How they make playoffs<\/p>\n
Improved health must be the foundation. That is especially true for Jack Hughes<\/a>, whose availability dramatically affects the team’s offensive ceiling. Hughes missed 21 games last season and 25 in 2024-25 (20 regular-season, five playoff games) following shoulder surgery. He has played more than 62 regular-season games only once (78 in 2022-23) since entering the NHL in 2019-20. The Devils also must produce more secondary scoring beyond Hughes, Nico Hischier<\/a> and Jesper Bratt<\/a>. Their middle-six forwards need to make opponents pay for focusing their best defensive players on New Jersey’s stars. Timely offense from the defense and power play would also ease that burden.<\/p>\n Most intriguing addition<\/p>\n It’ll be interesting to see if right wing Anthony Mantha<\/a>, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million ($4.75 average annual value) contract July 15, can build upon last season. The 32-year-old (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) adds size, finishing ability and experience to a forward group that needs more scoring beyond its top players. Mantha is coming off a season when he had an NHL career high in points (64), goals (33) and assists (31) in 81 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins. His 33 goals would have led New Jersey last season. As a left-shot right wing, Mantha can complement the speed and playmaking of New Jersey’s skilled centers while providing a strong net-front presence. He scored seven power-play goals last season and can use his size to create screens, win battles around the crease and finish chances near the net.<\/p>\n Biggest potential surprise<\/p>\n Luke Evangelista<\/a> could emerge because his production may climb significantly in a faster, more talented offensive environment. The 24-year-old, acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators on Sept. 1 for a conditional first-round pick and a second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, established NHL career highs with 44 assists and 56 points in 81 games for the Predators last season, including 16 power-play assists. He’s already a gifted playmaker, but his 12 goals indicate additional upside if he becomes more assertive as a shooter. Playing alongside finishers such as Hischier, Bratt, Jack Hughes or Timo Meier<\/a>\u00a0could maximize his vision and creativity. The right wing also addresses New Jersey\u2019s need for secondary offense after it averaged only 2.76 goals per game last season, sixth lowest in the NHL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How they make playoffs Improved health must be the foundation. That is especially true for Jack Hughes, whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-897714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}