Pucks and Pitchforks
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5 New Jersey Devils Who Can Win Awards This Season

By Nick Villano

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 21: Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers poses with the Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award after the 2017 NHL Awards and Expansion Draft at T-Mobile Arena on June 21, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 21: Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers poses with the Art Ross Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award after the 2017 NHL Awards and Expansion Draft at T-Mobile Arena on June 21, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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New Jersey Devils
Head coach Lindy Ruff poses with the Jack Adams Award (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images for NHL) /

Lindy Ruff – Jack Adams Award

If the Devils are even competitive this season, with everything they’ve already had to go through, Lindy Ruff will get consideration for the Jack Adams Award. The Devils have lost their veteran goaltender Crawford, lost their best player Nico Hischier to an offseason injury, missed one of their top-six forward Jesper Bratt to a contract dispute, and they have to get his team to learn a new system after being away from hockey for ten months.

Is there any coach facing more adversity than Ruff to start the season? Sure, the expectations are rock bottom right now, but in the building, this team wants to win. So, how can he get them there?

First and foremost, his system has to work. Many are judging his system already, but it’s way too early to see what it will look like based on training camp scrimmages. It’s basically putting two of the same system against each other. Instead, we have to wait until the games actually start to see how these systems will actually look in real time.

The best coaches in the league don’t often win the Jack Adams Award. It’s the coaches that do the most with the least that win it. Ruff already won the award once, when he edged out Peter Laviolette by one single point in the first NHL season after the 2004-05 lockout. Maybe after three years away from a head coaching position, he’s ready to win the award again.

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