5 Current New Jersey Devils Impacted Most By Offseason Moves

5. Miles Wood

We’re not hearing a lot about Miles Wood this offseason. It’s strange, really. The Devils have put just about every other player in front of a podcast, on during the big draft-day show, or on some kind of social media campaign. Wood has been absent from almost all of it.

Sure, he’s had a bad season. Like, it was really bad. However, they seem to be giving all players a reset with this new regime. Wood seems to need it more than anyone else.

Last season, Wood spent a lot of time on the fourth line with Rooney and Hayden. That’s not a great combination. Wood spent a lot of time stuck in his own end. On paper, with Wood’s speed, it should lead to some exciting opportunities. While there were multiple breakaway opportunities, there weren’t a lot of goals that came from them.

Now, as the lines shake out, Wood will likely change his linemates from very unskilled forwards to extremely skilled forwards who are young and need to hit their ceilings. He’s expected on a line with either Pavel Zacha or Michael McLeod at center. At right wing, the Devils will likely have a prospect. Either Janne Kuokkanen, Jesper Boqvist, or a low-risk move like Brett Seney.

Either way, this is going to be worlds better than what he was with last season. Wood has his own struggles beyond what his linemates brought to the table, but if he was ever going to get right, he couldn’t do it with Rooney and Hayden. Adding Johnsson to the forward group moves good, young players down. That will exponentially help Wood.