New Jersey Devils a year in review

[yave1964]

PRESEASON EXPECTATIONS

 

Things looked bleak. David Clarkson moved on to the Leafs, Ilya Kovalchuk left to return home to mother Russia and they were replaced with Ryan Clowe, Michael Ryder and Damian Brunner all of whom had been found wanting by their previous organizations. Jarimir Jagr signed as well though he had to be pushing sixty.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON

 The day Kovie 'retired' back to Russia and freed up all of that cap space.

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON

  They lost their first seven and nine out of their first ten. They kept getting almost back into contention but not quite recovering from their wretched start.

 

 STRANGE STAT LINE OF THE YEAR

Power play specialist from the blue line Eric Gelinas had only 20 blocked shots for the entire year from the blue line. An average d-man in the same amount of games would have had about 100.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Jagr (24-43-67) continues to flip off father time and was a great signing, Adam Henrique after being called out by Coach Deboer for his lack of offense ended up with 25 goals. Marek Zidlicky (12-30-42) continued to show that he is a solid offensive d-man. Andy Greene (8-34-42) took a big step up offensively. Cory Schneider, acquired from the Canucks at the draft was brilliant all year in net as was his partner the ageless Marty Brodeur. They kept the team in a lot of games that they did not deserve to be in.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG

Michael Ryder (18-16-34) Ryan Clowe (7-19-26) and Damian Brunner (11-14-25) all proved why they were not invited back by their previous clubs. Adam Larsson took a huge step back and spent most of the season in the AHL. The horrible start left a brilliant run by their goaltenders just short of contention.

 

MVP

Jagr was brilliant but it has to be Schneider who had a 1.97 GAA and a Sv. Pct of .921. He covered up for a lot of offensive troubles.

 

UFAS

 

Jagr

Zidlicky

Brodeur

Steve Bernier

Ryan Carter

Stephen Gionta

 

 In short their best offensive player, their best defenseman, their iconic goalie and their under the radar grind line are all UFAs.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS

 

What to do with Marty? He seems to still want to play do you wish to let him finish his career elsewhere or risk alienating Schneider if you bring him back? What to do with Jagr?  Granted he has to have an AARP card by now but was easily the clubs best forward, can you convince him to return along with the other UFAs? Can the club compete for a lower end spot next season or do they need to blow it up and start over?

 

 

[MadDevil]

I don't think they need to blow it all up and start over, but they definitely need an infusion of speed and skill up front. Their possession stats were some of the best in the league, but they just could not find a way to turn that into goals consistently. That, combined with their complete ineptitude in shootouts points to their need for more skill. They've got plenty of hard working grinder types, but need more players who can put the puck in the net. If they can add some scoring help, and dump some of the older slower guys on defense I think they could battle for a wild card spot next year. Especially if Schneider plays like he did this year. It's almost criminal that he put up the numbers he did and only won 16 games in 43 starts.

 

As for Marty, I think it's time for the Devils to move on. I love the guy to death, but he's just not a very good goalie anymore. His consistency is all over the map. He can be really good one game, and then let in some awful goals the next. You just never know which version of him you're going to get.