New Jersey Devils: Great Expectations For Each Position

Right Wing depth this season has a lot more emphasis on skill, grit, speed, the power play, penalty kill, and the ability to reach the dirty areas. With guys like Kyle Palmieri, Wayne Simmonds, Blake Coleman, and John Hayden around, this further diversifies John Hynes’ lineup on the right side.

Palmieri is never afraid to skate in with Taylor Hall or Nico Hischier on an odd-man rush to create a clutch scoring moment. Wayne Simmonds may not be “flee of foot”, but he can still do well on zone entries. His best asset is parking himself at the top of the goalies crease, getting under the skin of defenders physically, and verbally. Simmonds is the kind of guy who will take the physical abuse vs. a team like the New York Rangers and do the “just tap it in” type goal Happy Gilmore would be proud of.

Blake Coleman is a wonderful mix of power forward, solid shooter, penalty killer, and short-handed goal specialist. He is one of the most underrated right wings. He can serve in many situations for John Hynes. If he can play with Zacha or Zajac very well throughout the season with Miles Wood on his left flank, this would create tons of havoc on many opposing teams.

John Hayden is a physical “pork roll egg and cheese” type player who brings his lunch pale to work, and gets in the hard nosed areas. If I had to think of him as a player from Don Cherry‘s time it would be “Battle Ship Kelly” from The Wrath of Grapes: A Don Cherry Story where Don coaches a mean, lean enforcer to park himself in front of the net to intimidate the opposing defenses.

This is also the kind of guy who will make Devils fans roar to the tune of “Down With The Sickness” by Disturbed if a fight between him and maybe Brendan Lemieux of The Rangers were to occur.