Can New Jersey Devils Salvage Janne Kuokkanen Next Season?

The New Jersey Devils have a lot of questions to answer this offseason. One underrated question deals with the future of Janne Kuokkanen. 

There was a lot that went wrong for the New Jersey Devils this past season. Both Andreas Johnsson and Tomas Tatar found it really hard to stay consistent. Jack Hughes had two major injuries. Dougie Hamilton was a mess after he returned from a broken jaw and a broken toe. Some of the prospects showed they weren’t ready. The power play was impossible to watch. Then, there was the goalie situation. Let’s not even talk about that.

One that kind of fell under the radar was the unceremonious drop in production from Janne Kuokkanen. After coming to the Devils in the trade for Sami Vatanen, Kuokkanen fit in nicely with the Devils right away. He wasn’t an NHL player with the Carolina Hurricanes, but he was dominating the AHL. Now, he was given an opportunity to succeed in the big leagues.

He only played one game in that first season in New Jersey when he came at the trade deadline. The next season, he earned a starting job right away. He even excelled in the shortened season. He only missed two games, and he scored 25 points in 50 games. 20 of those points came at even strength.

Last season, many expected him to take a step forward. He had an NHL season under his belt, and he was going to have more trust from the Lindy Ruff coaching staff. They showed that with where he started the season.

Wait, is that Janne Kuokkanen on a line with Jack Hughes? That’s how this season started, and that’s because Kuokkanen-Hughes-Sharangovich was the best line the Devils had two seasons ago. Yes, this kid was on the best line on the team. That seems like it was years ago, but back in October Lindy Ruff thought Janne Kuokkanen was the key to getting the best out of Jack Hughes.

Can the New Jersey Devils expect anything from Janne Kuokkanen next season?

It didn’t last long. Kuokkanen and Hughes played just 37 minutes at even strength this past season. That should be enough for about two games for a team’s top line. Ruff saw quickly that this wasn’t the same Kuokkanen we saw in 2021. He produced like a completely different player.

Kuokkanen was given power-play time right off the bat, and he even scored a PPG in the third game of the season. He didn’t score another power-play goal the rest of the season. He only had six goals and 17 points for the rest of the season. It was a pretty putrid output. He basically kept finding himself in the lineup because the Devils really didn’t have anyone better. Outside of injuries, he played 57 games.

Kuokkanen just wasn’t in the right frame of mind offensively. He was pretty good defensively, but his overall impact was muted. Now, he’s kind of an afterthought.

That also seems like a mistake. We’ve seen sophomore slumps before, and Kuokkanen has offensive upside with the ability to play in the bottom six. The Devils have a lot of those guys, but Kuokkanen still feels like one of the better options. He’s 24 years old. This is still a very young hockey player with a lot to prove. He has one more year left on his contract. It makes all the sense in the world for the Devils to take one more chance with Kuokkanen. He has very little value in the trade market, so adding him to a deal seems like a fool’s errand. Just give him another chance, and he truly could turn it around. He won’t ever be on a line with Jack Hughes again, but he could be a good bottom-six player.