Watching yesterday’s matchup between the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers, it struck me how the team still seems like they are looking for Jack Hughes out there on the ice. Nobody can replace a transcendent offensive center like him, sure, but should the Devils look this poor without him? Last season, after the Devils lost Jack on March 2 against Vegas, the Devils went 9-10-1. In those 20 games, the Devils had:
- 56 total goals (2.8/game)
- 15 power play goals out of 46 opportunities (32.6%)
- A 52.6 5v5 CF%
- A 503-523 shots disadvantage (roughly a 25-26 shot differential per game)
In the three games the Devils have played without Jack Hughes this year, they are 1-2-0. In these three games, they have had:
- Four total goals (1.33/game)
- One power play goal out of nine opportunities (11.11%)
- A 43.9 5v5 CF%
- A 94-84 shots advantage
Let us say that the “best case scenario” plays out, with Jack Hughes returning to the ice before Christmas. This would mean Jack misses 15 more games if he returned on December 21 when the Devils play the Buffalo Sabres in Newark. They also play the Islanders at UBS Arena on December 23. How many games are the New Jersey Devils going to win if they are this inconsistent with the puck? They have no shortage of power play chances, but have not been able to convert effectively. However, they have close to no offensive push when not on the power play, which happens to be most of the game.
There are some important caveats to this comparison. Last season, after Jack got hurt, General Manager Tom Fitzgerald acquired Cody Glass from the Pittsburgh Penguins: this turned out to be a great move until Glass got hurt against Vancouver. Glass had two goals and four assists in eight games with the team, boosting them to a 4-3-1 record after he joined the lineup. After returning from a short injury, Glass had just one assist in six games while the team finished the season 2-4-0 before going pointless in five playoff games (though he took a nasty slash from Jacob Markstrom to his midsection in Game One).
Had Cody Glass not already gotten hurt for a second time this season, I might not have to write about the need to fix the center situation. Juho Lammikko, who had not even been in the NHL since the 2021-22 season, has been centering a bottom six line over the last few games. Lammikko might still have some value in a defensive role, but the team already has Luke Glendening holding the penalty kill down while centering the fourth line. This duplication of skills is now presenting an issue to the Devils, who desperately need an offensive push. A line featuring Ondrej Palat and Evgenii Dadonov on the wings, of course, does not seem like a group built to be a checking line. There are three options to fix this:
Option One: A Winger Moves to Center
Paul Cotter has had a difficult start to his season, but just a few short minutes of usage at center gave me a glimpse of hope for him. Centering Ondrej Palat and Stefan Noesen for just the end of a game, Cotter saw his line put up two quick scoring chances for an 83.19 expected goals percentage. Meanwhile, Cotter won two of his three draws while lining up at center, as his season percentage sits at 60% (nine of 15 won). If Cotter moved to center and played with Noesen on his wing, the Devils would have two options for faceoffs, as Noesen has won 48.5% of his 99 draws since signing with the Devils in the 2024 offseason.
Can the Devils use Cotter in a checking role? Probably not, no. But the team desperately needs five-on-five scoring, and both Cotter and Noesen need to show that they scored 16 and 22 goals last season, respectively. If these two and Palat or Dadonov could just chip in a goal every game or two as a third line, it would go a long way towards giving the Devils a balanced attack while they wait for Cody Glass to return.
As the third line could be constructed to provide more offense, the fourth line could then be transformed into a pure checking group. Juho Lammikko has experience as a defensive winger, and this is the game that Glendening is best at. Whether Ondrej Palat or Evgenii Dadonov play with the fourth liners, the Devils need to lean into that style of hockey where a tough bottom six checking line takes a lot of matchup heat off of the top line. Since Nico Hischier is now responsible for leading the top goal-scoring group, rather than taking the toughest matchups so Jack’s line could amp up their scoring, it is on Sheldon Keefe to put Hischier in as favorable positions as he put Jack Hughes. A pure checking fourth line would help.
Option Two: The Devils Play the Call-Up Game
Currently, it does not seem that Shane LaChance is very likely to get into another game. Honestly, I am not quite sure why he is still on the NHL roster, though I guess nobody is learning anything of value from the monstrosity that is going on in Utica right now. As a large, netfront winger, LaChance also does not really provide any of the skills that the Devils need right now. If they were still missing Stefan Noesen, I might see a place for him, but as long as LaChance cannot magically become a center, his presence is not really helping matters at the moment.
In Utica, though, there are a few forwards who might be able to provide a short-term spark. The Devils have Xavier Parent and Angus Crookshank under contract, and they currently lead the Comets in scoring with seven and six points, respectively. Parent, a small but occasionally feisty scoring winger, was undrafted but is now among Utica’s only productive players. Sometimes small players get overlooked a little too long, and the Devils can really use the grit and grind from an undrafted player who possibly did not get enough of a look in juniors from teams because of injuries and COVID. Crookshank is a few inches taller but not much heavier, and he has five goals in 12 games for Utica. Apparently, he has struggled a bit at center for Utica this season, but has scored more on the wing. Both Crookshank and Parent share the ability to swap between center and the wing, but I have not noticed Utica lining Parent up there very often in his time there.
The third option, who I think is not really ready for the NHL, is Matyas Melovsky. Melovsky would need an NHL deal to be called up, but he is the most productive pure center on the Comets with five points in 13 games. Melovsky is not small, standing at 6’1” with a solid frame. He has a right-handed shot and enough speed to keep up with NHL skaters. But skating speed is one thing, while reading and reacting to the NHL pace of play is another. For a guy with only 13 games of professional North American experience, this hypothetical jump to the NHL might be a bit too much, too fast for him. Still, knowing how limited Juho Lammikko is as a third-line center, I would not be opposed in the slightest to signing Melovsky for the purpose of seeing what he can do in a sheltered role with veteran wings on his left and right.
Let’s be honest. The Devils simply do not have the internal depth to bet on being able to shore up two injuries at center. While the usual plan to shift Dawson Mercer to center might be sufficient in the case of an injury to one of Hischier, Hughes, or Glass, having two of those guys out of the lineup is a little too much. So, a better band-aid solution may need to involve an external acquisition. The waiver wire, however, is not much to bet on at this time of year. Currently, the players listed as on waivers by PuckPedia are Mason Geertsen and Alexandre Texier. The Devils should have interest in Texier, but I doubt they claim him.
When Texier was with Columbus, he played part of the 2020-21 season at center, though he struggled to score with 15 points in 49 games. Still, that type of production might make for a better stopgap than Lammikko. After Texier moved primarily to wing, he had 23 goals and 27 assists across 114 games from 2022 to 2024. He has not been able to replicate any of his point production with St. Louis, and he is now on waivers. The issue is Texier’s contract. He currently makes $2.1 million, and he is in the last year of his contract. So, no team is very likely to claim him, and Elliotte Friedman reports that he may go into contract termination, as David Kampf did with Toronto.
The Devils missed the boat on Kampf. But if Texier ends up terminated, I would be…upset if Tom Fitzgerald did not make a hard push to acquire the 26-year old forward. Texier is not even as good of a fit for the team as Kampf obviously was, but the Devils need to take help where they can get it now. But where else can they look?
Free agency? The only players left unsigned are Andreas Athanasiou and Robby Fabbri. I am not even sure if either still plan on continuing to play hockey, as they are unsigned in both the AHL and abroad, and only Athanasiou is a real full-time center. Perhaps someone abroad is looking for a shot back in the NHL, but they probably would not be getting any kind of world-burner from that market.
The only thing after that is for Tom Fitzgerald to shop around for a trade. The Edmonton Oilers have had a rough start to the season, and I wonder if they could make for a early season shakeup partner. The rock-bottom Nashville Predators have Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Haula, and Steven Stamkos, though acquiring any of the three would take varying levels of cap gymnastics to make it work. And the Calgary Flames look worse than ever, but there is no guarantee they will move any of their top players, while the Devils may have a hard time fitting any of Kadri, Coleman, or Frost under the cap. And Mikael Backlund, who would be a perfect fit for the Devils, is someone I expect to play his entire career with his team in the Flames.
Final Words and Your Thoughts
While the front office should start cooking up a move so Sheldon Keefe isn’t rolling out two defensive fourth line PK specialists on different lines at center, players in the top six need to do their part as well by scoring goals. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier are all underperforming on offense, and the team can mask many issues just by their getting on the scoresheet with more regularity. Through 20 games, these three have combined for only 14 goals. At that pace, they are on track to score about 26 fewer goals than they did last season. The team cannot win like that. Until the top six is scoring and the third line is an actual threat to score, Jacob Markstrom’s struggles will be a back-burner issue.
But what do you think of the state of the team without Hughes and Glass? Should Paul Cotter move to center? Should Fitzgerald swap some players from Utica to New Jersey? Should he try to acquire Texier? Should he make a trade? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
