3 New Jersey Devils Who Deserve A Bigger Role In 2024-25
Acquiring depth will be high on GM Tom Fitzgerald's "to-do" list this summer. Before he goes out spending millions in free agency, he should take a look and see what he has in-house to fill those roles.
Tom Fitzgerald has more priorities than we can count for the New Jersey Devils this offseason (goalie and coach seem to be top of the list), but an underrated priority has to be adding depth to the roster. He watched as injuries hampered most of the early part of the season. No team can ever prepare for injuries and how long star players will be out, but they should always be ready for when players miss significant time.
Fitzgerald will undoubtedly look towards the free agent and trade market to address the depth problem. This is a great free agency class when it comes to adding bottom-six forwards and bottom-pairing defensemen.
However, the Devils are in a slight cap crunch and will have less money to work with this summer than initially thought. So, instead of dumping millions on multiple positions, Fitzgerald should look internally to a few players who can greatly improve the Devil's depth at the NHL level. Especially those who have earned a chance to do so with strong performances
1. Brian Halonen
The Devils signed Halonen from Michigan Tech at the end of the 2021-22 season and was much of an afterthought. He was coming off of a great senior season but didn't project into much more than an AHLer.
However, over the past two seasons - and 2023-24 in particular - Halonen's game has continued to take jumps forward. This past season though, Halonen put together a fantastic 20-goal campaign in 35 AHL games. This was enough to earn him his first NHL call-up
In the two games in the NHL, Halonen went pointless and averaged just 8:17 of ice time. What he did display though was something the Devils bottom-six needs desperately; speed and physicality. Halonen boasts a sturdy frame to handle the physicalness of the NHL and is a significantly better skater than the likes of Tomas Nosek, Chris Tierney and Kurtis MacDermid.
The question will be if his AHL scoring can translate at all to the NHL level. If it can, he should be a sure-fire starter on the Devils fourth line. If it doesn't, maybe he fits more as a 13th or 14th forward who comes in and plays about 20 games or so.
2. Santeri Hatakka
How Hatakka only played in 12 games is still mind blowing. One of the "throw-ins" in the Timo Meier trade, Hatakka had a bit of hype behind him starting back in development camp. A strong training camp and preseason kept him on the map, and once injuries struck, he earned his call-up.
He recorded two points in the 12 games he played but flashed a strong defensive game and was a steady defender. He was eighth on the team in Shots Blocked per 60 despite just 12 games, fearlessly getting his body or stick in front of shots.
The Devils likely move on from Brendan Smith this summer, leaving an open spot for the team's seventh defenseman spot. Fitzgerald may opt to add more veterans to the back end, but with money needing to be allocated to the goaltending and bottom-six, there's an avenue where Hatakka runs unopposed for that spot.
The 23-year-old is a physically mature and responsible defenseman, who even showed a bit of flash of offense in the AHL. He scored five goals and added 15 assists in 48 games for Utica this year. Hatakka's performances while he was in the lineup were much greater than those of Smith, Nick DeSimone, and at times even Kevin Bahl. The organization should take a long look at Hatakka to see if he can play regular minutes at the NHL level next season.
3. Nico Daws
Hope for the best, expect the worst. When it comes to Devils goaltending just expect the worst. It's become not even a Devils thing, but an NHL thing where teams need AT LEAST three goalies a season. It's more like four, maybe five, but at the bare minimum, a team needs at least three.
The Devils currently have Jake Allen as the projected starter going into next season, but chances are near 100% that Fitzgerald will add a true number-one goalie. If that's the case then Allen and that goalie will be the two sharing the crease to start the year. Like we said though, they'll need at least three.
It likely comes down to Nico Daws and Akira Schmid for who will take that role. The main reason why Schmid may not be that guy is because of his reported frustration with not getting an extension. If he's not in the Devils plans to play regularly in the NHL, then the team may opt to move him, rather than have a disgruntled Schmid in the AHL.
That's not slight on Daws either. He was fantastic in stretches with the Devils this season. He ended up posting a 3.15 GAA and 0.894 SV% in 21 games but showed flashes of brilliance. Had the Devils found another competent goalie and not run Daws into the ground, his numbers would have been much better than they are.
Daws was also returning from major hip surgery over the summer and hadn't gotten any game action until late in 2023. With a year removed from surgery and a solid stint in the NHL last season, Daws should be the unquestioned number three goalie heading into net.
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