The New Jersey Devils have done a lot of adding this offseason and they haven’t subtracted much. That will make it hard for certain players to crack the Opening Night roster.
The New Jersey Devils have had one of, if not the best offseason in the entire National Hockey League this summer. They have done some awesome things to their roster that makes it look like they are going to be a pretty good team in 2019-20. They used the draft, free agency, and trades to improve their team. Now, we hope it gets them into the postseason.
The thing is, all of this adding that the Devils did make it really hard to see any of the bubble guys make it out of camp on opening night. Most of the bubble guys are forwards and the Devils added multiple impact forwards this offseason. Nikita Gusev, Wayne Simmonds, and Jack Hughes take up three roster spots that were available last season.
It is hard to see guys like Joey Anderson, Nathan Bastian, and Michael McLeod making the team out of camp without any significant injuries. None of these guys were spectacular when given the opportunity last year. There were a lot of injuries at the end of the season, which gave them more opportunities. Still, they didn’t make a big impact. Now with the new guys and everyone at full health, there just might not be enough room for the bubble guys.
There are always going to be injuries that may create more opportunity for these guys, but the lineup with no injuries is pretty much set. The line combinations are not even close to set but you can say with confidence which forwards are going to be there on Opening Night. Everyone is going to compete and anything is possible, so these bubble guys need to work really hard to be on the team at some point.
There is even a rookie forward that has a really good chance at making the team, which perhaps fills that last spot in the top-12. Jesper Boqvist is the guy and he is by all accounts the Devils top forward prospect not named Jack Hughes. He is a guy who has more upside than most of the guys you would consider a bubble guy.
In previous years, the Devils had three or four bubble guys in the bottom-six which can be the difference in being a good team and a bad team. This is a good problem to have for the Devils, because they are as deep at forward as they have been in the last six years. This team has a chance to be good and compete for the playoffs so hopefully the most impactful guys make it and the injuries stay at a minimum.