NHL Season Recap - New Jersey Devils

New Jersey Devils

2016-17 season: 28-40-14 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: John Hynes (2015)
8th Place Metropolitan Division	General Manager: Ray Shero (2015)
16th Place Eastern Conference	AHL Affiliate: Albany Devils ECHL Affiliate: None
Draft Position: Will have the fifth greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
RW	25	Kyle Palmieri	53	26	27	2	47.7
LW	25	Taylor Hall	53	20	33	-9	52.2
C	31	Travis Zajac	54	14	31	-9	49.8
C	26	Adam Henrique	40	20	20	-20	46.7
LW	34	Mike Cammalleri	31	10	21	-9	48.2
RW	33	P.A. Parenteau	27	13	14	-17	50.2
C	19	Pavel Zacha	24	8	16	-17	47.4
RW	25	Beau Bennett	19	8	11	-4	53.4
LW	21	Miles Wood	18	8	9	-21	41.4
C	25	Jacob Josefson	10	1	9	-1	47.4

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	22	Damon Severson	31	10	21	-30	50.0
D	26	John Moore	22	12	10	-8	46.9
D	34	Andy Greene	13	4	9	-15	46.7
D	31	Kyle Quincey	12	4	8	3	47.7
D	21	Steven Santini	7	1	6	-6	47.0

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	30	Cory Schneider	59	20-27-11	2	2.82	.908
G	27	Keith Kinkaid	23	8-13-3	1	2.64	.916

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
Future Considerations	Ottawa Senators	D Brandon Gormley
RW Shane Harper	Florida Panthers	D Reece Scarlett
F P.A. Parenteau	Nashville Predators	2017 6th RD Pick
D Dalton Prout	Columbus Blue Jackets	D Kyle Quincey
D Viktor Loov	Toronto Maple Leafs	F Sergey Kalinin
RW Petr Sraka	Philadelphia Flyers	2017 or 2018 Conditional 7th RD Pick

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
C	39	Marc Savard	$4,027,143
G	27	Keith Kinkaid	$725,000
LW	27	Luke Gazdic	$700,000
RW	24	Petr Straka	$650,000
RW	28	Shane Harper	$650,000
D	26	Seth Helgeson	$587,500
LW	28	Bobby Farnham	$575,000
C	28	Carter Camper	$575,000
D	26	Andrew MacWilliam	$575,000
D	29	Karl Stollery	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Devils will have ten draft picks in the upcoming draft, including five in the first three rounds.  They should end up with a high draft pick in the first round, considering they will have the fifth best odds to win the Draft Lottery.  They have taken centers with their first round picks each of the past two years and this year I think they will take a defenseman, especially if they can draft right after the Coyotes.  Taking either Timothy Liljegren or Miro Heiskanen, whichever one Arizona doesn't take, would be a great move by New Jersey.  They greatly missed Adam Larsson this season, despite how good Taylor Hall is, and finding a way to replace Larsson with anothe potential top-pairing defenseman would be great.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I definitely downplayed the loss of Adam Larsson before the season began.  I called him a "fringe top-4 defenseman" which is pretty far from reality.  I still think that the Devils won that trade because Taylor Hall is a better player, but Larsson's presence has been missed.  I projected that the Devils could be a potential playoff team this season as I thought that the addition of Hall plus the quality of Cory Schneider's play last season would be enough to make them a potential Wild Card team.  

Success/Failure

• Failure - Last season the Devils looked like they were on their way to making the playoffs this year or next season.  Now, this franchise looks like a roster in need of a serious influx of talent, the only kind that can come from a rebuild.  They played poorly for most of the season and were the second worst puck possession team in the league this season.  They were also a bottom ten team in save percentage, had the fifth-worst shooting percentage, and a PDO under 100.  None of these bode well for the long-term success of head coach John Hynes.  He has had a pretty long leash so far at the helm of the Devils and but if the on-ice product doesn't improve, he may not be the coach there for much longer.  

Offseason Needs

• After acquiring Taylor Hall in the Adam Larsson trade, the Devils looked to be on a good path towards rebuilding, since they had gotten their first truly elite offensive threat.  They also have their franchise goaltender in Cory Schneider, who was has proven that he can be excellent but regressed severely this season.  I still believe in his talent, however, and think that he is still the long-term solution for the team.  What they need to do now is determine if Adam Henrique is truly a number one center or if Pavel Zacha or Michael McLeod, their first round pick from last year, can develop into said player.  Finally, they need to address their defense situation and focus on finding a solid top pair.  That should be addressed in this year's draft either with Timothy Liljegren or Miro Heiskanen,who could develop into that type of player and play alongside Damon Severson for the foreseeable future.  I want to be encouraged by the Devils but I just am not and don't see this team as a playoff team next season.  They probably won't be good enough to knock one of the current Eastern Conference playoff teams out of it and Carolina and Philadelphia are both better teams at this moment than the Devils.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, tsn.ca, and eliteprospects.com*