The New Jersey Devils were the most talked about franchise of the summer, but offseason hype doesn’t always produce in-season results. Is this team more than just hype?
On July 29th, the New Jersey Devils made their latest move of an intense offseason. They traded draft picks to the Vegas Golden Knights for reigning KHL MVP Nikita Gusev. Since 2010, three players have won the KHL MVP: Gusev, Sergei Mozyakin and Alexander Radulov. If Gusev can produce the same output as Radulov, just about everyone would be through the roof with excitement (he had 72 points in each of the last two seasons.
Add the Gusev trade in with the additions of Jack Hughes, P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds, along with the return of former NHL MVP Taylor Hall and the hype train has been nonstop. Literally, everyday we get a Subban update on what he’s doing with Lindsey Vonn. There’s a piece on Jesper Boqvist and why he might break out as a star at least once a week. The point is, there’s a ton of hype surrounding the Devils.
Well, one national writer Ryan Lambert isn’t feeling the hype. Lambert is with Yahoo Sports and is best known for his cohorts with famed Devils fan and ESPN writer Greg Wyshynski. He often puts out good pieces, and he made some good points in this piece. However, some of his points could be argued they aren’t as big a deal as they seem.
Sure, the goalie situation was dire last year, and he rightly said the Devils are better by just not having Keith Kinkaid around. There are questions surrounding Cory Schneider and Mackenzie Blackwood, but there’s literally always questions surrounding young goalies. We don’t hear this nearly as much for Carter Hart, despite him and Blackwood having similar numbers.
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He also missed the one thing that might tear this all down from the inside; Taylor Hall’s contract situation. This Devils team is adding a ton of new pieces who need to gel. How will it feel if win or lose they have to answer questions about Hall’s contract situation? Plus, thanks to the hype and Hall’s situation, we expect more reporters than usual in the locker room.
So, let’s take his premise on the surface. Are the Devils more hype than substance at this point?
Well, the cheap answer is to say yes and no. We will try not to be cheap and give it to you straight. The Devils have all the pieces in place to be a really good team, but there are issues that could arise.
They are relying on A LOT of players with past injury issues. Travis Zajac is a guy who’s had multiple major injuries, and it would be hard to replace his role on the team (especially in the faceoff dot). We all know about Hall and him missing 49 games last season. Who knows how he’ll look on his newly fixed knee. Nico Hischier was also hurt multiple times last season. Then there’s Subban who was clearly off last season. We think that was due to injury, but can he avoid it this season?
Then, there’s that whole chemistry thing we keep talking about. We know that Gusev is trying to learn English, but we saw the issues that some Russians may have with Egor Yakovlev last season. The language barrier was just a killer for him. How can Gusev do with an American and a Swede (assuming it ends up being Jesper Bratt)?
Plus, there’s a question about what to do with the defense. No matter what, there will be lines that have never really played much together. Will Butcher was used to playing with a defensive-minded guy in Ben Lovejoy, who was traded at the deadline. Andy Greene and Sami Vatenen played time together, but we can’t see them doing that again because they’re needed elsewhere. The Devils are weaker on the left side, so they will likely move Vatanen there. Then, we should see Butcher and Damon Severson paired, making it two offensive-minded guys together. Add in a rookie and Ty Smith, and it will need time to gel.
There’s a lot that can go wrong, but which team doesn’t have that same situation? The New York Rangers need like six prospects to work out to have a good season. The Washington Capitals need Alex Ovechkin to keep playing like he’s 25 (which he probably will because Russian vodka or something). Pittsburgh is in a world of hurt, and they are relying on otherworldly seasons from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. We could go on, but you get the point.
The Devils are “overhyped”, but for good reason. This is a good hockey team on paper. That’s all we have right now because we’re still about two months from actual NHL hockey. However, Ray Shero has done a masterful job of putting this team together. This should be a playoff team, but they still need to play the games. Lambert isn’t completely wrong. We like it better when people doubt us anyway.