The Season Ends Now, For Everyone
This one is quite complicated for the New Jersey Devils. If the season ends right now, obviously it springs them into the offseason, which includes the NHL Draft, free agency and any trades the team wants to make. It also means the Devils have to make decisions on head coach and general manager.
Will other NHL teams have the heart to move on from their head coaches or general managers without even having a chance to make the playoffs? Can they really justify letting them go when an entire league is trying to figure out how to deal with a global pandemic? It’s an odd situation. It might shrink the pool of possibilities for the Devils to choose from.
Either way, the Devils would have to make a decision on everyone’s job pretty quickly. If in a month or two the NHL says they are just going to go forth with the offseason, then the future of the Devils is at stake.
Beyond that, the draft position gets complicated. Do they go by points or point percentage? This isn’t necessarily that important for the Devils first two picks (either way, they would pick 6th and their Arizona Coyotes pick would be 10th), however the real complication is the Vancouver Canucks pick. By overall points, it would rank 12th, which is within the lottery and then not eligible for the Devils to take this season. If we go by point percentage, then it’s 17th and the pick belongs to the Devils.
But, if there’s no playoffs at all, how does that impact the conditions on the pick? It’s all very complicated.