5 Toughest Decisions New Jersey Devils Must Make This Week

The New Jersey Devils play the last two games of the preseason this week. The leaders of this wonderful franchise have a ton of major decisions to make before the start of the regular season.

Decisions, decisions. That’s what’s happening inside the Prudential Center every day after practice. The New Jersey Devils are stacked, but having a ton of talent doesn’t always lead to wins. The Edmonton Oilers couldn’t make the playoffs with Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid on the team. There needs to be more.

That’s where the coaches and the front office come in. The New Jersey Devils have Ray Shero, John Hynes and a bunch of really talented front office pieces to make these decisions. We’re just a little over a week away from the start of the regular season. These decisions are coming this week.

The Devils already made a bunch of decisions on Sunday. They cut 20 players from their training camp roster, including Joey Anderson and Brett Seney, who were mainstays on the NHL roster. The team also cut Mikhail Maltsev, who many thought had an outside chance to impress enough to make this team. This goal could have been enough to do it in other years.

There are only a few days, and two games, to come up with these decisions. Some will be dictated by what happens in these games, and others will come down to Coach Hynes’ preference. Either way, none of these decisions are that easy. Some of them can change at any moment. We go in reverse order, eventually getting to the Devils most important decision.

Honorable Mentions:

P.K. Subban‘s Partner: The New Jersey Devils will likely put Sami Vatanen on the top line, but how long can they have him playing out of position? Will Vatanen be happy with that role going into a contract year? P.K. Subban will need time to fit into the system and show that last season was the exception not the rule.

Jesper Bratt‘s Spot: He can play anywhere, but we can see him falling anywhere in the top nine. We’re not sure whether Jesper Bratt is primed for a breakout, or if his ceiling is muted. Also, his contract is coming to an end after this season. What’s best for his development and the Devils success?

Second Power Play Unit: The first power play unit is pretty set. Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Wayne Simmonds/Kyle Palmieri and P.K. Subban. What should the Devils do with that second unit? At times last season, the second power play unit was awful. Brian Boyle was the best scorer on it at one point. That’s bad. Nikita Gusev helps this issue, but who else is on the unit? Do you drop Nico or Hughes to play center, or go with Travis Zajac? Is Will Butcher the only defenseman on the unit, or do you go with two and add either Ty Smith or Damon Severson? There’s a lot of questions here.

Pavel Zacha‘s Visa Issue: Pavel Zacha finally signed with the Devils, but now because of immigration problems, he’s not allowed in the country. That’s a problem since he can’t get paid by an American company even if he’s playing in Canada. What will the Devils do with that fourth-line center position if Zacha isn’t ready in time?

5. Who’s the starting goalie?

Number five on the list might be the most important storyline of the season, but falls to number five because the decision can be easily reversed. Right now, it seems pretty clear that Cory Schneider is the starting goalie. He’s played like it in preseason. Even in nights where he didn’t keep teams completely off the scoreboard, he was still posting over .900 save percentages.

Then, there’s Mackenzie Blackwood. He’s had an up and down preseason, and his numbers don’t look great, but that’s mostly to do with a rough performance with the B team in front of him against the Montreal Canadiens. The Devils dominated the New York Rangers in his other performance, and he still posted a .913 save percentage, but he allowed two goals on just 23 shots.

When you compare Blackwood’s .889 save percentage to Schneider’s .935, it’s hard to even consider Blackwood for the job. That’s okay, since Schneider is used to being a starting goalie anyway. This will help easy Blackwood into the schedule, and since a majority of their October schedule is at home, this helps both of them stay fresh to start.

Again, by the end of the season, however this works out could make or break the season, but for now it’s not a huge deal. It’s still very important, but Cory is probably the guy here. Blackwood could take the job later in the season, or he could not. As long as one of these players shows they can be a lock-down starter, that’s all we care about as Devils fans.

4. Ty Smith’s Placement

This one might feel a little low, but the defense just isn’t the problem it was last season. With the addition of P.K. Subban, the Devils defense looks much better overall. It’s funny how adding a legit number one can make the rest of the defense look a lot better. Instead of arguments over whether Damon Severson or Sami Vatanen is the top dog, we get to marvel at Subban’s Instagram posts.

Still, figuring out what to do with Ty Smith is very important. He’s looked terrible in the preseason. We are not exaggerating, he has been about as bad as possible. Smith has been giving the puck away in his own zone. There haven’t been many offensive outbursts. He has two assists in three games, but he’s a -5. Plus/minus is not the end all be all, but it’s definitely isn’t good to be a -5 on a team that’s winning games.

Now comes the real decision. The Devils have to decide whether he is going to make the team in New Jersey, or go back to Spokane and play another season in the WHL. He’s not allowed to go to the AHL, or this would be a very easy decision. The Devils have to decide whether they want to let Smith figure out these growing pains in the NHL, or lose their asset for the entire year.

Smith doesn’t look NHL ready, but last season he very much looked NHL ready. Every time someone asks head coach John Hynes what he thinks of Smith it’s never very good. What happened between last season to this season to make him worse? The only thing we can think of is the expectations.

Either way, Shero and Hynes have to make a decision. This one is tough, and can go either way, but we think the Devils as a whole will be fine either way.

2. What To Do With The One-Way Contracts

Currently on the Devils right now, outside of the players that have an obvious spot on the team, There are about nine players fighting for four roster spots. Of those players, four of them are waiver eligible. That means things can get very hairy if two players who aren’t waiver eligible make the team, then the Devils will have some decisions to make.

Kevin Rooney is one that feels like on the outside looking in. He’s on a one-way deal, and has to pass through waivers if the Devils try to send him down to Binghamton. Rooney had his ups and downs last season. This preseason he’s been fine. That’s really all he’s been.

Meanwhile, John Hayden has looked good at times this preseason. He’s used his size to his advantage, he’s forcing turnovers, and he’s hitting people on the ice. He hit four people in the last game against the New York Rangers, a game high. Hayden needs to stay out of the penalty box.

Mirco Mueller is a long shot to get cut, but we suppose it’s possible. It would be weird for the Devils to sign Mueller to an overpay just to put him on waivers. However, it’s still something that could happen. If they do, we don’t see Mueller passing through waivers. Some other team would claim a former 1st-round pick for free.

The real question here is Miles Wood. He has had a bad preseason, and hasn’t been able to stay out of the penalty box. There’s been mental mistakes, which we know Coach Hynes hates. Losing three years of Wood over a rough preseason sounds like a bad move for the long term, but either way the Devils have a decision to make. If Hynes is telling the truth when saying only those who proved their worth are making the team, then Wood likely doesn’t make it. We still think he’s going to be on the team, even if he starts the year as a healthy scratch.

1. Figuring Out The Top Six

Based on John Hynes first practice without the split squads, it seems like the Devils are going to go with their tried and true pairing of Nico Hischier and Taylor Hall on the top line. At least, that’s what came out of Monday. Things can always change from day to day.

Hall has been playing with Jack Hughes this preseason. Nikita Gusev has been playing most of his ice time with Nico Hischier. Either way, even if the new lines end up being Hall-Hischier, Gusev-Hughes, the right wing on these lines are so very up in the air.

Kyle Palmieri is day to day with an injury that’s likely not going to be an impact on more than a day. Jesper Bratt is moving around the lines. Jesper Boqvist has been playing well in certain situations. Wayne Simmonds shows he provides a tough quality they could use in the top six. There are options up and down this lineup.

The top six is still the most important question still up in the air going into the last week of the preseason. Who fits into the top six will decide who goes where in every aspect of the lineup. If Boqvist makes the roster, then Bratt likely moves to the bottom six in a contract year. If Palmieri moves to a line with Hughes, then he will have two legitimate scoring options. Then, Bratt likely moves up to the top line, and the final Devils forward will play on the fourth line.

This decision will come down to the wire, and we likely won’t know the real answer until October 4th. Just so you know, that’s only eight days away.