6 New Jersey Devils Heading To IIHF Men’s World Championships
The New Jersey Devils are not in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They were brutal in 2021-22 and there were a lot of reasons why. However, a few players did have good years and are making the future of this team appear a bit brighter than their record showed.
Not all of these players are done for the year either. Six of them are going to represent their countries at the 2022 IIHF Men’s World Championships that will take place in May. This is a big opportunity for a lot of them to keep playing and start their offseasons off strong.
The tournament will begin on May 13th with the Devils well represented. We will see all sorts of countries compete in this thing as hockey continues to grow all over the world.
The powers will be there like the United States, Canada, and Finland while some nontraditional teams like France and Italy will participate.
The New Jersey Devils are going to send 6 players to Finland for the IIHF Worlds.
Nico Hischier – Switzerland
Nico Hischier has done this before. He has been there three times and will be there for the second year in a row. He is usually one of their best players which makes sense considering his status with his NHL team. The captain took a big step in 2021-22 and this is a chance to keep working.
Jonas Siegenthaler – Switzerland
The New Jersey Devils shut down Jonas Siegenthaler down the stretch of the season due to injury. They didn’t want him to get hurt any more than he already did. He is obviously cleared to play again as he will join Hischier to try and win in this tournament. The Swiss aren’t one of the big powerhouses yet but they are coming.
Tomas Tatar – Slovakia
Tomas Tatar is one of the most tenured players in the entire tournament. He has played with his home country of Slovakia six times before and this will be his seventh. He had good times and bad with the Devils this season but this is his chance to feel good about his game going into the summer.
John Gillies – United States of America
The New Jersey Devils were in a tough spot with their goaltending this season. John Gillies was asked to do way too much and it wasn’t really fair to him but he handled it as well as he could. He is going to be rewarded by playing for Team USA in this tournament. He has played in the World Junior Championships before but never in the Worlds.
Damon Severson – Canada
Damon Severson had a good year offensively in New Jersey this season. He had a career-high in goals, assists, and thus points which says a lot about his game. He makes a lot of defensive mistakes but you can’t teach the talent that the guy has. He will represent Canada in an offseason that might feel uncertain for him and his Devils’ future.
Dawson Mercer – Canada
Dawson Mercer was the only New Jersey Devils player that played in all 82 games this season. That is impressive when there was a COVID-19 bug, an injury bug, and the fact that he is a rookie that wasn’t supposed to make it out of camp.
He had 17 goals and 25 assists on the season which was really nice for him in his rookie season. He deserves to play for Team Canada this year as he hopes to take an even bigger step in 2022-23 with the Devils.
The New Jersey Devils are hoping all of the guys return to the team ready to go.
There are a few notable omissions in terms of the Devils’ roster going to the Worlds. Jack Hughes will not represent Team USA as he is perfectly capable of doing and Jesper Bratt will not be with the Swedish club.
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These two, when healthy, each had incredibly impactful seasons with the Devils and are hoping to take it even further in 2022-23. They have all of the talents in the world and the team around them is only getting better.
A lot of negativity surrounds this team in terms of their fanbase but there are good young players in place that continue to develop every day. Sending some of these guys to this tournament will really help them this summer so they can return in the fall ready to go.