Projecting the New Jersey Devils 2018 Opening Night Roster

The Devils have two preseason games left, one in Winnipeg, and one in Switzerland before opening in Sweden against the Oilers. There are players who have no question made this roster, and with Miles Wood signing I’m projecting there are three forward spots open.

Defensively, there are four locks and then a wide open competition for the bottom pairing/7^th defenseman.

When it comes to goaltending, we know Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid are the tandem moving forward with Eddie Lack filling in if Schneider isn’t ready for the opener.

Forwards

The Locks

Taylor Hall–Nico Hischier–Kyle Palmieri

Miles Wood-Pavel Zacha–Marcus Johansson

Blake Coleman–Travis Zajac–Stefan Noesen

Brian Boyle–Jesper Bratt

That’s 11 forwards with Bratt a roster lock, but not an opening day lineup lock. While pushing Palmieri down with Zacha-Mojo should theoretically provide the secondary scoring the Devils need, Zacha-Palmieri haven’t consistently shown the chemistry needed to generate offense while the Hall-Nico-Palms trio has made it essentially impossible to break them up.

Going back to 2017-18, Zacha and Palmieri posted a CF% of 47.44 when on the ice together and both saw their CF%’s jump to 49 when separated.

In the 2018-19 preseason, the two posted a CF% of 39.13 in their 11 minutes together and Zacha was an even 50% in his 10 minutes away from Palmieri.

I’m expecting we’ll get to see Zacha and Wood paired together in Winnipeg as Wood makes his first preseason appearance.

Wood and Zacha were great together last year with the duo posting a CF% of 51.21 in 370 minutes at 5v5.

Here’s the top six

Hall-Hischier-Palmieri

Wood-Zacha-Johansson

My preference is that Miles Wood plays with Johansson and Zacha, but it’s entirely possible that Jesper Bratt gets a look there first. He will certainly be on a short leash. If Wood works his way into the top six, then Johansson likely slides out to his off wing and if Bratt stays in the top six, Mojo will stick at LW. Either way, both Bratt and Wood are roster locks but where they fit in this lineup is still unknown.

The Bottom Six

There hasn’t been much consistency in the preseason for Coleman, Zajac, and Noesen, but I’d expect those three stick together as line 2B for the opener. They were great towards the end of the season and there’s no reason to break them up to start this season.

Coleman-Zajac-Noesen

The 4^th Line

This is where it gets interesting. You can lock Brian Boyle in as the center and one of Bratt/Wood will be on his wing most likely. My personal pick at this point is Brett Seney.

Seney has been phenomenal in the preseason, can play center or wing, and has shown chemistry with Jesper Bratt. While Seney and Bratt combine to form an undersized 4^th line, their speed should create mismatches.

Seney-Boyle-Bratt

Picking extra forwards gets a little trickier. I realistically think the Devils keep Drew Stafford again this year. It’s better to have Stafford sitting in the press box than a prospect. Doing so won’t hinder a young player’s development and Stafford can jump into the lineup anywhere in the bottom 9 if necessary.

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Nick Lappin makes sense for a few reasons. He’s a righty, something the Devils are short on with two lefties playing on their off wing in this projected lineup. He’s also scored a ton in the AHL the past two years. Finally, he would have to pass through waivers to go down to Binghamton. Keeping Lappin up to start the year doesn’t stunt his development and the Devils don’t risk losing him in waivers.

On the bubble but headed to Binghamton

John Quenneville, Michael McLeod, and Joey Anderson all could still make this roster, but it seems more likely they’ll start the year as the first line in Binghamton. Quenneville hasn’t shown much to say he deserves a spot on this roster and McLeod definitely needs a year of top six minutes in the AHL.

Anderson could still make this team and with the need for RW’s on this roster I wouldn’t be overly surprised if he did. However, given Seney’s performance and versatility I’m expecting Anderson will get sent down initially.

The Defense

The pairings are a little harder to predict than the forward lines were, but here are the locks.

Sami Vatanen, Damon Severson, Will Butcher, Andy Greene.

Ben Lovejoy and Steve Santini are competing for that 3^rd pair spot. Santini has had a great showing so far in the preseason. I wouldn’t be surprised if he started the year in the lineup and was given every opportunity to keep his spot. With that said, it may depend on what happens on the left side.

Yegor Yakovlev, Mirco Mueller, and Ty Smith are competing for the final LD spot. I don’t expect the Devils will keep 8 defensemen so sending Ty Smith down to the CHL makes sense. However, he certainly isn’t making it easy.

My ideal Devils defensive pairings are:

Butcher-Vatanen

Greene-Severson

Smith-Lovejoy

Mueller

Santini and Yakovlev sent down and playing together on the first pair in Binghamton. If Smith doesn’t stay up past 9 games, which it wouldn’t seem likely he does, Yakovlev can get called up and he and Mueller can compete for 3^rd pair time.

It makes sense for Yakovlev to start the year in Binghamton similar to what we saw with Vegas and Vadim Shipachyov last year given his waiver eligibility. Yakovlev doesn’t have to pass through waivers until he’s played ONE game, so sending him down for the first 10 games makes a ton of sense. Factoring in waivers and Yakovlev’s preseason performance, it seems likely he’ll start in the AHL.

The Devils may also not want to risk losing Santini in waivers and may just decide to send Smith down right away and keep use the trio of Lovejoy, Mueller, and Santini on the third pairing.

Now we can move on from my ideal pairings and look at the realistic pairings.

Butcher-Vatanen

Greene-Severson

Mueller-Lovejoy

Santini

Smith goes to the CHL and Yakovlev starts in the AHL.

Goaltending

There’s not much to project here. When Schneider is healthy he’s the starter. If he’s not healthy, Kinkaid starts and Lack backs up. It’s that simple. If Schneider doesn’t start the year on the IR it may impact the amount of forwards the Devils carry and in that case I would expect they wait to sign Stafford until after Schneider is activated and Lack is sent down.

Here’s my initial projected roster

Hall-Hischier-Palmieri

Wood-Zacha-Johansson

Coleman-Zajac-Noesen

Seney-Boyle-Bratt

Butcher-Vatanen

Greene-Severson

Mueller-Lovejoy

Kinkaid

Lack

Extras: Stafford, Lappin, Santini

All advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick.

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