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New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Poised To Turn Around Bad Seasons

By Nick Villano

MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 16: Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning goal on overtime against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 16, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 16: Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning goal on overtime against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 16, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Just about everyone on the New Jersey Devils is having a terrible start to their season. Which players do we think have what it takes to turn around their stats?

What if I told you there was one player on the entire New Jersey Devils team that was on pace to score more than 50 points? Obviously, you would know that player is Taylor Hall, but even he’s not having a very good season. All around, this season has gone as bad as we could have imagined.

Just think what’s happened already. The Devils starting goalie Cory Schneider is now in Binghamton after he passed through waivers without anyone even testing him. Hall’s agent met with Ray Shero, and all that did was make the trade rumors grow louder. They’ve blown more third period leads than any of us can count.

This has been an upsetting start after an offseason that was nothing short of amazing. Shero did what he could to retool the cupboard. He also did with losing Jeremy Davies as the largest piece when acquiring P.K. Subban, Nikita Gusev and Wayne Simmonds. It looked like this long, undesirable rebuild was finally over.

Then, almost immediately, the rug was pulled from under Devils fans’ feet. We thought this was going to be one of the most fun seasons in a long time, but instead it’s been one of the worst, maybe ever. We so wanted this season to be great after going through more than half a decade of mediocrity, but so far it has not been in the cards. Some fans are even saying they cannot wait for the season to end. (Not us, we never want hockey to end.)

Still, it’s only November. There’s 62 games left in this season. Despite how bad it is, the Devils are still only six points out of a playoff spot. That means if some of the Devils players can step up, they can get themselves right back in this race.

So, which players are most likely to turn things around? Here are five that compared to what we know from them previously, and what we’ve seen so far, have the best shot to turn this season around.

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