Welcome to the 2015 – 2016 Metro Division Season Primers.
Completed already are the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers.
Where do you start with the Devils? This is a team that very little offensive power, and less defensive power. Their top-6 features Michael Cammalleri, Travis Zajac and Patrik Elias who all will be heavily relied on to contribute on the scoreboard. Kyle Palmieri will be a nice addition to the team, but the lack of depth outside of their weak top-6 doesn’t bode well for the Devils this season.
Notable Additions: RW Kyle Palmieri, D John Moore, D David Schlemko
Notable Departures: RW Michael Ryder, RW Michael Havlat, F Danius Zubrus, RW Ryane Clowe, C Scott Gomez
Defensively, they should three strong defensemen in Andy Green, Adam Larsson and David Schlemko. Outside of that, they will be going young this year featuring four defensemen under the age of 25. John Moore, Eric Gelinas, Jon Merrill and Damon Severson will be forced to step into the lineup and help out where they can.
A young Adam Henrique will look to top his career high 51 points that he scored in his 2nd NHL season.
LW C RW
Michael Cammalleri (5.000) Travis Zajac (5.750) Kyle Palmieri (1.467)
Patrik Elias (5.500) Adam Henrique (4.000) Stefan Matteau (0.613)
Tuomo Ruutu (3.800) Jacob Josefson (0.800) Sergey Kalinin (0.925)
Reid Boucher (0.693, 0.232 Bonuses) Stephen Gionta (0.850) Jordin Tootoo (0.825)
Jim O’Brien (0.575)
LD RD
Andy Greene (5.000) Adam Larsson (4.167)
John Moore (1.667) David Schlemko (.625)
Eric Gelinas (1.575) Jon Merrill (0.840, 0.060 Bonuses)
Damon Severson (0.606, 0.283 Bonuses)
G
Cory Schneider (6.000)
Keith Kinkaid (0.725)
The Devils have begun to part ways with the older players that had been on the roster for years. This team needs to get young. Their prospect cupboards are bare, and are in need of some help.
This season, I would not be surprised to see the Devils finish in the bottom five and contend for the Auston Matthews sweepstakes. It will help this team moving forward more than it will hurt them in the short term. There isn’t very much to expect from this team this year.
