The New Jersey Devils made major adjustments this offseason, and will now be a contender in this league. Let’s go position by position to see how the new additions help this team overall.
The New Jersey Devils were one of the worst teams in the entire league last season. They ended the year third to last, but then the team general manager made sure that’s not going to happen again.
Depth down the left side has been a missing ingredient that Shero needed to bolster after recent Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall missed a majority of the season with an injury. With the Devils lackluster offensive firepower, Coach John Hynes had to juggle guys like Jesper Bratt, and Miles Wood up and down looking to find consistency and chemistry.
This time around, the Devils have Taylor Hall under contract for one more season, and a new addition in Nikita Gusev anchoring the 2nd line. Gusev could potentially be Jack Hughes’ go to guy for sniping pucks in the offensive zone. With this kind of depth on the left wing, Hall should focus on playing his game, and let Nikita pull his end of the left wing scoring to take the pressure of Taylor.
With Miles Wood and possibly Brett Seney or Nathan Bastian anchoring the left wing this is a perfect problem for John Hynes and staff to keep a close watch in pre-season games because if these guys compete internally before and during the season this will make Hynes’ job a lot harder to bench these really skilled, very strong, fast, and solid scoring wingers via this 82 game calendar.