New Jersey Devils Get More Dangerous As Dawson Mercer Develops

On Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils pulled out a fantastic win over the Carolina Hurricanes, who are one of the best teams in the NHL. The Devils are proving that they are also one of the best teams in the NHL and wins like that help the narrative.

After their 13-game winning streak, nobody was questioning that. However, some bad luck in December made them fall out of favor a little bit. Now that they are 4-1-1 in their last six games though, people are starting to remember how good they are again.

They haven’t just been collecting points against bad teams, either. They have quality wins over the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings in addition to taking three out of four points from the Carolina Hurricanes. This is a group that believes that the postseason is realistic.

One player that helps the team get more dangerous every single day is Dawson Mercer. The former first-round pick is just in his second season and has been incredible to begin his career. He wasn’t a lock to make the team last year, but he made the team out of camp.

Since then, he played in all 82 games last year (was the only Devil to do so). Every game so far this year. It has been a remarkable run for him as he continues to learn the game at this level and become a difference-maker.

The New Jersey Devils have seen Dawson Mercer grow so much in two years.

In Tuesday’s big win over Carolina, he had two goals and an assist. The second goal was the one that gave New Jersey a 4-3 lead, which they did not give up. He now has 25 points on the season and is the fifth leading scorer on the New Jersey Devils.

As mentioned before, the team gets more and more dangerous as he develops his game. If he is one of the five best players on this team, along with Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dougie Hamilton, and Jesper Bratt, that will make the average age of their five best players 23.8.

23.8 is the youngest average age of the five best players on a team in the NHL. If Mercer can be the driving force of secondary scoring on this team, they will take big steps as an organization.

Landing Mercer in the middle of the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft was amazing for them. They got themselves an excellent player who can help them win for a long time, and he has proved that he continues to improve with every game.

Mercer’s next chance to play well will come on Friday when the New Jersey Devils start their California road trip against the Anaheim Ducks. Watching him continue to grow will make the team so much better.