Is there a team with a worse bottom six than the Devils?

[VoidCreature]

I honestly wonder where this stacks up among the terrible teams. Despite adding Taylor Hall this offseason, the Devils are scoring .02 goals/game LESS than last year. You know, when we finished last in goals.

A big reason for this is the completely non-existent bottom 6 on the Devils. Pavel Zacha and Miles Wood have started to find their games lately and pick up some of the slack, but take a look at what we're working with here.

Jacob Josefson, 23 GP, 0 goals

Luke Gazdic, 10 GP, 0 goals

Vernon Fiddler, 38 GP, 1 goal

Sergei Kalinin, 37 GP, 2 goals

Devante Smith-Pelly, 42 GP, 2 goals

Beau Bennett, 40 GP, 3 goals

Zacha, 42 GP, 4 goals

Wood, 31 GP, 7 goals

Miles Wood has recently been bumped to the top six, so I'm not sure you can count him anymore. So, for visualization purposes, this is what we're working with:

4-0-3
1-2-2

0

A grand total of twelve goals. From seven players. Stefan Noesen, who we picked up on waivers, already has as many goals as three of them.

Is there anyone else in the league with a bottom six this abysmal? I'm legitimately curious.

Click to read more...

 

[MNRube]

Colorado comes to mind

 

[Jets012]

Zacha, Bennett, Wood haven't been terrible this year. Bennett's a pretty great 3rd liner on the right team. Zacha is starting to come along. Josefson is Josefson. He's a great 4th liner, but can't produce at all.

I'd argue their top 6 is arguably worse compared to the rest of the league. Henrique/Palmieri both aren't top 6 players. PAP probably is an ideal 3rd liner. Besides Hall/Zajac, they desperately lack the top 6 talent.

 

[Gsus]

Flyers are pretty terrible too. I mean nothing like the Devils, but still.

 

[THall4]

How Jacob Josefson has been able to survive in the league this long boggles my mind.

 

[amit916]

It's Colorado.

I think Mitchell/McLeod/Colburne had a combined 2 points at one point all year minus Colburne's hatrick (Colborne has had one point since his opening night hat trick)

 

[Jets012]

How Jacob Josefson has been able to survive in the league this long boggles my mind.

Because it's crazy that he's quite good at everything but scoring. I've never seen someone so good at every other component of hockey besides producing.

 

[Ceremony]

John Mitchell 39GP 1G 0A 0P
Andreas Martinsen 41GP 2G 2A 4P
Joe Colborne 36GP 3G 1A 4P
McLeod had 1 or 2 points before he was traded. Some mixture of Soderberg, Comeau and Grigorenko have usually filled out the rest.

Trust me. It's worse.

 

[tigervixxxen]

There is no bottom 6 worse than Colorado's

 

[SladeWilson23]

How Jacob Josefson has been able to survive in the league this long boggles my mind.

He does a lot of things well. He's good on face-offs, good passer, good skating ability, good defensively, smart, and very good in the shootout. Not to mention he's a good possession player. He has all the tools to be a decent point producer, but for whatever reason he doesn't.

 

[SladeWilson23]

Because it's crazy that he's quite good at everything but scoring. I've never seen someone so good at every other component of hockey besides producing.

He has had injury issues, which doesn't help. He's also never been given good line mates at all. I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but he hasn't exactly been handed the best situation either. I also think Deboer destroyed his psyche.

I'm very hopeful that maybe he and Zacha have found something here together, and maybe they can really boost each other.

 

[Toastman]

Colorado and Vancouver come to mind

 

[m302291]

Zacha, Bennett, Wood haven't been terrible this year. Bennett's a pretty great 3rd liner on the right team. Zacha is starting to come along. Josefson is Josefson. He's a great 4th liner, but can't produce at all.

I'd argue their top 6 is arguably worse compared to the rest of the league. Henrique/Palmieri both aren't top 6 players. PAP probably is an ideal 3rd liner. Besides Hall/Zajac, they desperately lack the top 6 talent.

What happened to Henrique? Is really just a third line scoring center now?

 

[Adele Dazeem]

The Devils whole offensive lines are one behind the rest of the league's top team standard.
Their first is a second line and so on and so forth.

 

[VanJack]

Don't forget the Canucks.. third and fourth lines comprised of a PTO, a couple of career AHL'ers and a rookie with zero goals on the season...picked up Reid Boucher from the Devils but won't play him....what's the story on this guy anyway?

 

[wolfgaze]

Vernon Fiddler, 38 GP, 1 goal

Wow, didn't know this player was still in the league...

 

[SladeWilson23]

What happened to Henrique? Is really just a third line scoring center now?

Nothing happened to Henrique. He's just not your prototypical first line center. He's never been nothing more than a 40 to 50 point guy, which would make him a good 2nd line center, or GREAT 3rd line center. Problem is we have two centers like that with Zajac also being that 40 to 50 point center.

The Devils whole offensive lines are one behind the rest of the league's top team standard.
Their first is a second line and so on and so forth.

This is so true. There's only one legit top line player on the team, and the rest are middle 6 forwards. Middle 6 forwards we have plenty of.

 

[The Pale King]

Unlike seasons past, depth scoring has been a strength for the Kings this year, if not THE strength. Certainly the biggest surprise (though Budaj has impressed as well).

With Toffoli out, and Kopitar with just 5 goals, Lewis, Clifford, Shore and Nolan have all stepped up.

 

[grcenter47]

I honestly wonder where this stacks up among the terrible teams. Despite adding Taylor Hall this offseason, the Devils are scoring .02 goals/game LESS than last year. You know, when we finished last in goals.

A big reason for this is the completely non-existent bottom 6 on the Devils. Pavel Zacha and Miles Wood have started to find their games lately and pick up some of the slack, but take a look at what we're working with here.

Jacob Josefson, 23 GP, 0 goals

Luke Gazdic, 10 GP, 0 goals

Vernon Fiddler, 38 GP, 1 goal

Sergei Kalinin, 37 GP, 2 goals

Devante Smith-Pelly, 42 GP, 2 goals

Beau Bennett, 40 GP, 3 goals

Zacha, 42 GP, 4 goals

Wood, 31 GP, 7 goals

Miles Wood has recently been bumped to the top six, so I'm not sure you can count him anymore. So, for visualization purposes, this is what we're working with:

4-0-3
1-2-2

0

A grand total of twelve goals. From seven players. Stefan Noesen, who we picked up on waivers, already has as many goals as three of them.

Is there anyone else in the league with a bottom six this abysmal? I'm legitimately curious.

i think the devils have the worst. it hurts being a fan

i am hoping shero knows what he is doing

 

[AfroThunder396]

i think the devils have the worst. it hurts being a fan

i am hoping shero knows what he is doing

Of course he does, none of those guys except Zacha and Wood are long term solutions and they're not good enough to play in the top-6 yet.

 

[Bleedred]

I think the question should not be ''Is there a team with a worse bottom six than the Devils?'', it should be ''Has there ever been a team with a worse bottom six than the Devils?''

I think there has been one team with a worse bottom 6 than the current Devils, and it was last year's Devils.

How Jacob Josefson has been able to survive in the league this long boggles my mind.

He's gotten more of a leash since Hynes/Shero came in than he had beforehand. DeBoer used to scratch him all the time. With the way the new regime uses him, it's almost like we traded a pick for him and he was originally a Penguins draft pick that Shero had before New Jersey. Or that we drafted him a couple years ago and that he's still only 21-22 and a legit prospect. I've also heard claims that he's been unlucky because he has good possession numbers, despite being bottom 5 (if not the absolute worst) points per 60 minute producer over the last few years in the entire league. Or that he's been a product of a bad offensive team, rather than the truth. Which is that the team is a bad offensive team because players like Josefson are played in roles much greater than that of their capabilities.

 

[Bob Cole]

DSP back to being garbage?

 

[Darkauron]

DSP back to being garbage?

Yep. He is good for nothing.

 

[Bleedred]

DSP back to being garbage?

Still better than Matteau (who isn't?) and has probably been a little unlucky to not score a couple more points.

But still, back to being good for pretty much nothing.

I think we all knew his hot streak last year was a fluke, I just thought he could be a 30-ish point per year player. He's on pace for fewer than 15 though.

 

[pigpen65]

Devils have the worst forwards in the league. All 12 of them.