5 Moments That Ruined New Jersey Devils Season

1. November 28th
Dougie Hamilton's season ends

The New Jersey Devils lost their number one defenseman on November 28th against the New York Islanders. The Devils won that game, going 10-9-1 and bringing their record above hockey .500. The Devils were already devastated by injuries. Now, they were without their top guy, especially offensively.

Hamilton is still the Devils best player at even strength, something the Devils struggle mightily with. According to Natural Stat Trick, he leads the team in CorsiFor Percentage (basically changes for vs. chances against), high-danger chance percentage, and fourth in xGF percentage (behind Jesper Bratt and Ondrej Palat).

Obviously, the Devils power play is terrible right now. Hamilton would have taken Luke Hughes' spot on PP1 by now. His rocket of a shot would be exactly what the Devils need to get pucks through and get rebound chances.

Looking back at everything in a vacuum, the Devils were never able to replace Dougie Hamilton while also employing Simon Nemec. If the Devils just went with Nemec and Hamilton along with John Marino on the right side, who knows where they'd be now. Instead, the Devils are looking at a lost season.