<\/p>\n
LAST SEASON<\/p>\n
It was a tale of two seasons for the New Jersey Devils<\/a> of 2024-25. Before Jacob Markstrom hurt his knee during a collision with a then-Boston Bruins<\/a> forward Justin Brazeau on Jan. 22, the Devils had the eighth-most points in the NHL. Markstrom, former Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> bench boss Sheldon Keefe, and perhaps the deepest blueline in the Eastern Conference had helped steer Jersey to the league\u2019s fifth-best defense (2.50 team GAA) through 50 games.<\/p>\n The Devils sputtered to a 6-5 mark during Markstrom\u2019s month-long absence before the wheels fell off completely during the veteran goalie\u2019s first game back. Star centerman Jack Hughes slid hard into the boards during that March 2 bout with Vegas, busting his shoulder and ending his season. Without Hughes to prop up their nonexistent scoring depth, and with Markstrom unable to regain his pre-injury form at the other end of the ice, the Devils picked up just 19 points from their remaining 20 games.<\/p>\n New Jersey\u2019s anemic form without Hughes (9th-worst PTS% after 3\/2) was good enough to limp to a 91-point finish and third-place in the wretched \u2018Metro,\u2019 the NHL\u2019s weakest division. The injury-ravaged Devils, who lost Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon to injury in Game 1, fought valiantly but futilely over five games and four overtime periods, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Devils still have a promising core in the brothers Hughes, Swedish playmaker Jesper Bratt, captain Nico Hischier, and a host of standout D-men. They just need to stay healthy, but then again, we said the same thing last offseason. Will bad luck continue to derail the Devils\u2019 future, which looked so promising after 112 points and a series win in 2022-23?<\/p>\n KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES<\/p>\n Additions<\/p>\n Arseni Gritsyuk, LW Departures<\/p>\n Erik Haula, C (Nsh) OFFENSE<\/p>\n New Jersey finished 13th in scoring despite a dreadful second half (2.63 G\/GP, third-worst), evidence of a dangerous attack before the season went haywire. Much of the Devils\u2019 early effectiveness was built on the chemistry between the elder Hughes, who uses his blistering speed to create a high volume of chances (4 shots per game since 2022, fifth-most in NHL), and Bratt, a silky playmaker who led the team in points (88) and finished fifth overall in helpers (67).<\/p>\n Brawny Swiss forwards Hischier and Timo Meier anchor the second unit. Hischier, a former first-overall pick like Jack Hughes, is a tireless grinder and elite faceoff man (54.6% since 2020) who has quietly become a steady 30-goal scorer. His countryman Meier is also a handful (26 G, 141 hits), and has controlled more than 57% of scoring chances during his ice time with Hischier since coming over from San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately for New Jersey, the list of impact forwards ended there. Netfront grinder Stefan Noesen\u2019s career-best offensive numbers were a bit misleading: 16 of his 22 goals came before Christmas. Ondrej Palat showed some flashes in the playoffs on the Hischier line, but doesn\u2019t have much left from his glory days in Tampa (34 P per 82 GP for NJ). There are six million reasons he\u2019ll get at least one more kick at the can in the top nine.<\/p>\n Fitzgerald spent his summer targeting depth guys who will give speedy third-line center Dawson Mercer something to work with, even if they don\u2019t shake up the top six. Connor Brown can skate and kill penalties even when the points aren\u2019t there, while 36-year-old Evgenii Dadonov doesn\u2019t need much ice time (13:32 ATOI) to fill up the score sheet (20 G, 40 P). The duo looks a lot more promising than anything the Devils had in the bottom six last season, though Jersey fans know better than most how quickly veterans can go bad; Tomas Tatar and Erik Haula were fine until they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n On the blueline, Dougie Hamilton is eager to show he\u2019s still one of the most dangerous power-play QBs in the sport after injuries limited him to 84 games (14 G, 56 P) over the past two seasons. Luke Hughes (49 P per 82 GP), meanwhile, will push hard to unseat the veteran as the team\u2019s top offensive puck mover.<\/p>\n DEFENSE<\/p>\n If the Devils\u2019 blueline looks formidable in the lineup our graphics team put together, remember to factor in big Johnathan Kovacevic, a gritty stay-at-home defenseman who will spend the first few months of his new contract recovering from offseason knee surgery. Even without his surprise breakout player of 2024-25, Sheldon Keefe is loaded for bear along the back line.\u00a0<\/p>\n Luke Hughes made huge strides on defense in his first season for Keefe, using his elite recovery speed (97th percentile in top speed among D, 98th in 20 mph+ bursts) to break up plays in transition. Hughes\u2019s veteran partner Brett Pesce stood out as a warrior in the futile playoff effort against his old team (18 blocks in 5 GP), but he does his best defending when he\u2019s denying the zone and getting pucks out quickly. The burgeoning pairing came on down the stretch even as the team struggled and will enter next season as the top unit for NJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n Injuries ended Hamilton\u2019s days as top dog on Jersey\u2019s blueline (19:51 ATOI, lowest since 2019), but he still has plenty of utility as a top-four puckmover and power-play ace. Brenden Dillon, a veteran blueline enforcer who skated with Hamilton in all 64 of his regular season appearances, did well babysitting Hamilton on defense, where his occasional gaffes are almost as famous as his devastating one timer. The pairing won its minutes 43-33 with solid metrics and should stick together.\u00a0<\/p>\n That leaves Jonas Siegenthaler, who spent last season across from Kovacevic, to team up with former No. 2 pick Simon Nemec. Nemec played the best hockey of his career during a three-game postseason cameo (2 P, +2, 20:40 ATOI), a level the organization is desperate to see more of. Siegenthaler suffers frequent injuries due to his fearless play (52 missed games since 2023), but his steady game (55.77% expected-goal share, best among Devils\u2019 D) should help Nemec unlock his potential. If the mercurial 24-year-old can\u2019t do that before Kovacevic returns, he\u2019s coming to a Daily Faceoff trade board near you.<\/p>\n The Devils will get extra defense up front from Palat, Brown, and, of course, Hischier, a two-time top-four finisher for the Selke Trophy as the NHL\u2019s top two-way forward. A major cog in New Jersey\u2019s second-ranked PK (82.7%), Hischier will win the thing one day if Aleksander Barkov ever takes a year off.<\/p>\n GOALTENDING<\/p>\n It\u2019s not fair to judge Markstrom by his year-end stats (.900 SV%), which downplay a successful first season in the Garden State for the 35-year-old. Markstrom came as advertised before his knee injury, stabilizing the Prudential Center crease with his rare combination of size and post-to-post explosiveness (2.20 GAA, .912 SV% before 1\/23). When the veteran rushed back into action to help his floundering club reach the playoffs, he ended up doing more harm than good (5-7-1, .869 SV% after 3\/1). There was some thought that \u2018Marky\u2019 could lose the crease to platoonmate Jake Allen for the Carolina series. Instead, the Swede turned it around to the tune of a .911 SV% and put his injury woes firmly in the rearview. Markstrom is Jersey\u2019s unquestioned opening night starter, and a high-end one at that.<\/p>\n Allen was much better than his 13-16-1 record showed, and was slated to become the top free agent goalie in a bear market. Instead, the former St. Louis Blue preferred to stay put with a five-year contract that will last the remainder of his 30s. The bargain $1.8-million AAV and bizarre length reek of cap circumvention, but maybe the Devils really think Allen can last that long. They know he can deal with a backup\u2019s workload (2.66 GAA, .906 SV% in 31 GP), and, with just one 40-start season since 2019, Allen has fewer hard miles on him than the average 35-year-old netminder.<\/p>\n COACHING<\/p>\n Keefe\u2019s first year as an NHL bench boss outside of the Toronto media cauldron had many of the hallmarks of his time with the Leafs. They finished in the top five of most major puck control stats throughout Keefe\u2019s tenure, and the Devils quickly jumped into the top 10 in expected-goal and (51.38%) scoring-chance share (52.33%) under his tutelage.<\/p>\n There were other, less favorable parallels with Keefe\u2019s stint in Toronto, where his teams became synonymous with collapses. In Keefe\u2019s maiden voyage in New Jersey, there weren\u2019t any flubbed Game 7s, but the Devils nonetheless seemed to lose heart when the going got tough, even before Jack Hughes went down. If anything, their slow death in the second half of the season (18-19-4) was more damning than any one ill-timed loss of focus. To Keefe and his men\u2019s credit, they didn\u2019t roll over against Carolina despite countless injuries.<\/p>\n Intangible questions will persist for this team until they cash in on their major talent and go on a deep run (sound familiar?), but the X\u2019s and O\u2019s concepts were strong: both special teams finished in the top three. That made it surprising when Keefe and Fitzgerald moved on from defensive assistant Ryan McGill. In his place comes Brad Shaw, who worked wonders on the Flyers\u2019 talent-deficient blueline over three seasons and was disappointed to miss out on the top job in Philly.\u00a0<\/p>\n ROOKIES<\/p>\n The Devils don\u2019t pump out Calder candidates like they used to, but they\u2019ll still have at least one pro prospect to watch at either end of the ice. On offense, winger Arseny Gritsyuk, a fifth-rounder from back in 2019, signed over the summer after a lengthy and productive KHL stint (68 G, 152 P in 216 GP). A 5\u201910 175-pounder, Gritsyuk is a classic example of a top-six-or-bust option. The Russian has little chance of sticking in a checking role, and will apparently only suffer an AHL assignment in Utica for \u201ctwo, maybe three months at most<\/a>.\u201d You can\u2019t knock his confidence.<\/p>\n On the blueline, Seamus Casey has managed to avoid handing out ultimatums and looks like a future weapon on the power-play as a slick, undersized puckmover. Casey scored four goals and eight points in nonexistent ice time (12:39 ATOI) during his 12-game NHL cameo last season. Casey has only 42 pro games under his belt and can be stashed in Utica for a while longer. He might have to do some waiting there; Pesce, Hamilton, Kovacevic, and Nemec are the righties ahead of him on the depth chart.<\/p>\n BURNING QUESTIONS<\/p>\n 1. What (or where) comes next for Dougie Hamilton? Nabbing Hamilton in free agency was a watershed moment for the Devils, an announcement that they were serious about getting out of the basement. Fast forward four years, and Hamilton\u2019s $9-million cap hit doesn\u2019t make quite as much sense for the club as it used to, especially as RFA Luke Hughes remains unsigned ahead of camp. With Nemec waiting in the wings and Hughes seemingly ready to take over the power play, New Jersey is one of the few teams that could stand to part with a right-sided player of Hamilton\u2019s caliber. Is there a club out there that needs blue linehelp, is willing to dangle a top-six forward, and isn\u2019t on Hamilton\u2019s 10-team no-trade list? It doesn\u2019t look that way for now, but Fitzgerald has gotten creative before.<\/p>\n 2. Is Jack Hughes going to be OK at center? The quick and easy answer is \u201cof course.\u201d Hughes is a center, and a darn good one. Much of his explosive transition offense comes from bombing up the middle of the ice in a way that isn\u2019t possible for outside players. The counterpoint is that the beating the rail-thin Hughes takes up the middle might slowly strip away that explosiveness. He\u2019s missed 20 games to injury in each of the past two seasons, and his (still impressive) scoring returns have dwindled from 104.1 P\/82 GP in 2021-22, to 97.87 in 2023-24, to 92.58 last season. Hughes was picked first in 2020 to be a franchise center, but would he be more valuable as a healthy, elite winger? It\u2019s not like Keefe would miss his faceoff acumen (career 36 FO%).<\/p>\n 3. Is this core good enough to win? Jack Hughes is a special talent. Hischier is the sort of winning player scouts are always trying to unearth. Bratt has gone from a good top-six winger to an elite top-line point producer. The fact that they\u2019re all 26 or younger should make it much easier for Jersey\u2019s ceiling to reach a championship level, but the roster construction is shaky in other places. Palat\u2019s contract is an anchor. Meier was brought in and paid $8.8 million AAV to be an elite goalscorer, and he\u2019s merely a solid second-line winger. Hamilton is arguably surplus to requirements as the team\u2019s top earner ($9-million AAV). Both goalies are 35, and Markstrom needs a new deal. Fitzgerald has never come under serious pressure from the fanbase, but is it possible that he tried to force open a contention window with the wrong players? The homegrown stars look great, but the outside help has hardly been a home run.<\/p>\n PREDICTION<\/p>\n The Devils\u2019 fans don\u2019t dare assume they\u2019ll have an injury-free season, but I have to if I\u2019m going to predict where they\u2019ll end up. In a top-heavy Metropolitan Division, a strong top six and an impressive blue line will be more than enough to hold serve in the automatic spots. A top-two berth (division crown?) should be attainable too; the Washington Capitals <\/a>can\u2019t rely on outlier individual seasons forever. The real litmus test will be the smothering Hurricanes at the end of the \u2018Metro\u2019 bracket.<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n POST SPONSORED BY bet365<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n Recently by Anthony Trudeau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAST SEASON It was a tale of two seasons for the New Jersey Devils of 2024-25. 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Connor Brown, RW
Evgenii Dadonov, RW
Kevin Rooney, C (PTO)
Luke Glendening, C (PTO)<\/p>\n
Tomas Tatar, RW (Swi.)
Brian Dumoulin, D (LA)
Curtis Lazar, C (Edm)
Justin Dowling, C (NYR)
Nathan Bastian, RW (Dal)<\/p>\n