Devils Need Meier Madness to Begin in October

Meier Madness in March has become New Jersey Devils lore, but they need Timo to start hot to begin the 2025-26 season.

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Timo Meier was supposed to be the difference-maker the New Jersey Devils needed on the wing when they acquired him at the 2023 trade deadline. While he hasn’t played poorly, he’s certainly underperformed relative to expectations, especially for what the Devils are paying him.

That doesn’t mean Meier can’t hit another gear. He did total 30+ goals and 60+ points three times with the San Jose Sharks, and he did tally 40 goals during the season he split between the Sharks and the Devils. But the issue with Meier is that it seems to take him a while to get going.

Meier Madness, an ode to March Madness, has become Devils lore over the last two seasons, as Meier seems to hit another stride when the calendar flips to March. While it makes for a good storyline, the Devils can’t wait for him to start scoring goals in bunches in March this season. They need Meier Madness to begin in October.

Meier’s Poor Shooting Luck

It might be easy to forget, but Meier got off to a solid start last season. He totaled 13 goals and 27 points across his first 36 games, which would have put him on pace for 30 goals and 61 points over 82 games. That might not be an $8.8 million player, but I think most would have been satisfied with a 30/30 season from Meier.

But, just like every Devil after Christmas, the scoring dried up. Meier totaled just two goals and 11 points across his first 23 games after the Christmas break, a pace of just seven goals and 39 points over 82 contests.

It wasn’t for a lack of chances, though. Meier was creating plenty of grade-A looks, but he couldn’t buy a goal if his life depended on it. He shot just 3.6 percent across that 23-game stretch after Christmas, well below his career average of 10.9 percent.

The law of averages suggests Meier shouldn’t go through that kind of prolonged shooting slump again, especially with the number of high-danger chances he created at five-on-five.

Though Meier didn’t score at five-on-five as much as he or the Devils would have liked, he created the most high-danger chances among Devils skaters, averaging 4.34 per 60 minutes for the season. That’s not out of the norm for his career, either.

Some may think of Meier as a high-end finisher, which is true to an extent, but it’s not because he has an Alex Ovechkin-esque shot. It’s because he’s a high-volume shooter who creates plenty of quality looks from in tight and high-danger areas.