5 scariest New Jersey Devils stats that must be fixed in 2024-25

Stat #4: Power Play after Dougie Hamilton’s Injury: 30 goals

We've made the point before that Dougie Hamilton is not the sole reason why the Devils power play went into the tank. He wasn't one of the main reasons it was at one point scoring at a 40% clip. That was the first line PP, which was quarterbacked by Luke Hughes. However, it's pretty clear Hamilton would have been this unit's safety blanket. He would have taken over tha role at some point after the struggles of the man advantage.

The Devils had 25 power-play goals through 20 games when Hamilton got hurt. They had 30 goals for the rest of the season, which was 62 games. Their production was somehow cut in less than half. 

This is a team with Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier. That alone should be good for 60 power-play goals in a season. The fact that they were on a 100-power-play goal pace was unsustainable. Yet, falling off to the point that they had just 55 PP goals is preposterous.

The Devils power play must be better. They replaced Travis Green, who was in charge of the PP until he took over as interim head coach, with Jeremy Colliton. We’ll see if he’s able to get more out of this power play, and we’ll see if Hamilton takes his spot atop the first power play now that he’s back and healthy.