Are New Jersey Devils Playoff Contenders As Currently Constructed?

The New Jersey Devils completely revamped their defense this offseason. GM Tom Fitzgerald was able to address the team’s biggest weakness in a huge way. Hughe is the proper word for it because Fitz got some behemoth defensemen this offseason. Dougie Hamilton was the best free agent available at any position after Alex Ovechkin and Gabriel Landeskog re-signed with their current teams. The Devils signed the 6’6 defenseman to a seven-year, $9 million annual contract.

Before that, the Devils traded a 2nd-round pick and Mikhail Maltsev for Ryan Graves. The 26 year old stands at 6’5 and he’s very good for what he is. He’s not going to score the points that Hamilton will, but he will eat minutes and play exceptional shutdown defense on the left side. The Devils also added depth on defense with Christian Jaros (another huge player) who will play as insurance in case anyone gets injured.

The Devils’ second-biggest need came at the backup goalie position. They addressed it by signing Jonathan Bernier to a two-year deal. It was an overpay at $4.1 million, but money is not a problem for a Devils team that is still working with north of $20 million in cap space.

So, the question becomes: can the Devils be playoff contenders?

This is a hard question to answer now, but let’s make the attempt. Any team at any time can become a playoff contender. There are surprise teams making the playoffs every season. Some didn’t think the Montreal Canadiens were going to be playoff contenders, but they ended up making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. This Devils team can easily go on a run.

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When looking at the revamped Metropolitan Division, there are some holes the Devils can take advantage of. The Columbus Blue Jackets look like they are mostly in rebuilding mode. They traded away a lot of good pieces, although trading for Adam Boqvist and Jake Bean gives them an interesting defensive core. The Philadelphia Flyers addressed their goaltending issues by…. signing Martin Jones? That seems like going backward, but Carter Hart is a prime bounce-back candidate. The New York Rangers haven’t done a lot this offseason, but a Jack Eichel trade is always looming. Washington and Pittsburgh are always getting older, but that hasn’t hurt their playoff chances in a decade so we won’t pretend it starts now. The Islanders are sitting on like six free agent signings between Zach Parise, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac, and Casey Cizikas. Unfortunately, every other team in the division can take advantage of those holes too.

They might not even be holes. The Metropolitan Division has a chance to be the best division in the sport. Every team has an argument for a major run. Even Columbus. So, the Devils have their work cut out for them.

The Devils should be adding a top-six forward with all the money they have leftover. They were reportedly trying to sign Brandon Saad, but he signed a five-year pact with the St. Louis Blues. There are still multiple names on the free-agent and trade markets. Vladimir Tarasenko is the most popular name, but there are monster trades for names like Timo Meier or Filip Forsberg out there and Tomas Tatar or a flier like Bobby Ryan on free agency. Even without those additions, the Devils have quite a good team here.

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This is the Devils’ best team on paper they are putting out there in a long time. Even after the 2019 offseason when the Devils added P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds, Jack Hughes, and Nikita Gusev, there were still major questions surrounding the team (Cory Schneider and the left side of the defense main among them). There are some questions with this Devils’ team, but they are much less important.

Maybe the Devils won’t make the playoffs this season. They are going to be in a dog fight with a really good Atlantic Division also fighting for two wild-card spots. It’s going to be a fun season for Devils fans after three straight dreadful years, so there’s that, but it might be too early to truly call this team a playoff contender.

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