The New Jersey Devils’ top minor league affiliate, the Binghamton Devils, were on a run before the season was canceled.
The New Jersey Devils were bad this year. Well, it looked like their top minor league affiliate, the Binghamton Devils of the American Hockey League looked like they were going to follow in their footsteps. They got off to a brutal start before getting scorching hot and turning it around. They went from a very underwhelming team in the AHL to one of the very best in the league.
On December 27th, 2019, the B-Devils were 9-17-4-0 for 22 points in 30 games. That was good for the last place in their division. Then, something clicked for them which had them at 34-24-4-0 by the time the season was paused and eventually canceled. It was a brilliant turnaround that had the makings of a championship run. If the Devils could have continued their run of dominance that they showed from January-March, there is no reason to think that they couldn’t have had a chance at the Calder Cup.
The NHL Devils also would have been able to send the eligible players down to the AHL Devils once the NHL season was over. The big Devils were not even close to the playoffs so they would have been able to help the B-Devils roster get just a little bit better at seasons end ready to make a postseason run. It is a shame that we don’t get to see how this thing would have ended for them.
What is good, is that they should be hungry going into next season. Plenty of players on that squad are going to go into 2020-21 ready to take a shot at making the NHL roster. Some of them might be successful, but those that are not are going to be looking to see if they can pick off where they left off this year in the AHL. That type of motivation could very well help them to another great season with Calder Cup aspirations.
We are never going to see what could have been for this team. That is the past and we can’t change it now. What we can hope, is that they learn from their experiences both positive and negative and turn it into something great. It would be nice to see them look ahead to the future and not dwell on the past.