New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Who Could Fall out of Favor Before Season’s End

This is a difficult time to write negatively about John Hayden. He has bought himself at least a few more days of being in the good graces of fans for his actions in the Devils’ win over Detroit last Tuesday. He made it abundantly clear who will be protecting forward Jack Hughes in light of Simmonds’ departure.

Hayden was acquired by the Devils last summer in a one-for-one swap with the Chicago Blackhawks for forward John Quenneville. The former Yale standout spent a solid amount of time in Hawk’s lineup the past two seasons, tallying 47 games in 2017-2018 and 54 in 2018-2019. The Devils never acquired him to be regular forward in the lineup this season. As he displayed against the Red Wings, he is an honest option to be inserted into the lineup for some physicality and to stand up for his teammates.

Unfortunately for Hayden (and former head coach John Hynes) he wasn’t exactly being deployed that way earlier in the season when the team had good forward depth. On a night we all love to forget against the Winnipeg Jets, Hynes infamously moved Hayden to a line along with Hughes and forward Nikita Gusev mid-game for “stability.” He finished with a -2 while the Jets overcame a four-goal deficit.

With the team’s roster thin on NHL talent, Hayden will most likely be a regular in the lineup for the remainder of the season. He usually slots in alongside forward Kevin Rooney on the fourth line. Like Mueller, Hayden will be a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration rights. As suggested earlier, Hayden is an honest 13th forward, so I wouldn’t mind the team re-signing him to fill that role. However, he just isn’t an effective player on a night-to-night basis, so perhaps the Devils should go in a different direction if they are looking to fill a permanent bottom-six role.