Devils Need to Get Moving on Upgrading Bottom 6
The New Jersey Devils' bottom 6 has been in dire straits for quite some time and needs an upgrade sooner rather than later.
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What's my concern level for the New Jersey Devils? It's probably a 5.5/10. They're still on pace for 97-98 points, which should get them into the playoffs relatively comfortably this season, but this isn’t a team without glaring flaws.
The Devils lost yesterday's game because Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt got torched by Tage Thompson's line, but forward depth has been the biggest problem all season. Even when Erik Haula is healthy, the Devils' bottom six is a liability.
Dawson Mercer and Paul Cotter are probably the team's best bottom-six forwards when the team is fully healthy. After that, it's slim pickings. The trade deadline is nearly a month away, so general manager Tom Fitzgerald will make improvements, but it needs to happen soon, specifically in the bottom six.
Devils Bottom 6 Is Barely Playoff-Caliber
I wouldn't be too concerned if the Devils were going through a rough 4-5 game stretch. But the team has just five wins since Christmas and is losing games to bottom-feeders like the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers and Sabres.
No loss is the same, but forward depth has been a problem all season. When the Devils don't get contributions from Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and Bratt, there's not much to support them.
You probably didn't need me to tell you that. It's been evident watching the Devils for the last five to six weeks and even longer, but that's the problem. Teams have already been active on the trade market, too, specifically some of the Devils' rivals.
The Carolina Hurricanes acquired Mikko Rantanen in one of the most shocking in-season NHL trades (it was no Luka Doncic, though). Meanwhile, the New York Rangers acquired J.T. Miller just a couple of days ago.
This is not to say that the Devils should panic and give up a first-round pick and Šimon Nemec for a rental like Brock Boeser. I'm not even suggesting that's a rumor or anything like that, but that's the last thing Fitzgerald should do, and I'm sure he knows it.
For the time being, adding a depth player until acquiring a bigger name scorer could go a long way in helping the Devils find some more consistency in their game.
With all due respect to Justin Dowling, he's not an NHL regular. Even as a fourth-liner, he's fine to plug and play for a game or two here and there, but he should not be playing as often as he is.
Of course, injuries are part of the reason for the bottom-six struggles now since Haula and Hischier are out of the lineup. But let's not act like Dowling is the only problem in the bottom six.
Bless Kurtis MacDermid, but he should not be playing regular NHL minutes. He serves a purpose, but most contenders — if not all — do not play an enforcer like MacDermid on their fourth line in the NHL in the year 2025.
Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian have struggled, too, and Tomáš Tatar looks a shell of the player he was in 2022-23 when he scored 20 goals and 48 points for the Devils. He doesn't have the same dawg in him that he did during that season, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Devils moved on from him by the trade deadline.
Unfortunately, you can't rebuild an entire bottom six at the trade deadline, so that means there's work to do this offseason. But a depth move would help; that's probably why the Devils were one of the teams interested in Brandon Saad after he and the St. Louis Blues mutually agreed to terminate his contract, making him a free agent (he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights).
Who the Devils Could Acquire
One player I've had my eye on but haven't yet written about is Ryan Donato, who The Fourth Period linked to the Devils in their latest Trade Watch List (h/t Devils Insiders).
It's The Fourth Period, so take it with a grain of salt, but Donato would help the Devils. He has 15 goals and 30 points in 50 games, putting him on pace for a career-high 25 goals. He is shooting 3.4 percent above his career average, but that's not enough to raise a red flag for me.
Even so, Donato has averaged 14 goals and 30 points per 82 games over the last four seasons, this one included. He's an upgrade over just about everyone in the bottom six, other than Cotter and Mercer, when the Devils have a full lineup.
Donato has a cap hit of $2 million for the remainder of the season, and I can't imagine he costs more than a second-round pick, which the Devils have three of in the 2025 draft.
After going on a heater, the Montreal Canadiens are 0-4-1 in their last five games and leaning toward being sellers. We know the Devils have interest in Jake Evans, who has 11 goals and 26 points this season. He's shooting just over 20 percent, but he's a good skater, solid defensively, and would give the Devils more transition ability in the bottom six.
These types of depth moves are unlikely to cause you to panic and give up a king's ransom. The Devils have the assets to trade for an Evans or Donato well before March 7, and they should aggressively pursue it before the 4 Nations Face-off break that begins next week.
That’s because the bottom six is in dire straits. Getting Hischier and Haula back will help, but we have an entire season's worth of data to point to in the bottom six to know it's a problem. Getting a depth move done sooner rather than later would go a long way until Fitzgerald secures a bigger-name scorer before March 7.