The New Jersey Devils have a scoring problem. It’s pretty clear that this problem went from a “rough fourth line” to “only getting scoring from the top six” to “Jack Hughes scores all of the Devils’ goals.” It’s been a rough go for the Devils since Christmas. They have the fanbase on the rocks, and a long road trip is not what this team needs right now.
What they really need is more scoring. It’s been two months since the Devils have returned from Christmas break. The Devils have played 23 games since the break. Hughes has 12 goals in that time. That’s pretty good! Nobody else has more than seven.
Nico Hischier is one of those players with seven, and he missed a few weeks with an oblique injury. Palat is the other player with seven goals. Dawson Mercer and Paul Cotter have five and six goals respectively. When you scroll all the way down the list on the Devils stat page, you find both Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar.
They both have a big ole zero next to their goal stat since Christmas. Haula hasn’t scored a goal since before Thanksgiving. Lazar went down with an injury that most expected to last months, but he got back in the lineup earlier than anyone expected. Unfortunately, he hasn’t scored a goal since then, so his scoreless tracker is going back to before Halloween. Lazar has one goal this entire season.
Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar have ground the Devils offense to a hault
Nobody expected Haula and Lazar to score 20 goals this season, but it would have been nice if they combined for 10.
Haula is especially disappointing. He should have easily stayed in that third-line center role and added a little offense. In his last three seasons, he had between 14 and 18 goals in each year. He needed to be a 15-goal scorer for this team, or he’s a complete waste.
Not only does he not have a goal since Christmas, but he doesn’t have a point. The other issue here is the Devils have no center depth to replace either of them. Justin Dowling is a fine defensive center, but the Devils don’t need that right now. They need offense in the worst way.
The Devils’ number-one priority at the trade deadline must be to acquire a center who can score. They can go after Ryan O’Reilly or a star like that, or they can just find someone with some upside, but their season depends on it.