5 Observations From New Jersey Devils Final Roster Cuts
The New Jersey Devils made final cuts on Monday to finalize its lineup.
We are only two days away from New Jersey Devils hockey hitting the ice in an official capacity. The Devils take on the Boston Bruins on January 14th, and for the first time since March, a real lineup is settling in. After a hard-hitting training camp, the Devils made major cuts on Monday. Some were surprising. Others not so much.
Five players were placed on waivers and six players were assigned to Binghamton. That leaves the Devils with 28 players when you include Jesper Bratt, Sami Vatanen, and Nico Hischier. Those three won’t be in the starting lineup on January 14th, but the hope is they should all be ready to go by early February.
The Devils still have to put together a four-to-six player taxi squad. So, at least at first, there have to be at least two of the players placed on waivers on the squad. The Devils need to have a 23-man roster by the time puck drops on Thursday. There are still a few moves on the horizon, but this is the roster as we expect to see it.
A lot of interesting developments came out during these roster cuts. Some players who seemed like they looked good in training camp didn’t make the team and other players who appeared to struggle were kept on the roster. The lineup will probably change over the first few games as Lindy Ruff tries to find the best lineups. With no preseason games, Ruff will want to see how his lines do against real competition. Unfortunately, this season that will have to happen in games that count.
There’s a lot to take out of Monday’s news. Here are our observations.
Nick Merkley Doesn’t Make The Team
Nick Merkley had a few big performances in the Devils scrimmages, which was the only place Devils fans were able to actually see the team perform. So, when it was announced that Merkley was going on waivers, a lot of fans were up in arms.
Merkley is a former 1st-round pick that came to the Devils in the Taylor Hall trade. He wasn’t one of the main pieces. Those were the draft picks and Kevin Bahl. However, he has the potential to be an NHL player in the right situation.
He showed he had a scoring ability in training camp. He was one of the young players who spent time overseas during the pause, putting up 13 points in 19 games for Assät. It showed in camp, as he seemed like he had a step on a lot of his competition.
However, the Devils didn’t see it that way. He was left off the roster, and he might make the taxi squad. If he does, at least he gets to practice with the Devils while they wait for the Binghamton/Newark Devils season to start in February. Still, it has to be a disappointment that Merkley played so well in training camp and he still didn’t make the final roster. Hopefully, there is an understanding between Merkley and Ruff as to what he needs to do to make this roster full time.
Devils Are Happy With Goalie Tandem
The New Jersey Devils found out on Saturday that their big free-agent signing Corey Crawford was going to retire before playing a game. While it saved the Devils $3.9 million over the next two seasons on the salary cap, now the Devils have a glaring hole in net. The first move they made was to sign Jeremy Brodeur to the AHL squad. He’s the son of Devils legend Martin Brodeur and gives the Devils at least a body in the AHL to make sure the Devils are compliant with NHL rules.
That means the Devils have Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood, and Gilles Senn on the main roster. They added Eric Comrie off waivers on Tuesday. He’s also on the roster, but his role is still very unclear. One of those players is required to go to the taxi squad, and it’s almost definitely Senn. He’s eligible for waivers and Wedgewood was playing like a backup the entire training camp.
Ruff has been saying good things about Wedgewood’s performance even before we learned about Crawford’s decision to retire. He hasn’t played in the NHL for two seasons, but that doesn’t seem to bother the Devils’ brass. He went on a run with the Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning last season, so at least he has ice time over the last 10 months.
Blackwood is clearly going to carry this group. We talked about the possibility he could play 50 games. The Devils will play him like they used to play Brodeur. If Blackwood plays less than 85% of their games this season, it will be a surprise.
Sharangovich-Boqvist-Kuokkanen Line Earned Their Spot
Over the past two scrimmages, there are a lot of players that stood out in different ways for the Devils. However, three players that seemed to have a ton of chemistry right off the bat are Yegor Sharangovich, Jesper Boqvist, and Janne Kuokkanen. These three players came in with wildly different expectations, but they found each other and it looks like they rode each other’s skills onto the opening night roster.
Yegor Sharangovich was crushing it in the KHL on a loan before the season. He scored 17 goals for Dinamo Minsk before coming back to New Jersey. At one point, he was fighting for top scorer in Russia. He brought that experience back and grew off of it.
He’s stood out as much as anyone not named Jack Hughes in the last two scrimmages. He’s making plays and finishing plays. The Devils have sorely missed a goal scorer on the bottom six. Sharangovich can be that player.
Boqvist has been really good at positioning so far this offseason. He puts himself in a place to get a pass, and that gives the Devils a high-danger opportunity. This is crucial from a player that likely focused too much on making plays himself last season.
Kuokkanen came to the Devils in the Sami Vatanen trade. He was once leading the AHL in points last season. He’s a player that isn’t going to knock your socks off, but he does a lot of things right. He is playing with two plays with a huge upside, so if he can just keep everyone doing the right thing, this line could be really good on the Devils’ bottom six.
What Happens With Nolan Foote
Nolan Foote was the surprise player that made the roster. He’s looked alright in the past two scrimmages, but he hasn’t played a game since last February, so if he doesn’t play until the AHL season starts then it will be a full year. He came back for one game with Kelowna after a lower-body injury, and he left the game early and never played again.
Now, the Devils are keeping him over Merkley, who needed to go through waivers. The Devils clearly feel like they need to see more of Foote because they could have assigned him to the AHL team without exposing him.
Foote’s shot has always been his strength. He really didn’t have much of a chance to show it off in training camp. He was usually stuck with inferior linemates just because of how it all worked out. Still, he looked slow at times but made a play here or there at others. His finishing ability is what would have put him on this roster, but we didn’t see him score.
So, why is he still here? Mostly, it’s probably to get him practices on the NHL level. The Devils traded Blake Coleman for Foote and the pick that ended up being Shakir Mukhamadullin. Muk is going to take a long time before he is close to NHL ready. That puts the pressure on Foote to show he’s worthy of a former Devils fan favorite.
He likely starts the year on the taxi squad. This is probably just to get him more time with the NHL club before the B-Devils season starts. He should be in the top six for Bingo when the season starts, so getting more time against NHL talent can only help.
Nico Hischier And Jesper Bratt Make This Forward Group Pretty Good
Right now, the top six of the Devils looks like it’s going to look like this:
Nikita Gusev – Jack Hughes – Kyle Palmieri
Andreas Johnsson – Travis Zajac – Pavel Zacha
There are two names on that list that clearly don’t belong. Zajac hasn’t been a top-six center since Nico Hischier stole his spot in his rookie season. He’s still very valuable as a penalty killer and a defensive dynamo who can throw in 10-12 goals a season. Zacha is also a great penalty killer. He still has upside, but it’s not even worth talking about anymore. He should be in the bottom six with some quickness.
Then, looking at the Devils bottom line, it looks like at first it’s going to be some combination of Miles Wood, Michael McLeod, Nathan Bastian, Brett Seney, and Foote. Wood is a lock, and the other two candidates are likely McLeod and Bastian. That’s a line that leaves a lot to be desired, but maybe there is something we’re not seeing.
Either way, it appears clear that the Devils would move McLeod and Bastian out of the lineup once Hischier and Bratt return. Then, the lines would look something like this:
Gusev-Hughes-Palmieri
Johnsson-Hischier-Bratt
Wood-Zajac-Zacha
Sharangovich-Boqvist-Kuokkanen
That’s actually a very interesting lineup. This would be exciting to watch on a nightly basis.