New Jersey Devils Should Model Themselves After Vegas Golden Knights

The New Jersey Devils are making one last stop in the desert before coming home. They have a date with the Vegas Golden Knights, who they should strive to become.

The New Jersey Devils are hitting the desert for one last game before coming home to Newark. They have a game against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights to close out the road trip. Vegas is an elite team that has a chance to win the Stanley Cup basically every year. They haven’t done it yet but it only took them 0 years to get to that level. They are basically exactly what the Devils want to become.

Vegas has never missed the playoffs in their history and this year is not going to even come close to changing that. They are one of those teams that nobody wants to play in the playoffs. They are going to be very difficult for the Devils to beat. They have two elite goalies with Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner in the fold. They just acquired Lehner in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks.

The only thing the Devils escape in this matchup is having play against Mark Stone. Stone is one of the best two-way wingers in the entire National Hockey League. The fact that they have both he and William Karlsson in their top six makes them very dangerous in all three zones. They also have other studs at forward in Max Pacioretty, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, and Paul Stastny.

Their defense is what also makes them an elite team. They just acquired Alec Martinez from the Los Angeles Kings who fit in like a glove. He joins studs like Shea Theodore and Nate Schmidt on the back end. The balance that Vegas has is what the Devils should be building towards. They also put together a relatively good farm system as well.

With players like Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nikita Gusev, and MacKenzie Blackwood amongst others there, they have some piece in place that can help them get to Vegas’ level one day but they need to put it all together. The Devils have played well lately and need to keep it going. They obviously aren’t going to the playoffs so the most important thing at this point is going to be seeing development from these guys.

The fun thing in addition to that is knowing that they have a chance to add even more impact players this summer via the draft. They have two 1st-round picks (assuming the Arizona Coyotes don’t win the draft lottery) and if the Vancouver Canucks get into the playoffs then they will have three. That is the key to the Devils taking the next step to get close to Vegas’ level on the ice.