As we continue through our 2026-27 season previews, today I am going to dive into special teams. I am trying my best to bring a healthy amount of skepticism into this season, but I have been sneaking Kool-Aid shots for the past few weeks, and am truly excited to see what this team can do. On paper, we look like a deep and dangerous team but we are still reliant on the health of some key players that have shown time and again that they can’t stay healthy. Along with the rest of their play it also
has an outsize effect on our special teams.
I continue to look at last season in 3 segments, the hot start (October-Mid November), the bad place (Mid-November-Olympics), and the resurgence (post Olympics):
This was evident last season as both the power play and penalty kill suffered with injuries to Jack and Pesce, respectively. Both units ended up with pretty pedestrian results overall, finishing 13th in PP efficiency at 22% and 17th in PK efficiency at 79.3%. Both total year results were dragged down by that middle segment of 40 games. It was certianly a far cry from having the best cumulative special teams in the league in 2024-25 (28.2% PP and 82.7% PK).
2026-27 Power Play
We’ve gotten an early glimpse of what the Devils are thinking in terms of Power Play personnel. Since we have spent all summer arguing with Wild fans, it was refreshing to see “the opinions” come out and the social media in-fighting start back up again. God I missed that.
It appears the two units will be set up like the below based on initial reporting. We have an embarrassment of riches to be able to field two units like this:
The biggest gripe I’ve seen so far is putting Luke over Dougie on PP1 primarily because of Dougie’s shot. There’s some validity to that as Luke had his shot blocked on the PP last season over half the time, meanwhile Dougie was a shade under 40%. When you factor in shooting wide they are closer, but the volume is so low I’d take the percentages with a grain of salt:
You can see this in their production, as both had similar point totals, but Luke was done more with assist, Dougie’s with goals. The unit was a bit more dangerous with Luke in almost equal minutes:
I’d be fine with either one, and having Luke over Dougie is not really an issue. The fact is, this power play runs through Jack and Bratt on the flanks and is predicated on creating small area odd-man mismatches. This is a reason why Evagelista is getting first crack on this unit instead of a “shooter” like Mantha, Timo, or Gritsyuk – we have a handedness imbalance and need a RH shot to maintain equal danger from either flank. Keefe confimred this sentiment a few days ago as well. This is the same reason Noesen, Mercer, and Brown were in this spot in previous years instead of Timo.
When Jack is attacking downhill on the left flank he has 5 read options based on what the PK group is giving him:
Option 1: Shoot (using RD as a screen)
Option 2: Seam Pass to Bratt for a one-timer
Option 3: Low to Evangelista who can hit Nico in the bumper
Option 4: Low to Evangelista who can hit Bratt sneaking back door in the low slot
Option 5: Cycle back to Luke
Bratt has similar options but likely is less of a shooting threat as he can’t attack downhill like Jack from his strong side. This is where Nico and Evangelista will rotate bumper/netfront so the low player’s forehand is on the outside and the right shot is open in the bumper. A RH shot gives them this triangle and one-timer in the bumper, whereas a LH shot wouldn’t. If it’s open, great, if not they can cycle it back up to Luke who can send it back to Jack to start over on his side.
This is what makes this powerplay so dangerous: there are 8 different options by attacking from the flanks. Instead of trying to force a one-timer that everyone knows is coming or spraying and praying from the point any one of the 4 forwards can score – optionality is hard to defend.
The 2nd unit should see similar functionality with Gritsyuk cosplaying Jack. The problem then becomes getting them on the ice as we have typically seen about a 75/25 split between the first and second units, more than a minute per game on average. There is, unfortunately, only so much power play time to go around and while I’d love to get the second unit a little closer to 50/50 I think we should be fine with Jack and co. taking the lion share of time here.
Penalty Kill
The PK is a little more straightforward in terms of play, and we haven’t gotten many nuggets in terms of personnel. In years past it has been a very strong unit finishing 4th in 22-23, 10th in 23-24, and 2nd in 24-25. Last season they took a step back largely because of a stretch from mid November to New Years during the bad place where they were dead last at 68%. They spent 2 ENTIRE WEEKS below 50% from the end of November through mid-December before righting the ship. That was such a brutal stretch to recover from.
Coming into 2025-26, I’d expect us to be closer to the previous 3 years than last year (I say this now). Even though I am skeptical of Brad Shaw and the PK, there is no real magic formula or set plays you can run on a PK like there is on the PP. It is predicated on communication, a good stick, and something else I can’t say here. Just reading and reacting, throwing yourself in front of shots and supporting your linemates on the ice.
Where it gets interesting is personnel, and we haven’t gotten too long of a peek behind the curtain, but it appears the first unit will be Nico and Rodrigues. From there, I’d expect some combination of Brown and Bratt, and it sounds like Lombardi/Boqvist will also get some PK reps. I’d like to see Glass mixed in here as well. But do you know who should be getting a lot more time here? Jack Hughes. Of NHL players that have logged more than 80 minutes of PK time since 23-24 there is exactly one player who has outscored their opponent. That is Jack Hughes, and he’s up 4-3. I know it’s a little ridiculous to sort at 80 minutes over 3 years, but that is kind of the point – shouldn’t this guy get some more run here? He’s a ninja with his stick, has the skating and agility to stop and start at the top of the box and has the offensive chops to know what’s coming. He’s every PP point man’s nightmare when the puck rims up the boards and they have to pick it cleanly off the yelllow.
AS for the D, we will likely see a heavy load of Siegs, Kovacevic, Pesce, and Dillon who have by far been the most common D on the ice PKing. Luke has been getting some reps in camp and he and Pesce got 1st PK pair minutes on Monday night, but I suspect he will be 3rd on the left side depth chart and Dougie will be 3rd on the right side depth chart once Kovacevic is back in action. The health of his knee is the only wrinkle here – so we shall see how they adapt as they gear up for the season.
Conclusion
The last personnel takeaway I have is that Dawson Mercer is conspicuously absent from both PP units and so far, both PK units. Not sure if that will change, if we should read anything into this, or he’s just our 3rd ling wing and that’s it. He did have some utility on the PK, and was one of our better ones last year.
Overall, I’d like to get back to merchanting again and have top 5 units on both sides of the puck.
Score goals, stop goals, easy enough.
LGD
