NJ Devils Future
The New Jersey Devils have been my favorite hockey team my whole life but have not been good the past couple of seasons. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2018 playing against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, loosing 4 games to 1. Right now we have a lot of young talent that just needs to develop chemistry and grow together as a team to get back to the post season.
Despite not signing Johnny Guadreau in the offseason, we recently signed forward Ondrej Palat from the Lightning on a 5 year deal which I know will help us tremendously with all the post season experience he has under his belt and especially winning back back Stanley Cups, the 31-year-old forward had 49 points (18 goals, 31 assists) in 77 regular-season games and 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in 23 Stanley Cup Playoff games last season for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he will definitely guide our young core guys in the right direction. That was definitely the biggest offseason signing for us. Matthew Tkachuk was recently in conversation about signing with the Devils but they had to assess whether we had the available cap space and capital to acquire and sign him in the long term, but he just got traded to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau in a blockbuster trade. You win some you lose some.
We also signed defenseman Brenden Smith on a 2 year deal, defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon, and three forwards- Mason Geertsen, Jack Dugan, Brian Pinho- to two-way contracts. Vanecek signs three-year contract with Devils and also avoids arbitration hearing, we needed a goalie so hopefully he will help us. The last signing was Jesper Boqvist resigning a one year deal, accepting the qualifying offer with the team. We are still waiting on free agent Jesper Bratt to resign with us as he is a valuable asset to our team. Also if we are going to resign defenseman P.K Subban or trade him or let him sign elsewhere.
We are still looking at Jack Hughes to be our star player being the first overall pick in the 2019 NHL draft at the center position. He’s a great goal scorer and sets up his teammates beautifully. This past season he had 26 goals and 30 assists with 56 points in 49 games. He has great puck handling skills as well as great vision of the whole ice so he can anticipate the plays that are happening. Having Defenseman Dougie Hamilton on the squad is extremely beneficial, he’s a great defenseman that gives us size and skill. He had 9 goals and 21 assists with 30 points in 62 games this past season.
Overall, we have the potential to be a great team, we have everything including young and developing talent in Hughes and Hischier and post season experience in veterans Palat and Tatar. We just need a good coaching staff what will lead us back to the post-season where we belong for sure.
