How Close Are The New Jersey Devils To A Playoff Team?

William Nylander is a forward potentially on his way out of Toronto. (Image via. Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)

Introduction

The New Jersey Devils have had an exciting week, using their cap space and multitude of assets to improve the team. With all of the new additions, many are saying that the Devils are close to competing for a playoff spot, but how close exactly? Let’s take a look at the Devils roster and compare it to last year’s second wild card team, the Washington Capitals.

2021-22 Washington Capitals Depth Chart

Alex Ovechkin	Evgeni Kuznetsov	Tom Wilson
Anthony Mantha	Nicklas Backstrom	TJ Oshie
Conor Sheary	Lars Eller	Marcus Johansson
Connor McMichael	Nic Dowd	Garnet Hathaway

Martin Fehervary	John Carlson
Dimitri Orlov	Nick Jensen
Justin Schultz	Trevor Van Riemsdyk

Ilya Samsonov

Vitek Vanecek

2022-23 New Jersey Devils Projected Depth Chart

Yegor Sharangovich	Jack Hughes	Jesper Bratt
Ondrej Palat	Nico Hischier	Dawson Mercer
Tomas Tatar	Eric Haula	Alexander Holtz
Miles Wood	Jesper Boqvist	Nathan Bastian

Ryan Graves	Dougie Hamilton
Jonas Siegenthaler	Damon Severson
Brendan Smith	John Marino

Vitek Vanecek

Mackenzie Blackwood

The 2021-22 Washington Capitals were the final Wild Card team in the East. (image via. NHL.com)

How Close are the Devils?

There should be no doubt that the Eastern Conference is tougher than the Western Conference. The average points collected by the final wild card team in the West over the past five full seasons is 93. In the East, the number jumps up to 97. That’s an extra two wins to get into the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

The Capitals of last season, and the Devils of this season, are fairly similar. Washington last year had a more solidified top six than the Devils of this upcoming year, but New Jersey is close. This is especially true with the addition of Ondrej Palat in free agency. The Devils probably have a stronger defense than last season’s Capitals and the goaltending is most likely at a fairly similar level.

What Additions are Necessary?

If it wasn’t clear in the last section, the main piece that is needed for the Devils to truly compete for a playoff spot in the East is a top-six forward. There are a few players that appear to be on the trade market that would fit this role quite nicely.

First, there are a couple forwards playing in Vancouver that have been rumored since the trade deadline to be on the market. Those forwards are JT Miller and Conor Garland. Garland is not as effective offensively as Miller, but is much more of a complete player that fits the timeline better as well. Garland’s cap hit is just a pinch under $5,000,000 for four more seasons and is 26 years old. Miller, on the other hand, has a cap hit of $5,250,000 for just one more season.

Last, but not least, a more flashy option for the top-six is one out of Toronto in William Nylander. Toronto of course would rather not trade a piece of their core, but them being over the cap still with restricted free agents to sign means that they’re going to have to move on from a significant piece. Of their big four, Nylander makes the most sense to move on from. With only a couple seasons at just under $7,000,000, he could make sense as a winger to acquire for the Devils to make them true playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference.

Gio July 19, 2022 Reply

1 comment on “How Close Are The New Jersey Devils To A Playoff Team?”

Gio July 19, 2022 Reply

100% this is a playoff team. Everyone wanted the big flashy signing of Fiala, DeBrincat, or Johnny G. That’s the sexy thing to do. We did what we needed to do to become a playoff team. No disrespect meant towards Zacha or Ty but they had to go. That would’ve been addition by subtraction. To get Haula & Marino back for them was a magic trick. I’ve been very disappointed by Fitzy but that’s a big + for him in my book.

Did we overpay for Palat? Debatable until the post season. When we make the playoffs that’s the guy you want on your team. He does the things it takes to win that guys don’t get paid for. He’s a higher scoring Coleman & I’ll pay $6 for that. In the last few yr’s of Johnny’s career he can’t play on a 3rd or 4th line. Palat can be the best guy you have on lines 1 thru 4. He’s a guy you want out there in every situation.

It’s not just about how many points you can rack up. If you’re on the ice for more goals against than goals for your not helping your team win. How many times do we hear you don’t want a guy like Hoffman, Toffoli, or Kessel. They’ll score but they’re such a black whole defensively they can never score enough to make up for what they give up. Haula & Palat aren’t going to set scoring records but they’re going to be on the ice for more goals for than against.

Paying for Johnny G could’ve cost us getting Palat & Marino. I’ll be in the minority here but give me the 2 of them over 1 johnny g. They’re $10.4. Johnny G is $650k less. Not paying the big $ allows depth. The last few years we’ve seen the 2 most top heavy teams in the league rule the regular season & fail in the playoffs. Shutdown or just control the perfection line in Boston & they become really beatable. Draisaitl & McDavid can wreak havock on Goalies but they can’t make up for bad goaltending. Tampa just won a Presidents trophy, then 2 Cups, & made a 3rd Cup Finals. They’ve had a sick left side D in Hedman McDonagh Sergachev. They’ve had Stamkos Kucherov & Point as the stars but they’ve been surrounded by depth that doesn’t give up chances against, they’re physical, & they still chip in scoring.

How do we compare with Tampa. Kucherov Stamkos Point to our Jack Nico Bratt. Hedman McDonagh Sergachev to our Dougie Severson Marino. They had Palat now we have Palat. They use their 4th line with Maroon regularly. We use BMW for most of the Dzone starts to allow our other 3 lines to get mostly Ozone starts. We send them out to wreak havock making big hits, crashing the boards, they get the home crowd going, they silence away crowds, & they chip in points here & there to.

We still have some of our best players coming. #2 pick Nemec, #4 pick Luke are only gonna make this defense untouchable. Still have super swedes. Zetterlund started & finished the season on a mission. #7 pick Holtz put up 26G &51pts as an AHL rookie. Foote had 4pts in his last 3 NJ games. Tyce finally put some weight on & dominated development camp. Gritsyuk as a 19/20yr old true rookie just won Rookie of the year in the KHL. He wasn’t on a bad team that had the opportunity for him to succeed. He was on the team that won the Gragarian Cup the year before & he worked his way to the top line. His time on the top line he was at a point per game pace. Fitzy didn’t trade any of this. The cream of this crop is gonna be rising to the top to what is already a strong team.

We added physicality, scoring, defense, & goalie that’s no where close to retiring or breaking down from high mileage. Jack Nico Bratt are just scratching the surface of their potential. Mercer & SharanGOALvich are building on successful years. Wood’s back. What a year to build off of for Siegenthaler.

This team will put up more than 100pts in the standings as is. The only moves I see Fitzy making is trading Johnsson & maybe Tatar. If he can find a way not to pay to get rid of them it’ll be a big win

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