With the NHL preseason underway, most teams have at least a couple of games under their belt and have made their first cuts, as ideas swirl about who will make the opening-night rosters.
The New Jersey Devils lost six key players from last season – either via trade or free agency. While most of the core remains the same, the Devils will have to bank on their acquisitions and younger players to fill those voids.
Here they are:
Departed: Ryan Graves
Stepping In: Kevin Bahl
Ryan Graves was a workhorse for a very successful Devils team last season. He finished second on the team with a plus-34 rating – tied with David Pastrnak for ninth in the NHL.
He averaged just under 20 minutes a night while mostly spending his time on the top two pairings. Unfortunately, the Devils were unable to bring him back as a free agent since they had to be intelligent about their cap situation. It’s hard to fault management for prioritizing extensions for Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier, two cornerstone pieces of their offense. Graves got the term he wanted with the Pittsburgh Penguins, signing a six-year deal worth $27 million.
There is also the recent success of 23-year-old Kevin Bahl, especially in the playoffs. Bahl has always had the size – he’s 6-foot-6, 230 pounds – but his physicality in juniors did not translate to the NHL early on. He started to use his body more in the playoffs, adding 22 hits in 11 games. His even-strength Corsi for percentage was 54.2%, meaning the Devils generated more offense than they gave up last season when Bahl was on the ice.
“Kevin Bahl looks very impressive so far in training camp. He’s the most improved skater on the team, particularly his edge work and pivots. It’s allowed him to be more active on pinches with the ability to quickly transition back.”
– via Sam Kasan, NHL.com
Bahl’s skating was great in their first preseason contest against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, and he made a statement with a bone-crushing hit on Wade Allison. After letting Graves walk, the Devils clearly believe that Bahl is ready to take the next big step. He was paired with Dougie Hamilton on Monday, and the duo completely tilted the ice; Bahl’s steadiness should complement the offensive-minded Hamilton very well.
Departed: Yegor Sharangovich
Stepping in: Alexander Holtz
Yegor Sharangovich’s rise from American Hockey League (AHL) role player to productive NHLer has been a fun storyline to watch in recent years. After an impressive 24-goal bid in the 2021-22 season, last season was a step in the wrong direction for the Belarusian.
He scored a career-low 13 goals and found himself a healthy scratch for some important moments down the stretch, including most of the playoffs. He quickly lost ice time and began to fall out of favor in head coach Lindy Ruff’s thriving offense. Sharangovich doesn’t bring much to the table besides goal-scoring, so his production simply didn’t cut it. Thankfully, the Devils were able to acquire Tyler Toffoli for Sharangovich straight up, which is a clear upgrade based on last season’s production.
This season is make-or-break for Alexander Holtz, and time is running out for the former seventh-overall pick. The glaring issue has been his speed. He has an elite, almost Ovechkin-esque shot, but he has been too slow to keep up with the rapid pace of Ruff’s system. He’s had an entire offseason to work on that, and thus far, his improvement has been noticeable. He looked much quicker than in previous seasons during their first preseason contest on Monday, rocketing down the slot and firing his patented wrist shot into the top corner.
Assuming Holtz does make the team and gets one last shot, he will likely fill Sharangovich’s spot, where he can be moved anywhere throughout the top nine. Similarly, he’ll be in the lineup for his goal-scoring ability and not much else. Granted, I think Holtz does have some underrated passing ability, and hopefully, his season goes better than Sharangovich’s did last year.
Departed: Mackenzie Blackwood
Stepping in: Akira Schmid
Mackenzie Blackwood got off to an excellent start with the Devils, posting a .918 and .915 save percentage (SV%) in his first two NHL seasons. However, injuries derailed his tenure, and he left the organization wondering what could have been. After three consecutive subpar seasons, it was time to move on. Blackwood’s rights were traded to the San Jose Sharks on June 27 in exchange for a sixth-round pick, which the Devils used to draft Cole Brown.
With the season about to start, it appears the Devils are going to roll with Akira Schmid as Vitek Vanecek’s backup. The 23-year-old netminder was superb in his 18 regular-season contests, going 9-5-0 with a 2.13 goals-against average (GAA) and a .922 SV%. He was just as good in the playoffs, where he single-handedly propelled the Devils to a thrilling seven-game victory in the first round over rival New York Rangers.
Barring external moves, he won’t just be an emergency policy when Blackwood is injured but rather a full-time member of the Devils’ roster. With such little experience and a lack of AHL success, some are wondering if Schmid’s 2022-23 season was a fluke. But to go into The Garden down 2-0 in a playoff series and shut down the Rangers? That’s no accident. Schmid was a stone-cold warrior the entire playoffs and didn’t let a single moment phase him.
Related: 4 Takeaways From New Jersey Devils’ 6-0 Win vs. Flyers
It will be interesting to see how Schmid reacts to a larger, more guaranteed workload this go-around. But given Blackwood’s recent performance, it’s hard to imagine Schmid won’t be an upgrade.
Departed: Tomas Tatar
Stepping in: Tyler Toffoli
Tomas Tatar had a criminally underrated 2022-23 season. It’s not often you hear that the player who finished fifth in the NHL in plus-minus (plus-41) might not get a deal and may have to settle for a professional tryout (PTO). That was the case for Tatar for most of the summer before he finally signed a small one-year contract worth $1.5 million with the Colorado Avalanche.
This is the same player who scored 20 goals and 28 assists while playing primarily in the top lines of a very successful Devils team. However, a common theme has made teams weary: a disturbing lack of playoff production.
For Tatar’s entire career, his play has dropped off significantly come playoff time. In 52 playoff games, he’s picked up just 13 points to go with a minus-14 rating. It’s the same issue that made him a healthy scratch when he played for the Montreal Canadiens. The Devils are in win-now mode and can’t wait for Tatar to figure it out come postseason time.
In comes Toffoli, who is coming off a career season with the Calgary Flames. While you can’t expect him to score another 34 goals as he did last season, he’s still a legitimate top-six option and is an upgrade from Tatar. At this stage, Toffoli has much more offensive firepower.
He joins Ondrej Palat and Cal Foote as the only current Devils to have hoisted the Cup.
Toffoli’s 2021 Playoff run with the Canadiens alone had more points (14) than Tatar has in his entire career (13) – Toffoli has 44 playoff points in his career. Getting to play with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, a line that has looked dynamite in camp, means there will be tons of chances for Toffoli to generate offense. Since becoming an NHL regular in 2013-14, he’s averaged 22.5 goals per season, and in the last four years, that mark has risen to 26.5. He’s shown no signs of slowing down, but rather the opposite, and I expect him to be a huge piece for the Devils this season.
Departed: Damon Severson
Stepping in: Colin Miller
Damon Severson was the longest-tenured Devil when they dealt him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first sign-and-trade in Devils’ history this summer. While he was a top-pairing defenseman for the team at one point, after acquiring Hamilton, he transitioned into more of a defensive role. Severson was a so-called analytics darling, feasting on some lesser opponents while playing mostly on the bottom pairing last season. His underlying numbers were superb, but he still made the occasional gaffe, which overshadowed those stats. Regardless, his overall raw production on both sides of the puck marked that of a very good defenseman.
The Devils understandably did not want to extend Severson, knowing that their second-overall selection in 2022, Simon Nemec, will be ready soon. With their cap situation, extending Severson likely would have hindered the Devils’ long-term plans.
They don’t want to rush Nemec, so the Devils acquired Colin Miller from the Dallas Stars to ensure that he will get his proper development time. In all likelihood, Nemec will need most (if not all) of this season in the AHL before he becomes a full-time NHLer.
While Miller doesn’t produce as much offense as Severson, he’ll be playing in a strictly third-pairing role so that shouldn’t be too much of a concern. He was tied with Jamie Benn for fifth on the Stars with a plus-23 rating, and his offense isn’t nonexistent. He still chipped in 21 points last season and had a career-high 41-point campaign for the Vegas Golden Knights in their inaugural season (2017-18).
The Devils have emphasized the need for quality NHL veterans to supplement their younger core, and that’s exactly what Miller is. He should be able to hold down the role until Nemec is ready, whether that’s in three months or a year.
Departed: Miles Wood
Stepping in: Tomas Nosek
After Severson’s departure, Miles Wood became the longest-tenured Devil, but that didn’t last long, as he hit free agency and joined Tatar in Colorado on a six-year, $15 million contract.
Wood had some exciting moments as a Devil, but his inconsistency and lack of discipline drew a lot of ire from fans. Management couldn’t commit to a long-term deal, especially since, at that point, they still needed to extend Bratt and Meier.
Instead, they opted to sign defense-oriented forward Tomas Nosek to a one-year deal to take Wood’s spot on the fourth line. While Nosek won’t put up nearly the same offense that Wood did (his career high is eight goals), he brings a much-needed element to that fourth line and to the team: face-offs and penalty killing.
Nosek is coming off a season with the Boston Bruins when he boasted a 59.3% face-off percentage and was one of their top penaltykillers on the best unit in the NHL (87.3% success).
Wood was rarely used on the penalty kill, and if he was, he did not stand out. His career faceoff win percentage is 32.4%, so he wasn’t great insurance if Michael McLeod got kicked out of the circle.
Between Nosek’s prowess on the kill and his success in the dot, his lack of offense shouldn’t be much of a concern. The Devils will have a surplus of offense in their top nine, provided that everyone is healthy. Since they have those scoring roles filled, Nosek can play a valuable role, just like he did for the Bruins team that set the all-time regular-season wins record in 2022-23.
Devils Are Ready to Compete
While the Devils did lose some important names this summer, the organization did a great job of maintaining their win-now aspirations and making sure no holes remain. On paper, they have a team capable of competing with anyone in the league. It’ll be interesting to see whether they cave under that pressure or rise up to it.
