The New Jersey Devils have had a weird season offensively. This is a team that has Jack Hughes, the league’s biggest star after scoring Team USA’s Golden Goal. They have offensive firepower in Timo Meier (who has been incredibly unlucky again), Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Dawson Mercer. There are some offensive defensemen who can score like Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, and Dougie Hamilton. There is talent up and down this lineup.
Yet, none of those players are leading the Devils in even strength goals. There are so many Devils players who can score goals at a crazy pace. But those Devils players aren’t scoring at that pace. In fact, nobody mentioned in this article so far has more than 13 5v5 goals on the season.
When looking at the totals this season, 15 players have 20 or more 5v5 goals. Fifty-nine players have at least 15 5v5 goals on the season. None of them play for the Devils.
Jack Hughes has 13 goals. Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, and Arseny Gritsyuk have 11 5v5 goals. Jesper Bratt is the only other player with double-digit even-strength goals on the season, with 10.
Well, he’s not the last one. There is one more, and this is one that’s going to shock you.
Cody Glass leads all New Jersey Devils players in 5v5 goals
Cody Glass leads all Devils players with 14 5v5 goals. You read that correctly. The team’s supposed fourth-line center who was forced to play the entire year on the third line leads the team with 14 goals when there are no special teams present.
He’s done it on just 83 shots, making him incredibly efficient. He’s shooting more than 16% at 5v5. Prior to this season, Glass has never had more than six even-strength goals. Yet, this season, he’s more than doubled that, and there are still 11 games to go.
The Devils took a chance on Glass when they traded for him last season. They committed to that chance when they re-signed him to a two-year deal this past offseason. Maybe the former sixth-overall pick finally found his niche. He is 26 years old, so this should be his prime.
Either way, there’s no world where Glass should be the Devils’ top 5v5 scorer. It’s been a bad season, and this is just another example of why. He was a great signing and one of the few examples of a good recent move by Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald, but we still need more out of this offseason.