With Tuesday’s formal announcement of Sheldon Keefe as the team’s new head coach, the New Jersey Devils can now set their sights on fixing their personnel issues. Last season much of the blame for the team’s failures was laid at the feet of poor goaltending and inconsistent defense. One simple way to improve the team’s defensive woes would be to score more. However, this season’s Devils slipped to 12th in the NHL in goals scored from fourth in the league in goals per game in the 2022-23 season. The decline in scoring was exacerbated by the injuries to the core offensive players that forced New Jersey to shuffle players from their bottom six into service on their top lines far too often.
Last summer, general manager Tom Fitzgerald attempted to fill the opening on Jack Hughes’ wing by trading for Tyler Toffoli. That acquisition was initially a perfect fit. Toffoli and Hughes lit up the league in the season’s early going, both at even strength and on the power play. Unfortunately for New Jersey, Toffoli hit a dry spell as the season progressed. Hughes missed weeks with what was later revealed to be a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery, and Toffoli was auctioned at the trade deadline to the Winnipeg Jets for two draft picks.
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Keefe has a reputation for mixing his lines and trying to find combinations that work period to period and even shift to shift. Like many coaches, he seems to find a pair that plays well together and rotates a third, depending on the situation. The Devils do not lack internal options to fill their top six. Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier are locks for the four spots. The fifth is likely to go to either Dawson Mercer or Alex Holtz. Which one fills the role may depend on who is not part of a trade this summer.
The Devils will likely have to find a way to fill the sixth slot externally. Erik Haula and Ondrej Palat can slide up into second-line duty, but the best use of their skills is to combine them with another two-way forward to create a shutdown third line that can also be counted on for secondary scoring. There is also the possibility that Mercer is returned to center and serve as the team’s 3C flanked by Haula and Palat, necessitating two new additions to the top six if Holtz is moved. For this exercise, the premise is the Devils’ top line will be Meier, Hischier and Bratt, with Hughes paired with Mercer and in need of a third. Here are six players the Devils could sign this off-season to play alongside Hughes and fill out their top six. All contract details are per the projections by @AFPAnalytics.
Experienced Hybrid Forwards
The Devils experimented with moving Hughes to the wing later in the season as he showed the effects of his shoulder injury. Hughes and the Devils do not seem to see a future where he is anything but a center. However, they may want to add a player to his line who is experienced at playing center and wing. If they keep Mercer with Hughes, they would have one of those hybrid forwards, but there is no reason not to add a second.
Adam Henrique – C/LW – Projection: 3 years x $4.2 million
A moment ingrained in every Devils fan’s memory is the overtime winner scored by Adam Henrique that sent the rival New York Rangers home and the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final. Twelve years later, it may be time for a reunion. At the trade deadline this season, Henrique was moved from the Anaheim Ducks to the Edmonton Oilers, where he fits well. He brings grit, the ability to score in the dirty areas, responsible three-zone play, and secondary scoring to support the team’s core. The Devils got a first-hand look when he scored a hat trick during Anaheim’s appearance in Newark this season. On Anaheim teams that were largely non-competitive, he was a reliable 20-goal scorer and contributed to both the power play and penalty-kill units.
Henrique is a good foil for Hughes for a few reasons. He doesn’t need the puck to be effective in the offensive zone and can also cover defensively if Hughes takes chances looking for offense. Over the past seven seasons, he has been over 53% on faceoffs, the one area Hughes has yet to conquer. The main reason for concern would be Henrique’s age, but he has shown little sign of decline. If anything, being injected into competitive hockey again has seemed to invigorate him. The fanbase would celebrate Henrique’s return. He would give the team a high-character, versatile player they covet.
Matt Duchene – C/RW – Projection: 3 years x $4.8 million
It does not get much lower for a player than being bought out. After hitting rock bottom last season, Matt Duchene rebounded from being bought out by the Nashville Predators to signing a one-year prove-it deal with the Dallas Stars. Prove it he did, as Duchene rebounded this season and has been a major part of the Stars’ successful march through the playoffs to the Western Conference Final. There is a silver lining to the buyout: it pays Duchene just over $1.5 million on top of the salary from a team that signs him up for free agency, which might make his contract demand more affordable.
Duchene is slightly smaller than Henrique, but he is more of an offensive threat with his speed and finishing. He is not generally a penalty killer but can contribute on the power play. Like Henrique, Duchene is an exceptional on draws. He is a career 53.5% in the circle and has not been under 50% since his rookie season. He is not as physical as Henrique, but he competes every shift and can be relied upon for 60 points, significantly bolstering the secondary scoring. He has also been a consistent playoff performer, with 31 points in 48 playoff games, including four game-winning goals.
Speed, Skill, and Pressure
When Keefe met the media, he described his ideal style of play as a team that uses speed to put constant puck pressure on the opponent in all three zones and has the room to allow their talent and skill to take over, creating scoring chances. These players will help provide speed and skill to match Keefe’s system.
Anthony Duclair – LW/RW – Projection: 3 years x $4.3 million
After suffering a debilitating Achilles injury in off-season training during the summer of 2022, this season, Anthony Duclair showed that he was fully healthy and had regained both his speed and scoring touch. He is younger than the others on this list at just 28 and, after being traded from the San Jose Sharks to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the deadline, proved that his offensive output was not a function of playing on a bad team. He put up 15 points in just 17 games after the trade. Similarly, after returning from injury last season, he played a key role in the Florida Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final with 11 points in 20 games.
Duclair plays with speed and skill. He is more of a goal scorer than a play driver and passer, which would be a good match for Hughes. In his last two full seasons, he has scored 31 and 24 goals, respectively. If paired with Hughes, they would need a third forward who is more defensive-minded, which could be accomplished with Mercer. The acquisition of Duclair would be leaning into the Devils’ strengths and a signal to the rest of the NHL that they are looking to push the pace at every opportunity.
Teuvo Teravainen – LW/RW – Projection: 4 years x $5.2 million
There is no guarantee that the Carolina Hurricanes allow Teuvo Teravainen to get to free agency without a contract, but with the team in flux, there is a chance that the speedy Finn his teammates call Turbo could hit the open market. If he does, Fitzgerald would be wise to offer to pair him with Hughes. Teuravainen is in his prime at 29 and is well-schooled in the heavy forechecking puck-pressure style the Devils will implement.
He tends to play on the perimeter but has the skill to get inside and score goals. Teuravainen contributed goals on both the power play and penalty kill and possesses above-average touch on his passes and stick handling. Fitzgerald has talked about finding players he can win with. Turbo is one of those players. He has won both in Carolina and in Chicago, where he won a Stanley Cup as a member of the Blackhawks. He also brings defensive responsibility; he is plus-107 for his career and has only been assessed 126 penalty minutes in nearly 700 career games. Signing Turbo also has the advantage of subtracting one of the Devils’ biggest division rivals’ best players away from them.
Power Forwards
Vladimir Tarasenko – RW – Projection: 2 years x $4.15 million
Likely the most purely talented player on this list, Vladimir Tarasenko is a power forward who could be energized if placed alongside a player the caliber of Hughes. Like Duclair, he took a one-year, prove-it deal with the Ottawa Senators before being a trade deadline pickup for the Panthers. He has been deployed in the Panthers’ top-six since his acquisition and into the playoffs. His scoring pedigree is undisputed. He has 629 points in 751 regular season games and another 68 points in 112 playoff games.
Tarasenko is no stranger to big games. He won a Cup with St. Louis and has been sought after at the deadline by playoff teams the last few years. He is a 14.6% shooter in the playoffs, almost a full 2% higher than in the regular season. He is an older, more defensively responsible version of Meier. His experience is invaluable and would be another player on the roster who is a proven winner and could help guide the young core on the road to a Cup.
Anthony Mantha – LW/RW – Projection: 3 years x $4.75 million
A massive winger, Anthony Mantha’s production may be a better fit for a third-line role, but he has the size, speed, and skill to make a huge impact alongside a player of Hughes’ caliber. He is more of a shooter than a playmaker and uses his size to gain more advantages in the offensive zone with his positioning than pure physicality. He averages 24 goals per 82 games and is in the middle of his prime with room to improve. The biggest drawback is his inconsistency, especially at an average annual value (AAV) of nearly $5 million. The Devils may be willing to take a chance on Mantha with the hopes that his play for the Vegas Golden Knights is a harbinger of his next few seasons.
There may not be a perfect fit for the Devils in this year’s free-agent class. Each of these six players would bring a different strength to the mix and should be considered in light of Keefe’s system and desired style of play. Other forwards who could be a fit are Johnathan Marchessault, who seems to be at an impasse with Vegas; Tyler Toffoli, who might price himself out of New Jersey’s plans; Jason Zucker, who is probably a better third-line fit but would be a good match for Hughes, or Tomas Tatar who has proven he can be effective with Hischier, which could slide Bratt down to play with Hughes and reunite the peanut butter and jelly guys who have tremendous chemistry.
