New Jersey Devils: Kyle Palmieri Should Be Team’s All Star
The NHL introduced a new feature to the NHL All-Star Game this year, the Last Man In. While Kyle Palmieri is the New Jersey Devils representation there, he probably should have been chosen to go to the All-Star Game himself.
The NHL made their choices for the NHL All-Star Game this week. Every team is represented, and since the game is played in a three-on-three format it’s very limited who gets to go. That’s why it makes sense that Taylor Hall was the New Jersey Devils representation for the game. He is the reigning league MVP, he’s been the Devils best player and he’s in the commercial for the All-Star Game, so the league wasn’t letting him miss it.
However, he may not be the most deserving Devils player.
Kyle Palmieri has been out of his mind this season. His next game against the Vegas Golden Knights will mark the half-way point of the season for the Devils. At this point, Palmieri has 20 goals and 16 assists. Some simple math tells us he’s basically on pace for 40 goals and 72 points. Those are by far Palmieri’s career highs.
He’s been the most consistent scorer on the team. He scored seven goals in the first four games of the season, and could have easily fallen off after that. But he ended up scoring two more goals before October was over. In November, he had a down month as all Devils did, but he still lit the lamp three times. In December, he was back to a scoring machine, potting seven goals in the month.
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Palmieri hasn’t missed a game this season. That’s helping him get to those career highs in almost every category. He’s been doing without Hall in the lineup, scoring three goals in the games he’s missed. He’s helped the team step up in their best player’s absence.
This isn’t a knock on Hall. He deserves going to the All-Star Game as well. Again, he’s the team’s best player. However, as the experts like to say, the best ability is availability. Hall has now missed seven games this season. Palmieri hasn’t missed one. It’s not a ton of games, but enough for Palmieri to gain a nine-goal lead on Hall, and he only trails him by one point.
Who knows, Hall may want to rest his injured body during All-Star Weekend, and Palmieri could become the Devils All Star anyway. The game is just three weeks away, and Hall still hasn’t returned to the lineup. He missed last year’s game to injury, and that allowed Brian Boyle to take his place.
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The ideal situation is to get Palms to the game the new-fashioned way. Go out and vote for Palms as much as possible and get him to San Jose. Even if the NHL won’t release the votes so there’s no way to check if they aren’t rigging this thing, you should still vote for Palmieri! Here, I’ll make it easy for you.