Devils' Meier Proved He Will Be Just Fine

Timo Meier's final 35 games of the 2023-24 season proved that there shouldn't be too much concern with his play moving forward.

---

Follow us on Twitter: @AlexC_NJD, @NJD_OnTheRush

---

Timo Meier's first full season with the New Jersey Devils started poorly, continued poorly for months, but ended with an impressive stretch that looked like vintage Meier from his San Jose Sharks days. 

Meier finished the season with 28 goals and 52 points in 69 games and totaled 19 goals and 34 points across his final 35 contests. All of this came while he dealt with multiple injuries during the season. But even through all that, Meier proved that he'll be just fine moving forward and that there shouldn't be too many concerns. 

Meier's Tale of Two Seasons

There were big expectations for Meier coming into the 2023-24 season. Though the scoring wasn't there after the trade deadline last season, he was still playing well and helping the Devils tilt the ice in their favor. Even in the playoff series against the New York Rangers, Meier finished with 27 shots on goal and was a thorn in the side of Igor Shesterkin. 

We thought that was the Meier we'd see to start the season, but that was not the case. Even during the preseason he looked slower than usual and wasn't skating at the level we were expecting from him. The first half of his season was a disappointment, to say the least. 

Meier totaled just nine goals and 18 points across his first 34 games, and his underlying numbers were among the worst on the Devils. He had an expected goals share (xG%) of 46.43 percent, ranked in the bottom ten among the team's skaters.

The only players with xG shares worse than Meier at that point of the season were fringe NHLers like Justin Dowling, Shane Bowers, Max Willman, Cal Foote, and Tomáš Nosek. That's less than ideal for someone who signed an extension worth $8.8 million annually during the offseason. 

What was wrong with Meier? At the time, we weren't 100 percent sure. We knew he wasn't healthy since he missed some time in the second half of November. Former coach Lindy Ruff said that the injury Meier was dealing with was one that affected his skating.