The New Jersey Devils have been piecemealing the bottom six after a few significant injuries put them in a hole. It started with a major lower-body injury to Curtis Lazar, which many thought would force the Devils to be without their fourth-line center for most of the season. Nathan Bastian also suffered his own injury, really testing out the Devils depth at forward. Unfortunately, it showed the Devils did not have the right replacements for when players did get injured.
The Devils welcomed Nathan Bastian back two games ago, and he's played well. While he hasn't hit the scoresheet, in 15 minutes of 5v5 ice time, the Devils dominate in chances 20 to 12 according to Natural Stat Trick. It's a welcomed addition to the team, and now they just need to add Curtis Lazar back to the lineup.
While many thought it would take until well into 2025 to bring Lazar back, the team got a surprise on Friday afternoon when practice started.
Well, how about that! Curtis Lazar is on the ice for #NJDevils practice today.
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 13, 2024
He just stepped out onto the ice with teammates.
Lazar has been out since late-October with a knee injury that required surgery.
This will be his first practice with the team since then.
Curtis Lazar returning practice is a huge development for the bottom six of the New Jersey Devils.
Lazar would replace Justin Dowling on the team, who did the job to the best of his abilities, but ultimately, the Devils need better from that position. The team has been doing its best running three lines for most of the game with the fourth line coming in every so often. Adding Lazar would make this a legitimate line, and we'd be excited to see what kind of chemistry he could build with Tomas Tatar.
Nobody is saying that Lazar will be ready for the game on Saturday, but returning to practice is a good first step.
The Devils are getting healthy when they really need to build a lead on the standings. After Thursday night's win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Devils own a .641 points percentage, well ahead of the Wild Card teams. If they can continue to compete with the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals for the top of the Metropolitan Division standings, bringing injured players back into the lineup will help them possibly win the division entirely.