The New Jersey Devils begin the unofficial second half of the season on Monday night.
Let’s take a look at five of the bigger questions surrounding the team as we head towards the trade deadline and the stretch run of the season.
1. How far will the Devils go? They are 20 points out of a playoff spot. As such, they’re bound to be sellers at this year’s trade deadline. To what extent is the question.
Are we talking Wayne Simmonds (I know he’d prefer to stay but he has no trade protection), Andy Greene (perhaps he’d like to play for a contender) and, potentially, Sami Vatanen (seems smart to sell high in a shallow defense market), or are we really digging deep?
Kyle Palmieri and Blake Coleman are both heading for big raises next year and will be on the wrong side of 30 for the entirety of their contracts. Depending on who is in charge, and the direction the team is heading in, it might make sense to seriously consider a move if quality offers are tabled.
This is something that could wait until the off-season when the team has a full-time GM in place, although getting two playoff runs from a player like Palmieri would obviously make a team more enticed to pay up.
2. How hard will the Devils ride Mackenzie Blackwood? It feels like the guy never gets a game off. On one hand the reps, and grind of taking on a true No. 1 role, is probably good for his development. On the other he’s being worked into the ground to a borderline ridiculous extent.
With the way Blackwood is playing, he could be the difference in the Devils selecting a couple slots lower than they otherwise would if Louis Domingue and/or Cory Schneider picked up some extra starts.
I think Blackwood has earned a fair bit of work but I’d like to see him get more rest down the stretch. Will Alain Nasreddine, coaching for his job, oblige? I’m skeptical.
3. When will we see the kids? Things are going well for Binghamton right now. Really well, in fact. They’ve won three in a row, eight out of 10, and have clawed their way back into the playoff race.
It’s a lot of the young players driving the bus, too. Joey Anderson is an AHL All-Star. Nick Merkley has 12 points in 15 games since being acquired in the Taylor Hall trade. Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian are playing important roles as well.
The Devils regularly dress some low-ceiling role players with limited futures in New Jersey (Kevin Rooney and John Hayden come to mind).
When will those minutes go to some prospects, or will the Devils simply keep the kids in the AHL and see how far they can take the Baby Devs?
4. Can Jack Hughes get going offensively? I think Hughes is playing better than he gets credit for, especially under less than ideal circumstances (his primary linemate this season has been a declining Wayne Simmonds, who has struggled at 5v5 for years). With that said, 11 Devils forwards have logged 400+ minutes at full-strength and none of them have fewer points than Hughes.
I think his usage – and a 3.57 shooting% – hurts but it’d still be nice to see the No. 1 overall pick find his groove offensively and end the season on a high note.
Will the coaching staff put him in a better position to succeed – perhaps some run centering Blake Coleman and Nikita Gusev would help, even if only while trailing – or will he continue to play a bottom-6 role with spare parts?
5. Will disappointments change the outlook of their futures? Pavel Zacha is a really good penalty killer. That’s legitimately the only area of the game he excels in, though. His 5v5 impact leaves a lot to be desired and he simply doesn’t produce offense. While he’s on pace for a career high in points, he is also scoring at a five goal clip over 82 games. Five goals. He was the 6th overall pick in an excellent draft class and we’re well on our way to a career low in goals – the bar wasn’t exactly high – in his 4th full season.
His coach is gone, as is the GM who drafted him and gave him a three-year contract last summer. I could see Fitzgerald, or any other potential GM hire, moving on if he doesn’t show more down the stretch.
Miles Wood scored 19 goals in 2017-18. Despite getting a billion chances around the net on a nightly basis, he has found the back of the net just 17 times over his last 111 games. You wouldn’t think he’d be able to sustain such a low finishing rate given the looks he gets but, well, it’s starting to feel like that’s the case.
This year’s Devils team is once again not very good and Wood is still struggling to carve out a big role. If he doesn’t down the stretch, he’s another guy who could be shipped out.
Will Butcher looked like a long-term core piece in Year 1. There were hiccups, and some of the offense dried up, but he still looked like someone with top-4 upside in Year 2. That hasn’t been the case this season.
The team’s defense core is anything but good, and Butcher is given a lot of offensive zone starts vs softer competition, yet he has some of the worst defensive metrics on the roster. He’s been an eye-sore more often than not as well.
If Butcher doesn’t step up and re-establish himself, he’s another player a new GM could look to move on from.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com Recent Posts Devils Q&A: On Hughes, trade deadline, the GM search and more