Comparing New Jersey Devils Current Situation to 2010-11 Team

Simply put, the New Jersey Devils fell flat on their faces out of the gate. After a triumphant offseason and heightened expectations entering the regular season, their abysmal 0-4-2 start is nothing short of embarrassing and unacceptable.

Looking at the organization’s storied past, the circumstances surrounding the current 2019-20 Devils and 2010-11 squad are disturbingly similar. In order to determine whether the 2019-20 team is currently en route to a similar fate as the 2010-11 squad, it’s important to compare their similar circumstances.

Both teams made big changes during the summers preceding their respective seasons and were supposed to improve significantly. In addition, New Jersey’s active offseasons in 2010 and 2019 were largely motivated to appease cornerstone players, whose futures with the organization were uncertain. Ineffective coaching certainly attributed to the 2010-11 team’s woes, which appears to be the case with the 2019-20 team. To varying extents, both Devils teams have also faced questions surrounding their goaltending.

In 2010, New Jersey acquired Jason Arnott, Anton Volchenkov (a highly coveted UFA in the summer of 2010), Henrik Tallinder (which seemed like a good signing at the time), Johan Hedberg (who was considered one of Martin Brodeur’s better backups) and re-signed superstar forward Ilya Kovalchuk.

To recap Ray Shero’s well-documented 2019 offseason, he started off by selecting phenom Jack Hughes first overall in the NHL Entry Draft, where he also acquired P.K. Subban. On July 1, Shero signed Wayne Simmonds and traded for Nikita Gusev on July 29.

Keeping these moves in mind, a major distinction stands out between the organization’s present circumstances and those of nine years ago.

The 2010-11 New Jersey Devils were not only much older—they had nine players aged 32 and older—but also had crippling cap problems that spilled into the regular season and must have loomed in the back of the player’s minds. Contrarily, the Devil’s 2019-20 roster has just five players over age 30. Travis Zajac (34) and Andy Greene (37) are the only two in their mid-thirties. The Devils also currently have a comfortable cushion of little more than $5.2 million in cap space.

To reiterate, New Jersey was still considered a perennial playoff contender in the late 2000s. 2010 marked the 15th consecutive year they reached the postseason, which was the second-longest active streak at the time. They would suffer their third consecutive first-round exit at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers, despite winning the Atlantic Division for the second consecutive season.

Much of the hockey community had been writing off the Devils in recent years and since Lamoriello didn’t believe in rebuilding, his 2010 offseason moves were intended to make a statement that his team was still in win-now mode, despite the organization’s longtime cornerstone players entering or being in their twilight years.

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The 2019-20 Devils were the exact opposite. When Ray Shero first joined the organization in 2015, he revealed his intentions of orchestrating a complete rebuild. Since 2012, New Jersey made the postseason just once, but their catastrophic setback the following season served as a painful reminder the rebuild wasn’t quite over. The 2019 offseason also indicated Shero personally believed his team was ready to take the next competitive step, along with sending foundational player Taylor Hall the same message—which segues into the next similarity between these two Devils teams.

Going into the 2010 summer, New Jersey faced the prospect of seeing superstar left wing Ilya Kovalchuk walk as an unrestricted free agent. Lamoriello knew re-signing him long-term was paramount if he wanted to elevate his team’s competitiveness after suffering three consecutive first-round exits and had a short timeframe to show Kovalchuk he was serious.

Hopes are high Shero’s bold offseason will entice left wing Taylor Hall, who is slated to become a UFA this coming July, to re-sign. Like Kovalchuk, Hall got his first ever taste of postseason action when he arrived in New Jersey, but is currently in his fourth season with the organization and has been vocal about spending all but one season of his NHL career on non-playoff teams. Unlike Kovalchuk however, Hall has the entire 2019-20 season to see if the moves made to bolster the team Shero is trying to build around him were worthwhile, which could work for or against the Devils.

Despite the 2010-11 team starting the season with a first-year head coach, the Devils current bench boss is in his fifth season with the organization. Both team’s rosters contained swaths of talent that failed (or are failing) to click. In hindsight, pairing a rookie head coach with an older veteran team probably wasn’t the greatest idea for the 2010-11 New Jersey Devils.

John Maclean quickly found himself over his head and was fired after winning just nine of his first 33 games. After turning to a familiar face in Jacques Lemaire, a more experienced head coach, the Devils wound up clicking (albeit it happened too late in the season) and went on to win 29 of their final 49 contests.

Next. John Hynes Is In Hot Seat. dark

When you have a roster with as much talent as this current Devils team that’s gotten shut out and lost by margins of four or more goals twice, along with blowing two multi-goal leads in their first six games, it’s hard not to argue coaching isn’t a factor in their early struggles. Hynes’ message and playing system don’t appear to be resonating with this current group as indicated by the nature of their losses. It’d be one thing if the Devils were losing games by one or two goals and were keeping them close, but the players look despondent, like they’re simply going through the motions when on the ice.

Given the current roster’s wealth of quality players, along with the midseason turnarounds talented teams experienced after undergoing a coaching change (as I noted in a recent article), one must wonder how much longer Shero will tolerate this team’s subpar performance under Hynes’ watch. It certainly worked for the 2010-11 Devils.

The 2010-11 and 2019-20 Devils both had concerns regarding their situations between the pipes. This current team is coming off a previous campaign, where starter Cory Schneider’s career appeared to be in a free fall. Between battling nagging injuries and a persistent mental block that hindered his performance, it seemed like a literal coin toss whether or not he would rebound in 2019-20.

While rookie Mackenzie Blackwood showed promise last season, it remained too soon to issue a final ruling on his ability to establish himself as a genuine NHL goaltender. Although both goalie’s numbers are currently cringeworthy, you can argue they’re largely a reflection of the team’s performance in front of them.

The 2010-11 team had a 38-year-old Martin Brodeur in net, who was exhibiting increasingly concerning signs of wear during the season’s latter stages and was having his ability of performing in the postseason questioned. Unlike the Devil’s current goaltending situation, Brodeur had 37-year old Johan Hedberg to back him up instead of a 22-year old sophomore. The goaltending situations for both teams were pivotal to their success, but the 2010-11 Devil’s goalie concerns derived from age and durability, whereas their current issues in the crease are centered around overall skill and ability to perform.

Although the specifics differ, the general circumstances and issues surrounding the 2019-20 New Jersey Devils are analogous with those of the 2010-11 team. Despite making significant offseason moves thought to improve their roster, overly committing to an aging core with lingering cap issues that must have distracted the locker room, factored in the 2010-11 team’s downfall.

This current Devils team seems to be struggling with finding their footing and getting motivated by their head coach. It remains to be seen what will become of the 2019-20 New Jersey Devils and if these struggles persist, it might be wise to look at the past for potential solutions.

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