New Jersey Devils: 5 Predictions For Second Half Of Season

The New Jersey Devils‘ first half of the season was mostly awful. The team faced the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the league, a strong start was immediately thrown out the window, Mackenzie Blackwood and Jack Hughes have been inconsistent between elite and outmatched, and Nico Hischier has played five out of the Devils 30 games this season. It’s been somewhere between unwatchable and disappointing for many different reasons.

While the first half of the season has been about as bad as possible, the second half is setting up to be a lot of fun. The Devils’ youth is really taking a step forward. Tom Fitzgerald is setting up to bring in another haul at the trade deadline. There are rookies who could be making their NHL debuts at some point. There’s a lot to get excited about, even if it seems the Devils are already out of postseason contention.

We made a bunch of predictions before the season started, but as we looked at on Wednesday, not a lot of them did very well. Some were pretty good, but others were so bad. As our moms used to tell us, if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

There is so much that could happen in the second half of the season. The Devils could trade every veteran on the roster and just go with a lineup of players under 25. They could re-sign Kyle Palmieri and make him one of the key veteran cogs to making this team a contender down the line. The team could make a push down the stretch and prove they can win in this league, or they could tank for the best possible draft pick. Lindy Ruff could find a lineup that sticks, or he could keep trying new lines all season to get as many young players as many minutes as possible. With that said, let’s make a few more predictions for the second half of the season.