New Jersey Devils: 5 Things That Must Happen To Make Playoffs

4. Massive Improvements On Special Teams

The Devils special teams were the worst in the league. They had a penalty kill that was one of the worst of all time. The PK allowed a goal on 30% of all penalties against. That’s an insane number. It honestly couldn’t be worse. If the Devils put cardboard in net and a bunch of traffic cones in the way of the shooters, it might do better.

The power play wasn’t much better. Despite having a lot of young talent ready to shoot, the Devils’ power play scored on just 14.2% of its attempts. That’s good for 28th in the league. The dreaded slingshot power-play style was once again used by Marc Recchi, and it just didn’t work. More times than not, the Devils would lose the puck before establishing possession in the zone. They very rarely got a set of more than three passes together, and it was honestly just a break for the other team’s offense more than anything.

This season, the additions the Devils made should help all units. Graves was the Avalanche’s leading penalty killer in the regular season. In 177 minutes of penalty kill time, Graves’ unit allowed 20 goals. For comparison’s sake, Severson played 114 minutes on the penalty kill, and he allowed 22 goals. Graves makes the penalty kill a lot better on his own. Hamilton allowed nine goals in 79 penalty kill minutes, so he isn’t great on that unit but he’s better than some of the players the Devils were putting out there.

In terms of the power play, Hamilton was on the ice for 31 goals in 164 minutes. That’s a great ratio. Tatar was on the ice for 12 goals in 100 minutes exactly. He will help the Devils on the power play, too. Also, the Devils growing as a team will help. Sharangovich growing with Hughes will help them with the man advantage.