The New Jersey Devils ended last season with two major award winners, including the franchise’s only Hart Trophy winner. After an amazingly successful season, what players could bring home awards for the Devils this season?
Last season, the New Jersey Devils had a plethora of players who could easily win awards at the end of the season. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Will Butcher all came into the season looking like studs as rookies, and any at points during the season looked like Calder Trophy contenders. Taylor Hall was predicted by me to be a Lady Bing Trophy winner, but ended up winning the Hart Trophy as the league MVP instead. Brian Boyle was winning the Bill Masterton Trophy as long as he returned to the league at any point.
This season, however, it’s not so easy. The great rookies are now going into their second season. Ty Smith and Michael McLeod, who could have been Calder Trophy candidates with good seasons, will spend their season in different parts of the organization. There’s no obvious Masterton candidate because no hockey player has faced the type of diversity that Boyle’s cancer fight brought to this point.
That doesn’t mean the Devils are without award candidates. There are some people within the Devils organization that could easily take home hardware at the NHL Awards show next year. Let’s just hope the NHL learned its lesson and doesn’t bring a bad magician this time.
These five people could be putting the New Jersey Devils in the record books this season.