With just two teams still playing, the rest have already started their offseason planning. What storylines lie ahead around the league? Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils weren’t a popular pick to make some noise in the tight Metropolitan Division but they turned some heads and worked their way into a playoff spot. Now, they enter the offseason with a lot of payroll room to work with which gives them some chances to bolster their roster. What should they be focusing on?
Sign A Top-Six Winger
While New Jersey got some unexpected contributions from players they had pegged to play in lesser roles, the Devils were lacking impact winger depth beyond Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri. (Marcus Johansson was pegged to be in that role but dealt with concussion issues for most of the year.) They added Patrick Maroon and Michael Grabner before the trade deadline which helped their depth but didn’t really solve the problem either.
Fortunately for New Jersey, the free agent market is fairly strong on the wing. There aren’t a lot of front-line options but there are some players that can slot in on their second line. That would allow players like Blake Coleman, Miles Wood, and Jesper Bratt to remain in the bottom six which would give their lineup a lot more balance. There are enough options on the open market that the focus should be to sign a winger and save their trade capital to fill another hole.
Determine Zacha’s Role And Future
Three years ago, the Devils made center Pavel Zacha the sixth-overall pick in the draft hoping he was their future number one. While he’s still just 21, that level of optimism is starting to fade after his second straight mediocre season.
In 2017-18, Zacha was frequently in the bottom six and even spent a few games as a healthy scratch. He was quickly surpassed by Nico Hischier who now slots in as their top center of the future (and the present). Travis Zajac has three years and a full no-trade clause left on his deal and with a $5.75MM cap hit, he stands to be a fixture in the top six for a while still.
So where does that leave Zacha? Would a move to the wing allow him to push for more of a regular spot in the top six? At the very least, it would give him a chance to show if his offensive game has another level to it after scoring just eight goals for the second straight year. However, doing so also moves him off of a premium position which could negatively affect his value if he fails to produce.
Considering the situation, it’s reasonable to wonder if GM Ray Shero will at least explore the idea of trading Zacha this summer. He’s still young enough that there will be teams that think a change of scenery will be what he needs to get going so they should be able to get quality offers for him; they wouldn’t necessarily be selling low. If he has another year like his first two, however, that could change.
Zacha still has some upside so this isn’t an easy call. Keeping the status quo doesn’t appear to be an ideal situation though so it seems unlikely that New Jersey will have him in the same situation heading into 2018-19 if they have him at all.
Add A Top Defender
It has been a long time since the Devils were thought of as a well-stocked team defensively. The back end has been an area of concern for a few years now, even with a few moves made as of late in an effort to address it such as the acquisition of Sami Vatanen from Anaheim and the signings of Ben Lovejoy and Will Butcher. Those moves have helped but more work needs to be done.
New Jersey is lacking a true blue-chip prospect so there isn’t help coming from within down the road either. That means they’re going to have to look elsewhere.
Unfortunately for them, there is only one top-pairing defender set to hit the open market and that’s Washington’s John Carlson. It’s clear that they will make a big run at him, just like they did with Kevin Shattenkirk last summer. But if Carlson follows Shattenkirk’s lead and declines a bigger offer from the Devils, then they’ll be in a tough spot. Adding depth certainly helps but not as much as a top blueliner does.
While the Devils don’t have a lot of prospect depth on the back end, they have an intriguing prospect group of forwards (and Zacha still holds some value as well). This may be the time for Shero to dip into that and use some of those future assets to try to land a top-three defenseman. They have the cap room to take on a larger salary without having to send money the other way to offset it and that’s not something that can be said of a lot of teams looking to make a splash this summer. If New Jersey wants to take that next step forward, this is a hole that needs to be filled.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.