New Jersey Devils top 3 areas of much-needed improvement
How the Devils can get back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2024-25
Devils fans, keep an eye out for my 2024-25 New Jersey Devils season preview in The Hockey News magazine later this summer!
You don’t have to look far to see just how disappointing the 2023-24 New Jersey Devils season was.
After finishing one point out of the top spot in the Metropolitan Division in 2022-23, the Devils took a major step back last season. They finished the campaign 38-39-5, 14 wins shy of the previous mark, and only higher than the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metro standings. Their plus-65 goal differential which ranked third in the NHL in 2022-23 dropped all the way to a minus-19 (23rd).
Sure, there were plenty of reasons for this drop-off. Huge injuries to Dougie Hamilton and Jack Hughes certainly didn’t help. But we are not here to dwell anymore on the past.
Instead, we are here today to look at exactly how the Devils can find themselves back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2024-25. And despite their underachieving 2023-24 season, many already do believe New Jersey is once again worthy of ‘Stanley Cup contender’ status next season. Vegas has them tied for 4th with +1300 odds to win the whole thing.
Here are three simple ways they can get there:
#1 Okay goaltending
Obvious, right? But the Devils were that bad in the net last season that I need to reiterate it one more time.
Vitek Vanecek was believed to be the answer after an excellent 2022-23 season. But when given the keys and the chance to prove himself their long-term solution, he hit a huge decline.
Vanecek really struggled to start 2023-24, and after going 17-9-3 with a .890 save percentage, New Jersey dealt him to the San Jose Sharks at the deadline for Kaapo Kahkonen.
The same can be said for youngster Akira Schmid, who did not even get a shot in the NHL last season due to his struggles in the American Hockey League. Schmid was quickly transitioned from the future in Jersey to a trade piece at the Draft and now, a 24-year-old free agent.
New Jersey finished with a team .890 save percentage and finished 26th, allowing 3.43 goals per game.
The Devils looked to have solved their goaltending woes for the near future with the acquisition of veterans Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames and Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens.
Here is how they should help the Devils right out of the gates:
“Markstrom has two years left on his deal, and with Calgary retaining about 30 percent of his salary, carries an estimated $4 million cap hit in New Jersey. The 34-year-old has shown his ability to play among the elite netminders in the NHL…
Since his best years in Vancouver, Markstrom has been up and down in Calgary. He was okay in his first year (.904), excellent in his second (.922), not good in his third (.892) and decent again in 2023-24 (.905). But his career .909 save percentage and 2.73 goals-against average should be a huge improvement and he has a lot to prove, finally back on a team with a real shot at winning…
Allen provides good enough numbers to give Markstrom a rest and potentially create a 1A/1B type split.”
#2 Fixing the slow starts… like, the slowest ever
If you are a Devils fan, you likely found yourself asking this question at least a dozen times last season:
“They allowed the first goal again?”
And the answer was probably yes.
58 times the Devils allowed the first goal in 2023-24. 58 out of 82 regular-season games. That tied an NHL record. And they were unsurprisingly dead last with only 25 games scoring the first goal. That was five fewer than the Anaheim Ducks (31st). For reference, the Vancouver Canucks scored first 53 times.
When allowing the first goal, only three teams were able to win more than 50 percent of the time last season (New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche). The Devils finished a respectable 10th with a win percentage of .386 when trailing first.
When scoring first, only four teams finished with a win percentage under 50 percent (Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks).
The NHL is a tough enough league to begin with. The parity is tremendous and each season brings new teams into the limelight. You cannot afford to start 70 percent of your games down a goal! No team is going to make the playoffs with those numbers.
I expect new coach Sheldon Keefe and his staff to be all over this, and I fully anticipate the Devils coming out hot from puck drop most nights.
#3 What’s up, shorty?
Special teams were not great last season. At even strength, the Devils finished in the top 10 in both goals for (177-9th) and goals against (185-7th).
Pretty simple equation here… If you finish top 10 in goals for and goals against when playing 5 on 5, but finish 23rd in goal differential and overall in the NHL standings, the problem lies elsewhere. And while the Devils’ special teams were far from awful, they were not good enough either.
New Jersey’s power play stayed consistent from the previous season, finishing 13th at 22.5 percent. Their penalty kill took a bigger hit, dropping from 4th to 10th.
The good news for the Devils is that both should see huge improvements simply with the return of Jack Hughes and Hamilton. With those key players, both units should get a boost. They also added some key pieces who should help out on either side (Brett Pesce, Paul Cotter, Stefan Noesen, Brenden Dillon).
But what really struck me most was that NJ was tied for last with just three short-handed goals all season. With the elite skill they can throw over the boards (Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer, Erik Haula, Hamilton, Jack and Luke Hughes and Ondrej Palat), that needs to be so much better.
How many times could the Devils have used a momentum-swinging shorty? Imagine what it could have done for them, especially in all of those games in which they allowed the first goal. I certainly think their poor 17-21-3 home record would look a lot different. Get The Rock going with a short-handed goal and keep the ball rolling from there.
Something like this:
If New Jersey can improve, even slightly, in each of these three areas, they should be in the playoff hunt. If they can get near Markstrom’s best, score first in half their games and re-establish strong special teams, they should solidify themselves again as a legitimate contender and push the 2023-24 season memories deeper down into the garbage of history.