2020 Projected Lineups: New Jersey Devils
For the third time in four years, the @New Jersey Devils were under .500 and remain without a playoff series win in eight straight seasons.
Despite the lack of success recently, the Devils are positioned really nicely to become a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference in the not too distant future. They already had a strong stable of young prospects, headlined by @Jack Hughes and @Ty Smith, and then they added three first-rounders in this fall’s draft. All three of @Alexander Holtz (No.7 overall), @Dawson Mercer (No.18 overall) and @Shakir Mukhamadullin (No.20 overall) are all at the 2021 World Juniors right now and strengthen an already deep prospect pool for the Devils.
Last season the Devils parted ways with head coach John Hynes and Alain Nasreddine returns to an assistant role after Lindy Ruff was named head coach in July. Ruff has a history of developing young players as he did with a @Jason Pominville in Buffalo or a @John Klingberg in Dallas. He’s a coach that should be able to get the most of the Devils’ ultra-young core and most importantly Jack Hughes.
The Devils are currently tied for the 20th best odds (+5000) to win the 2021 Stanley Cup according to OddsShark.com.
Projected Forward Lines
With a new head coach coming in, it’s tough to pinpoint exactly what the Devils’ lines will look like, but they have a pretty clear top-6 and bottom-6.
There is no question who New Jersey’s No.1 centre is. @Nico Hischier had another solid but unspectacular season in 2020. He has dealt with some injuries in each of the last two seasons but has been on a 50-plus point/per 82-game pace in each of his three NHL seasons. Hischier spent the vast majority of 2020 with @Kyle Palmieri on his wing, so he’s definitely an option to play on Hischier’s right side to start 2021. However, if that’s the case, that would leave @Nikita Gusev to play with Hughes. In their limited time together last season, Gusev and Hughes were unsurprisingly a defensive liability. Gusev thrived with @Travis Zajac as his pivot, so it would make sense to put him with the more defensively-responsible, Hischier. Hischier’s second most used winger last year was @Jesper Bratt, so this would give him some familiarity and someone he had a lot of success with. Hischier’s CF% rose from 45.0 without Bratt to 51.5 with him, and they posted a strong GF% (55.2) and xGF% (57.2). Hischier seems to have some untapped offensive output and putting him with two skilled wingers could unlock some of that in 2021.
With Bratt and Gusev on L1, that leaves Palmieri and newcomer @Andreas Johnsson to play with Hughes. They are both good, fast skaters that are known for scoring goals and that should be the perfect compliment for Hughes. His numbers with Palmieri last year weren’t great (48.1 CF%, 41.2 GF%) but they were better than they were with anyone else. The best-case scenario is that Hughes takes a step forward in year-2 and this is a good second line that keeps pace with the top-line in terms of goal-scoring. The worst-case scenario is that Hughes continues to struggle and the Devils have to ask 35-year-old Zajac to continue to eat massive minutes.
With the top-2 lines expected to be focused on scoring goals, the Devils’ bottom-6 shapes up to be shutdown oriented. For Zajac, they’re going to be looking for a @Blake Coleman type to fill his wings now that Coleman is in Tampa Bay and Gusev is with Hischier. That trio was really good for the Devils last year, and it will be up to some younger players to fill the void. @Nick Merkely seems like the best in-house fit to replace Coleman. They are similar in stature and both strong in their own end, but Coleman brings a little more in the physicality department. Merkley has posted strong AHL numbers over the years and had 13 points (4G / 9A) in 19 games in Finland on his COVID-19 loan, so he should bring a little more offensive flair to the bottom-6 than the Devils have had in recent years. On the left side, it will either be @Janne Kuokkanen or @Jesper Boqvist. It all depends on what Ruff wants out of this line. In Kuokkanen, you have a pretty good offensive player who would give this line a little more scoring upside. Or you have Boqvist, who is a little more gritty and the more defensive-minded of the two options.
It probably makes more sense to have Boqvist play on the fourth line with @Pavel Zacha and @Miles Wood in what projects to be a hard forechecking, defensively-sound unit. Each player possesses individual offensive talent when positioned with skilled players, but as a trio, they will grind out goals with their work ethic more than anything.
Projected Defensive Pairings
The Devils blueline will look a lot different in 2021. Last year, they traded @Andy Greene and Sami Vatanen and this offseason they brought in @Ryan Murray and @Dmitry Kulikov. Former first-round pick @Ty Smith appears likely to make the jump after four years in the WHL, giving them three new faces to go along with @Damon Severson, @P.K. Subban and @Will Butcher.
At the top, Murray and Severson figure to be their top-pairing, so long as Murray is healthy. He’s missed 129 games (40.8 percent ) over the last four seasons so that unfortunately doesn’t seem likely, but they should be a formidable pairing when he is available. According to The Athletic’s Corey Masisak, the two new up about 80 miles apart and they two have gotten to know each other over the years. Some familiarity and playing styles that mesh together perfectly should make them a stout pairing. When healthy, Murray is fantastic in his own end and that should allow Severson to cater to his offence a little more. Severson has led the Devils in ice-time each of the last two seasons, so expect this duo to eat up a ton of minutes in 2021.
That leaves Butcher and Subban to make up the second pair. Their 2.96 GF/60 was by far the best of any of the Devils’ regular pairings a season ago but their 3.7 GA/60 was the worst. This is an offensive-minded pairing that will take a lot of the offensive-zone faceoffs and put up points but will also give up just as much, if not more.
Lastly, Smith will get a veteran partner in Kulikov, who should be much more comfortable playing on the third-pair than he was playing 20 minutes per game in Winnipeg. Kulikov spent the majority of last season playing with @Neal Pionk, so he should be comfortable playing with an undersized, offensive-minded defenseman. Smith finished fourth among WHL blueliners in points in both of the last two seasons, so he should produce modest totals in limited minutes this season and figures to battle with Severson, Subban and Butcher for some power-play time.
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