Devils Roster Upgrades More Crucial Than Goaltending

The New Jersey Devils should 100% still acquire a goalie. But fixing the skater group is arguably more important than an upgrade in net

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Goaltending might seem like the most pressing issue for the New Jersey Devils this offseason. While I'm not denying that it is important, it might not be the most important. 

As we saw post-trade deadline, the Devils got the goaltending they needed from Jake Allen and Kaapo Kähkönen. But the skater group was nowhere near where it needed to be for the Devils to make a push for the playoffs. 

Now, there's no denying some of that was related to Travis Green taking over as the interim coach for Lindy Ruff. A new coach should help, but make no mistake. The Devils' skater group needs a bigger boost than goaltending. 

Devils Need More Goal Scoring

I already went over the Devils' roster needs in a post about a week ago, so I don't want to rehash it. If you missed that, you can read it here. But there is plenty of work for general manager Tom Fitzgerald to do once trades and free agency get going in late June. 

Having a bottom six with Tomáš Nosek, Max Willman and Kurtis MacDermid as regulars will not cut it for a team with playoff aspirations next season. But in reality, it's more than playoff aspirations. They have to make the postseason, so addressing that is crucial. 

Yet, the Devils need more than bottom-six upgrades. Fitzgerald said in his trade deadline presser that scoring goals is not an issue for the Devils, but I beg to differ. It's not an issue for Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, but it is for the rest of the roster. 

Of course, a healthy Dougie Hamilton will help create more offense. Dawson Mercer scored 20 goals in a down year, so I'd expect him to bounce back in 2024-25. That's some added scoring, but the team will need much more than that. 

That has to do with the playoffs, too. As Travis Yost pointed out on Twitter recently, long gone are the days of 1-0, 2-1 grindfests in the postseason. Goals for and expected goals for per 60 in the playoffs have been the highest on record over the last three seasons dating back to 2007, the beginning of the analytics era:

That trend is not going to stop, either. With the way the game is evolving, scoring goals will be how you claim a Stanley Cup championship. Just look at the Colorado Avalanche in their first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets. They've scored 22 goals in four games, an average of 5.5 goals per game.