Do the New Jersey Devils make the playoffs next season?

[dalewood12]

I know it's before the big summer trades and signings, but thought I would get a temperature check on the team.

Click to read more...

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

yes but not as top tier contenders like everyone thought they'd be this year. they have a lot of issues, some of which could be solved next year (i.e. health, potentially goaltending), some of which won't be (team defense).

 

[bossram]

yes but not as top tier contenders like everyone thought they'd be this year. they have a lot of issues, some of which could be solved next year (i.e. health, potentially goaltending), some of which won't be (team defense).

A legitimate coach could help that area a lot.

 

[LaMasquerade]

Voted yes, but I thought that they'd have made it this year too..

 

[Nocashstyle]

Hamilton missed 62 games
J Hughes missed 20 games
Meier missed 13 games
Hischier missed 11 games

Yes, every team goes through injuries, but those are some substantial games missed for their top players. J Hughes (shoulder) and Meier (both MCLs) were also clearly hurt and not at 100% for at least half of the games they did play.

We can talk goaltending and coaching to exhaustion (both also major problems), but their injury issues hampered the entire season.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

No , fool me once.......

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

A legitimate coach could help that area a lot.

it would help but personnel is also part of the issue.

 

[dgibb10]

yes but not as top tier contenders like everyone thought they'd be this year. they have a lot of issues, some of which could be solved next year (i.e. health, potentially goaltending), some of which won't be (team defense).

The team defense COULD solve itself.

Healthy hamilton
Siegs and Marino playing at their 22-23 Levels
Luke and Nemec with another year of development.

The big Ifs there are Siegs (especially him), and Marino.

But if they get back to what they were in 22-23 the defense could be as good if not better than it was in 22-23. (I'd argue Luke and Nemec are already as good as Severson/Graves were)

However I'm concerned on if Siegs can bounce back, and have heavily suggested NJD to target another LD to pair with marino instead of Bahl.

 

[HugeInTheShire]

Hamilton missed 62 games
J Hughes missed 20 games
Meier missed 13 games
Hischier missed 11 games

Yes, every team goes through injuries, but those are some substantial games missed for their top players. J Hughes (shoulder) and Meier (both MCLs) were also clearly hurt and not at 100% for at least half of the games they did play.

We can talk goaltending and coaching to exhaustion (both also major problems), but their injury issues hampered the entire season.

When your top D pair misses 87 games in a season and your GM does nothing, it's really difficult to stay afloat. I'm genuinely impressed they managed to stay in the hunt for a spot as long as they did.

 

[Chainshot]

Seems like Fitz has finally decided to get off his ass about his goaltending. If he follows through this summer, yeah, they get in.

 

[BCNate]

Fix the goaltending first, then see where it goes. Next season will depend on who is between the pipes.

 

[bossram]

it would help but personnel is also part of the issue.

I agree. I would overhaul their depth forward group and add a legitimate top-four defensive LHD.

But the Ruff DZ system was bafflingly stupid, especially given the personnel they had. And their default breakout scheme (always hard strong side stretch) was hilariously predictable by all opponents, leading to more time spent defending.

A competent coach will get them to mid-pack defensively instantly.

 

[Bleedred]

They should

I'd feel much more comfortable if the following happened

Travis Green off the staff ENTIRELY. Guy is one of the worst coaches the league has seen in the last decade up there with Freddy's brother Ralph in Buffalo and Doug Weight. He's absolutely no-count as an assistant also. The power play wayyyyy overachieved. It was bottom 6 or 7 in expected goals, though it was around 10th when Hamilton got injured, it just wasn't nearly 1st like it was in percentage. I firmly believe he was more to blame for this year than Ruff, and the team completely bottomed out when he took over. He's incredibly worthless. I hope he never works in the league again, unless it's for one of our rivals.

FIRE Dave Rogalski as goalie coach. Not sure why he's still there. My guess is if he was gonna go, he would have been fired already. It's just the vibe I'm now getting. I wonder if the two goalie acquisitions at the deadline saved him. He should have been the first to go even before Ruff.

I'd like to see who the head coach is first. I said all along before Ruff was fired that while I didn't want him to be the head coach next year, I think we have enough talent when healthy and with goalie upgrades that he's not bad enough to FUBAR our team next year and keep us out of the playoffs.

However, Travis Green certainly IS.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

They should

I'd feel much more comfortable if the following happened

Travis Green off the staff ENTIRELY. Guy is one of the worst coaches the league has seen in the last decade up there with Freddy's brother Ralph in Buffalo and Doug Weight. He's absolutely no-count as an assistant also. The power play wayyyyy overachieved. It was bottom 6 or 7 in expected goals, though it was around 10th when Hamilton got injured, it just wasn't nearly 1st like it was in percentage. I firmly believe he was more to blame for this year than Ruff, and the team completely bottomed out when he took over. He's incredibly worthless. I hope he never works in the league again, unless it's for one of our rivals.

FIRE Dave Rogalski as goalie coach. Not sure why he's still there. My guess is if he was gonna go, he would have been fired already. It's just the vibe I'm now getting. I wonder if the two goalie acquisitions at the deadline saved him. He should have been the first to go even before Ruff.

I'd like to see who the head coach is first. I said all along before Ruff was fired that while I didn't want him to be the head coach next year, I think we have enough talent when healthy and with goalie upgrades that he's not bad enough to FUBAR our team next year and keep us out of the playoffs.

However, Travis Green certainly IS.

Do not quote me directly because I may have misheard

I was listening to 1050 the other day (Toronto's TSN Radio) and Dreger was talking about the coaching market.

He subtly implied that Travis Green is the leading contender for the Devils job

Dreger's stuff outside of Toronto is iffy so I really hope he's wrong, any other coach and even average goaltending get's the Devils back in

 

[Bleedred]

Do not quote me directly because I may have misheard

I was listening to 1050 the other day (Toronto's TSN Radio) and Dreger was talking about the coaching market.

He subtly implied that Travis Green is the leading contender for the Devils job

Dreger's stuff outside of Toronto is iffy so I really hope he's wrong about you guys haha

There was something about a month ago, maybe only 3 weeks ago from TSN that the Devils are seriously considering him permanently.

Our record under him was still somewhat respectable at the time, but it really fell apart.

I do think he can be back in an assistant role again (I don't want him to though) but I don't think he'll be head coach.

And if he IS? Fitx isn't as good of a GM as we thought he was. That's pretty much waving the flag and giving up.

I'd rather a rookie, as Green isn't a rookie but he's a known commodity of bad.

I think Green's record in his last 46 games coached (2021 in Vancouver before being fired and 21 games with us) is 16-27-3.

And that's with goaltending that's above league average. We were on an 87 point pace with Ruff and HORRIBLE goaltending and a 66 point pace with Green with above average goaltending.

I still think we may have stayed alive till the end if they didn't fire Lindy, especially after the goaltending acquisitions which happened days after he was fired. I still think we would have ultimately missed, but only by maybe 4-5 points and not 10.

And I'm no Lindy supporter.

 

[PB37]

I thought they'd be in the running for best team in the East coming out of preseason. Injuries, poor play, poor coaching all added up to be too much for them to overcome. But they are still stocked with a lot of young, upper tier talent and I think if they stay healthy, they'll have a good rebound year. A better goaltender would go a long way for that team.

 

[jetsforever]

Yeah like Isles or Caps this year

 

[HolyHagelin]

I saw a bunch of the devils this year, they are crazy soft. They need a wilson/rempe type to give everyone a little extra spine stiffness by association, and hughes needs to put on 10 lbs of muscle.

Which hughes? Yes.

Those things and a goalie and this team becomes scary again.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

There was something about a month ago, maybe only 3 weeks ago from TSN that the Devils are seriously considering him permanently.

Our record under him was still somewhat respectable at the time, but it really fell apart.

I do think he can be back in an assistant role again (I don't want him to though) but I don't think he'll be head coach.

And if he IS? Fitx isn't as good of a GM as we thought he was. That's pretty much waving the flag and giving up.

I'd rather a rookie, as Green isn't a rookie but he's a known commodity of bad.

I think Green's record in his last 46 games coached (2021 in Vancouver before being fired and 21 games with us) is 16-27-3.

And that's with goaltending that's above league average. We were on an 87 point pace with Ruff and HORRIBLE goaltending and a 66 point pace with Green with above average goaltending.

I still think we may have stayed alive till the end if they didn't fire Lindy, especially after the goaltending acquisitions which happened days after he was fired. I still think we would have ultimately missed, but only by maybe 4-5 points and not 10.

And I'm no Lindy supporter.

I still can't believe your GM thought Green would make a difference. Shoulda just rowed it out with Lindy

 

[dgibb10]

I still can't believe your GM thought Green would make a difference. Shoulda just rowed it out with Lindy

That was a favour to Lindy.

NJD had a home game coming up after a short road trip and Lindy was about to get boo'd out of the stadium after going an embarrassing 2-5 post stadium series to make us fall out of a playoff spot, just as we were getting healthy.

 

[Bleedred]

I still can't believe your GM thought Green would make a difference. Shoulda just rowed it out with Lindy

I honestly think it was merely a mercy firing to Lindy. I'd like to think Green was never hired with any intention to eventually be the head coach, but I won't decalre that until we hire a head coach that isn't him.

He was f***in abysmal. He's almost as hated in Vancouver as Mark Messier.

I've been pounding the drum on BAD he is for a while now. I LOL'd when he was a lame duck in 2021 and there was talk of Seattle being interested in him if Vancouver didn't hire up and re-sign him before Seattle was able to legally talk to him. And they did re-sign him, only to fire him not even 2 months into the season.

When a potential new rival close by wants to hire Travis Green, you let them hire Travis Green. Consider it a means of sabotage to your new rival.

He's a JOKE coach. We were worse in EVERY metric under him, including win/loss. Goaltending actually was better, but that was because we acquired two new guys.

 

[thefutures]

Playoffs for sure, their needs can be easily aided in free agency. Grit and a goalie

 

[dirtydanglez]

yes they make it but they've got to do something with the goaltending. it's beyond obvious that it's their main problem for the second year in a row.

 

[Aurinko]

D-core got shredded year ago. It just takes time to get things going with younger guys, since they will always do more mistakes in a game of mistakes.

Good news is that the D-core is quite talented and should improve rather fast.

 

[amnesiac]

Just miss out again.... I think another year of Luke and Nemec developing their all around game, and then theyll be a regular playoff team and eventual contender.

Also potentially signing a UFA goalie: Saros, Ullmark, Andersen, Lindgren