5 Things We Learned From New Jersey Devils Final Press Conferences

The New Jersey Devils said goodbye to the season and with that came the final media scrums where we learn more about the team than we did in the previous 100 or so press conferences that come before and after games. Players and coaches are more apt to reveal injuries, deficiencies, and issues when there are no future press conferences to follow up with a million thoughts. That made the past two days very interesting for Devils fans and media members alike.

It started with the players. Some spoke on Tuesday, but the main players of this team spoke on Wednesday. Not only did we hear from head coach Lindy Ruff and general manager Tom Fitzgerald, but we heard from Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and Mackenzie Blackwood. Those are three of the players who are considered the core of the New Jersey Devils.

A lot is going to happen between today and the start of the 2021-22 season. There is the NHL Draft, where the Devils will have a very high pick. The Seattle Kraken expansion draft will see someone leave the Devils franchise for free. Free agency hasn’t always been a big day for the Devils, but they could find a veteran or two to add to this squad. There’s also the possibility the Devils could make trades. They kept one contract retention slot just so they could help facilitate a trade in the offseason.

Still, despite so much up in the air, we learned a lot about the team now and next season in these pressers. Which quotes were the most important?

Lindy Ruff made it clear it is his intention to bring back every assistant. The Devils’ special teams were outright terrible, but Ruff was not blaming Mark Recchi or Alain Nasreddine. As you can see with the quote, Ruff called it shared blame.

The Devils are going to finish the season with the worst penalty kill in the league. Only five teams since the 1970s have had a worse penalty kill percentage than the current Devils’ 70.9%. Obviously, there are a lot of factors to make one unit play that badly, especially since the Devils’ penalty kill was actually pretty good the past five years.

If the Devils got a better Mackenzie Blackwood, that would absolutely help, but the numbers show he was hardly the worst part about the unit. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Devils gave up 28 high-danger goals on the penalty kill this season. That’s more than any other team in the league. That’s despite the Devils have 137 minor penalties this season. Only two teams had less. So, the Devils allowed more goals despite giving up fewer opportunities.

As far as the power play goes, only two teams did worse than the Devils 14.9%. Those same two teams were the only ones who had fewer high-danger chances with the man advantage. The Devils only got 59 high-danger chances in 276 minutes of power-play time. To compare, the Boston Bruins got 91 high-danger chances in those same 276 minutes.

The team’s special teams were terrible. Almost everyone said something about it on the podium. The players took most of the blame, but one would expect that from a team like this. Special teams will be a focus this offseason for sure.

There was a lot of talk of injuries in these conferences, which is expected. Damon Severson‘s broken toe might explain some things. He went off a cliff in the second half of the season. Obviously, there were issues with his decision making, but dealing with an injury could change the way he thinks. It was also clear he didn’t have the same speed that he had in the beginning of the season.

Pavel Zacha also mentioned he had injuries he was dealing with this season. It is going to force him to stay home during the World Championships. It obviously didn’t slow him down too much. He had a career season.

Even Mackenzie Blackwood was dealing with an injury that caused him to miss the final game of the season. Kyle Palmieri apparently hit him in that last game against the New York Islanders, and it caused some discomfort. He says he’s fine now, though.

Usually, most teams are dealing with injuries going into the offseason, but Tom Fitzgerald says the Devils are lucky because nobody is dealing with an injury that would impact how they train in the offseason. That’s very rare, as most teams have injuries that need surgery or other long rehabs. The Devils are only dealing with general injuries that should heal with time.

Andreas Johnsson and P.K. Subban both mentioned that they have asthma and that made them worried about the impacts of their COVID-19 diagnosis. Johnsson especially talked about its impacts on his conditioning and he thinks it had a lot to do with his issues this season. Johnsson was obviously one of the biggest disappointments on the ice, but it’s hard to explain exactly what COVID could do to an athlete, especially one with asthma.

Luckily for Subban, he didn’t seem to get a strong case of the virus. He says he feels fine now.

Blackwood wasn’t as lucky. He was the first player on the team to go on the COVID-19 protocol list, and at the time we didn’t know if he actually had the virus or if he was a close contact. Despite being one of the first to get sick, Blackwood said he didn’t feel right until like three or four weeks ago. He was going out there every night despite playing with a motor that wasn’t close to 100 percent.

The COVID outbreak was the biggest storyline for this season. The Devils had the most people to get the virus of any team in the league. It was a huge disadvantage. It also could change our expectations for next season. Will a player like Johnsson be able to bounce back, and should we expect a much better statistical season from Blackwood since they will no longer have a virus to deal with?

The Devils are going to be “active” this offseason. That doesn’t mean they will be making moves. It means they will be listening to everything. The Devils have the youngest roster in the league, and they have a ton of really good prospects that haven’t even made the NHL yet. Teams are going to call the Devils to see if they are interested in their veterans and the Devils will call teams with star players who might be available.

Does this mean the Devils are absolutely going to make moves? It seems the team is at least going to add one veteran, but expect them to look to add more than that. They traded away Kyle Palmieri, Dmitry Kulikov, Travis Zajac, and they lost Sami Vatanen and Nikita Gusev this season alone. They have Subban, Will Butcher, and Johnsson as the only players over the age of 25 that are on the roster next season.

This doesn’t mean they will go big in free agency, but there will be smart moves to bring someone who can still provide something while also coming on a decent contract. This also means the Devils will look at every trade option available.

The Devils need veterans to rely on while some of the young players go through growing pains. A lot of the young players on the team proved they are worthy of NHL spots, so the team only needs to make so many moves. It seems like they know that at least one more veteran is needed this offseason.