s 5’10 and 180 pounds; Bordeleau handles his physicality well. He is incessant and annoying to play against most of the time, leveraging his high IQ to position himself well in intercepting passes while on the forecheck, which is where he does most of his damage in that regard. While he won’t throw an open-ice check, he doesn’t shy away from board battles and knows that he can outmuscle his opponents when executing a power move. Power moves are a strength of his, which is particularly impressive given his frame, and he can frequently fend off defenders with one hand while carrying the puck toward the interior of the ice.

Bordeleau’s hand-eye coordination is also particularly impressive, and it mostly stems from his ability to establish himself firmly in front of the net. Even beyond his tipping and rebound ability, he’s surprisingly strong and difficult to move out of the way once he settles in. This should give him some second power-play versatility as both a netfront presence and a one-time threat from the flank.

Bordeleau should push for a legitimate role with the Devils’ main squad in 2025-26, potentially out-battling other fourth-line center options and giving the Devils the offensive juice they desperately need in the bottom six. For the low, low price of Bowers, this was a slam-dunk get from the Devils’ front office, and another notch in what has been a tidy off-season so far. I really love the adjustment and focus on integrating more speed and skill into the lineup.

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