Top 3 New Jersey Devils players who surprised us in 2023-24

Timo Meier’s second half of the season was inspiring

There will always be a contingent of fans who will believe Timo Meier’s 2023-24 campaign was a massive disappointment. And okay, I get it, as he finished the year with just 52 points and 28 goals in 69 starts, not quite what you wanted to see from a player whose AAV sits at $8.8 million.

Overall, his performance was a regression from what we saw in 2022-23 when, during his time in San Jose and Newark, Meier logged 40 goals and 66 points in 78 games, something we thought he would parlay into even greater numbers during his first full season as a Devil. But in his first 43 contests, Meier struggled, scoring 10 goals and logging 22 points, just barely over half per game. 

It would have been more than acceptable to believe Meier wouldn’t have bounced back in the final seven weeks of the season, but his numbers between February 24th and April 15th should give us a lot of hope. In just 26 games, Meier had 30 points and 18 goals, good for a 19.8 shooting percentage, and seven of those scores came on the power play. 

We don’t know which version of Meier will show up early next season, but we should all agree that when he is on form, he is more than on form.