New Jersey Devils: What Kind Of Grade Does Miles Wood Deserve?

The New Jersey Devils have a weird scenario with Miles Wood right now and it is going to be interesting to see how they handle him going forward.

There might not be a bigger scapegoat for the New Jersey Devils than Miles Wood. He hasn’t had much luck staying consistent over the past few years, and he gets buried online for it more than any other player.  He certainly hasn’t been great, but you would think he was the worst player in the league based on the response he gets online. It is easy for Miles Wood to figure out what makes him successful and be consistent.

He was very good for the Devils in their run to the playoffs during the 2017-18 season. A lot of things went well for them that season and Miles Wood playing well was one of them. He put up 19 goals which were a lot for a  player playing in the bottom-six as he was. He showed that he can thrive in a certain role as long as those ahead of him do their jobs as well.

2019-20 was different. Wood created some offensive chances for himself using his speed but his hands can’t seem to match his speed. He has a hard time taking advantage of the breakaways he would get and shoot it into the goalie or crash the let, literally. He ended up having 11 goals and 12 assists for 23 points in 68 games for New Jersey.

Miles Wood also had a less than ideal linemates. He put up respectable points for a role player but he had Pavel Zacha and Wayne Simmonds as his linemates a lot of the time. Those aren’t exactly players who are going to help you look like a great player. There is some optimism to think that he can be a great fourth-liner if they put him in that position to succeed.

One thing about Wood is that he takes a lot of penalties. That is an issue that people wonder whether or not it will be corrected. The thing that is also true, believe it or not, is that he still had a positive penalty differential. He drew a lot of penalties which somewhat makes up for him taking so many. If he could ever cut down on the penalties of his own while maintaining the drawing penalties aspect, it would be a valuable asset, especially if the power player ever improves.

Miles Wood gets a D+, but there has to be some context to it. He had a bad year on a bad team. There are plenty of reasons to defend him for having that bad year but the fact remains that he wasn’t great. He can get this grade up in future years if the situation around him ever improves. 30 points from a third or fourth liner would work well on a good team and Miles Wood can do that.

It isn’t fair that Wood gets the hate that he does because plenty of players deserve it more. If anything, this season could motivate him to continue working on his game and trying to improve.