New Jersey Devils: 5 Things That Must Happen To Become Stanley Cup Contenders

2. Incredible Injury Luck

So far, the Devils have seen Jack Hughes, Ty Smith, Mackenzie Blackwood, Damon Severson, Jonathan Bernier, Miles Wood, and Tyce Thompson miss time with different injuries and ailments. That’s a pretty significant list of players to see get hurt during the preseason. Smith, Severson, and Wood are up in the air for opening night. Luckily for the Devils, Hughes’s injury was extremely minor and he was kept out of the rest of the preseason out of an abundance of caution.

The injury luck needs to change, and quick. The Devils have some depth on this team, but the plan likely isn’t to call up Alex Holtz the second someone gets injured. It’s probably to put Marian Studenic or Mason Geertsen into the lineup as soon as someone goes down. Then, there’s the defense. Say Dougie Hamilton misses ten games. It’s okay to give Severson if healthy ten games as a top-line right-handed defenseman. The issue is who replaces him in the middle of the lineup. They could just throw P.K. Subban back there, but then they have to have someone play out of position to play on the bottom line.

The Devils need to not only stay healthy, they need to stay remarkably healthy. They can’t afford any big injuries. The lineup is pretty fragile when it comes to chemistry and drop-off in talent.