The New Jersey Devils finished the season in a rather disappointing position. However, there are plenty of positives to look at. The Devils have the fourth spot in the NHL Draft Lottery thanks to the inclusion of the Seattle Kraken. Obviously, though important, the draft is something the fans would like to stop caring about so much and the playoffs are something that needs to be a goal for next season. The team is still young and developing, but bigger steps must come soon or the fans will revolt.
One of the biggest things the team needs to figure out is why they couldn’t win at home this season. Finishing with seven wins in 28 games is ridiculous and as all fans know your home record should almost always be better. However, how this team prepared for home games versus the road games must be addressed as having nearly double the road wins is a problem.
Another stat that stands out is losing all five shootouts. While not the biggest sample size the only other teams that didn’t manage a win in the skills contest had two or fewer chances. With all the skill on the bench, there should not be so many points left on the board, and in a full season where the Devils will likely be in a shootout around 10 times, finding a few guys who excel in the area should be adding another 5-7 points which could make a huge difference in a playoff run.
With the season going so bad, the grades probably shouldn’t be great, but that’s not necessarily the case. There are a lot of players who aren’t here anymore, so they won’t get a grade, but here’s the grades for who’s left.