5 New Jersey Devils Who Could Have 30-goal seasons next season
There’s a long shot the New Jersey Devils could have a 30-goal scorer.
The New Jersey Devils have struggled to score for close to a decade now. Since Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk left to go home, the Devils have been hard-pressed to get a marquee scoring star. Then, they traded for Taylor Hall and it seemed like that star was back in house. Then, this season happened, and the Devils were forced to trade away Hall for future pieces.
Now, there are only a few players who are even capable of scoring 20 goals on the team let alone pulling a 30-goal season. Of those currently on the roster, Kyle Palmieri, Andreas Johnsson, Nico Hischier, and Travis Zajac have scored 20 goals in the past. Of those, only Palmieri has hit the 30-goal plateau.
There is an issue with any Devils player hitting the 30-goal plateau. The NHL could possibly play a season that’s less than 82 games. For this article’s sake, let’s say these five players could finish the season on a “30-goal pace”. Nobody cares who can score 20 goals in a 60-game season. So, we’ll keep it to “30” for now and adjust as we see fit.
The Devils are expected to have some considerable skill on the top two lines. The top six has a lot of variables depending on who ends up playing there and what the young players end up doing. It also all depends on how Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes develop. If anyone is scoring 30 goals on the Devils this season, it’s because those two became two of the best distributors in the division.
So, who actually has a shot of playing with Hughes and Hischier, getting those opportunities to become scoring machines.
Kyle Palmieri
Let’s start with the obvious. Kyle Palmieri is the only player currently on the Devils that has scored 30 goals for the Devils. Last season, he had 25 goals in 65 games. For those counting at home, that puts him on a 31-goal pace. Obvioiusly, the main issue with Palmieri hitting goals nowadays is injuries. He hasn’t played a full 82-game season since his last 30-goal season back in 2015-16.
Palmieri is going into a very important year. This is a contract year during a pandemic, so if he’s going to get a decent extension then he needs to prove he can score at a considerable clip. With a player like Mike Hoffman, who has scored at a similar pace, can’t find a home. Literally nobody is willing to hit his price. Hopefully, things are a closer to normal next offseason, but that’s a chance if Palmieri comes with issues, he won’t get the long-term contract he was hoping for.
Palmieri is likely going to spend time on the top line where he’s been for most of his time on the Devils. He will be with Hischier most likely, but who his left wing will be is still a mystery. There are plenty of options, but whoever they put there could either severely help Palmieri’s road to 30 goals or it might hinder it.
Nikita Gusev
The other “obvious” one isn’t as obvious as Palmieri. Nikita Gusev had some really good moments as a scorer last season, but he was hardly consistent. He only had 13 goals last season over 66 games. That’s only a 16-goal pace.
So, how on Earth is Gusev going to double his goal pace in one seasons time?
It seemed like it was evident that Gusev was a lot better than he was showing last season. He was so bad at some points, then head coach John Hynes decided to send him to the owner’s box. He never had more than three goals in a month.
There were a lot of reasons why Gusev had trouble getting going. He was on a different line seemingly every night. He wasn’t able to gain chemistry with anyone. Once he was playing with Travis Zajac, he really started to get going. He had trouble on the defensive end of the ice, so that hurt his ice time. Now that he’s spent a year in the NHL, he can get going from the start.
Gusev has to play on a line with players as skilled as he is. He is also playing in a contract year, and he needs to prove a lot more than Palmieri does. He always has the KHL option, so there’s somewhere where he’s an established star. However, he likely wants to make it work in the NHL. For that to happen, he needs to score a lot more than 13 goals. If he can play consistently with Hughes, and they can continue to set each other up, then 30 goals is an attainable goal.
Jack Hughes
This one may come as a surprise since the reason players on the Devils could score 30 goals is because of Jack Hughes, but he could very well score 30 goals himself. It’s a long shot admittedly, but he has that scoring ability. If he ends up on a line with, say, Gusev and Jesper Bratt, he might see himself as the actual finisher of that line. Head coach Lindy Ruff might change up the game plan and make him the final point of the play.
Throughout his young career, analysts talked about his points. In his draft year with the U.S. National Development Program, he had a ridiculous 112 points in 50 games. Then, in the USHL (which is sometimes slightly better competition), he still had two points per game. However, look at the scoring. He had 34 goals in 50 games with USNDTP, but only had 12 goals in 24 games in the USHL.
This is even more clear in world competition. In his first year at the U18 World Junior Championships, he had five goals in seven games. The next season, he had nine goals in those same seven games. He was only able to play the one year at the U20 World Juniors, and he didn’t score a goal.
It’s clear Hughes needs a year to get the scoring down. He only had seven goals in the NHL last year. It’s clear that Hughes is going to have a much better season. Will he score 30 goals? Probably not, but it’s certainly possible.
Andreas Johnsson
Andreas Johnsson is coming to the Devils through trade after his own team devalued him for one reason or another. Devils fans have seen this happen literally dozens of times. Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, Bryce Salvador, and Jeff Friesen are just a few that came to the Devils at a depleted value and turned into really good players or even stars.
The Toronto Maple Leafs traded Johnsson to the Devils for prospect Joey Anderson. Anderson is a nice player. He probably would have made the top ten in our Top 25 Prospects list. However, to get a former 20-goal scorer simply for a player who could make the roster but isn’t guaranteed is a steal. The ceiling for Johnsson is clear much higher than it is for Anderson.
Johnsson could have a first year with the Devils that mimics what Kyle Palmieri did. Palmieri was clearly motivated after the trade to prove himself. He played all 82 games and scored 30 goals alongside Adam Henrique. Johnsson absolutely can do the same thing, especially if he finds himself to the left of Jack Hughes.
Johnsson is another player on this list that totally depends on where he finds himself in the lineup. If he ends up on the third line with Zajac, that’ll likely hurt his chances at 30 goals. If he’s in the top six, a 30 goal pace is absolutely attainable.
Jesper Boqvist
This one is the swing for the fences. Jesper Boqvist came into the Devils last season with a lot of hype, but like with everyone else on the 2019-20 Devils, he fell below expectations. He was in and out of the lineup as the Devils basically help him on the roster just to keep him from going back to Sweden. When he was in the lineup, he didn’t do much. He only had four points in 35 games.
However, he did start to get going in the AHL. Once he was finally able to play for the Binghamton Devils, there were many nights where he looked like the best player on the ice. Before the pause, Boqvist had seven goals in 11 games. He was clearly getting his scoring touch back.
In his first season with Brynas of the SHL, Boqvist had similar struggles, as most young players do in Sweden. He only scored three goals his first season, but the next year he jumped to 13. Boqvist has some jump on his stick, and he can really score with the right coach. Ruff might be the perfect coach to unlock Boqvist’s scoring ability.
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Right now, Boqvist is playing with Timrá IK of HockeyAllsvenskan. He’s not allowed to play in the SHL due to loan rules Sweden has in place. It’s clear he’s itching for better competition, but he’s going to be one of the few players coming into training camp warm. So many players are going to be cold, but Boqvist can jump off the ice. That could lead to a lot of goals early in the season as the rest of the league tries to keep up. He could get on a 30-goal pace early and coast to the finish as he builds confidence.