Through the first month of the season, the vibes have mostly been good surrounding the New Jersey Devils.
Before last night, the Devils were 9-5-0 on the young season, good for second place in the Metropolitan Division. They were just coming off of a tough Western Conference road trip where they went 2-1. The early season ‘finishing’ issues may be a thing of the past as they’re averaging 3.43 goals per game on the young season, their best mark since the 2022-23 campaign. They’re getting depth scoring.
Luke Hughes is emerging as a #1 defenseman for this team. And they went out and addressed maybe the biggest question mark with the team with the acquisition of Connor Hellebuyck.
Jackson talked about what is and isn’t sustainable from this group in his column earlier this week, but one area he didn’t touch on much with this year’s team is the power play.
Entering Tuesday’s game against the Oilers, the Devils were converting on the power play at a 16.7% clip, which is roughly one out of every six opportunities. It’s a rate that isn’t nearly as bad as the height of the ineptitude of what was the Mark Recchi era a few years ago, where the power play was not only abysmal and killing any and all momentum at 5v5, but also bleeding short-handed opportunities left and right. But it’s not good either. For a Devils team that has mostly kept the same personnel in place on the top unit the last few years, they should be converting at a rate closer to what they’ve converted at the last few years, which is anywhere between 22%-25%.
For now, I would term the power play “issues” as more of a mild annoyance at a smaller sample size than an actual problem. The reason I say that is that to this point, the Devils have gotten enough 5v5 goals to get by, with 33. The Devils have also been winning in spite of their power play being average at best, and at the end of the day, winning is the ultimate deodorant. But the NHL regular season is a long and winding road with plenty of ebbs and flows along the way, and at some point, they’re going to have a run where they are going to need their power play to go on a heater and score some goals to help carry them through a rough stretch this season.
But before panicking and performing major surgery on the power play, its probably worth asking if its permanently broken in the first place, or if this is just another small sample size with players who have historically proven that they are capable of scoring with the man advantage. Even if the power play doesn’t need major changes, it might require a tweak or so to be more efficient.
How Has the Power Play Fared So Far This Season?
As I mentioned earlier, they’re converting at a 16.7% rate over the course of the young season.
Despite that, I think there are things to like with the power play when it comes to the process.
Let’s take a look at the stats on the power play, alongside the last four previous seasons, to show where this Devils team rates with previous iterations.
The stats would suggest the Devils are generating plenty of looks and quality chances, but they’ve had some trouble finishing some of those chances. I don’t think anyone would be all that surprised with that assessment.
Still, I thought it would be worth going back and looking at some of the most recent power plays the Devils have had to see if anything stood out. Lack of player movement, puck movement, a hesitancy to shoot, bad zone entries, anything like that.
I’m not an expert when it comes to tactical X’s and O’s, but going back to the Vegas game, the first power play looked fine in terms of chances created. There was one instance where Jack Hughes gained the zone and had two Knights bearing down on him. He dropped the puck off for Luke Hughes, who found an open Luke Evangelista near the front of the net. Evangelista left a touch pass for a netfront Nico Hischier, but it was well defended by the Golden Knights and punched away to safety. That ultimately led to Arseny Gritsyuk, coming off the bench, finding Jack Hughes near the top of the key for a shot that was stopped by Adin Hill. The second power play was less eventful as the Devils had issues gaining the zone and getting set up, but it did lead to a couple shot attempts from Luke Hughes, one of which was tipped in front.
Then you go back to the game in Colorado and you have Nico Hischier finding Jesper Bratt for a wide open look that Bratt rings off the pipe. And then to add insult to injury, Evangelista was right in front of the net for the rebound but couldn’t corral the bouncing puck, so his shot attempt sailed wide. Fast forward a few seconds to the five on three and Jack Hughes firing a puck towards the net and nearly went up and over Mackenzie Blackwood but went wide as the horn sounded to end the second period.
That’s not to say that every power play has generated a great scoring chance. The Devils had another one late in the Colorado game with their second unit where everything was too slow, although I think given the circumstances….second half of a back-to-back and the Devils having nothing left in the tank…that could be excused. But then I went back and rewatched the first power play against Dallas team that was on fire on the penalty kill and saw a top unit that looked disjointed and not sharp with their passes.
Admittedly, I don’t have the time or the resources to go back and watch all 40+ power play opportunities the Devils have had on the young season. But I have watched every game this season, and that includes every power play. I think it would be disingenuous to suggest that the Devils haven’t created chances with the man advantage. I don’t see anything glaringly wrong when it comes to puck movement, puck management, or player movement. They just haven’t buried their chances.
At the end of the day, we are talking about a top power play unit that has mostly consisted of Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier the last five years or so with other pieces rotating in and out. Jack had 28 goals and 84 assists on the PP the prior four seasons to this one. Bratt had 24 goals and 79 assists in the same timespan. Hischier, who has 4 of the Devils 7 PPG this season, had 38 PPG and 50 assists.
I don’t think these guys just forgot how to play hockey overnight.
Why I Don’t Think The Answer Is As Simple as “Put Dougie Hamilton Back on PP1”
One common suggestion I have seen repeatedly is that the Devils should replace Luke Hughes with Dougie Hamilton on the top power play unit. And I get the reasoning behind it. In addition to being a right-handed shot, Dougie is more of a “shoot first” player than Luke is, and Dougie has a reputation for having a big shot that needs to be respected and accounted for.
I think there are a few problems with that line of thinking though.
For starters, Luke is a far superior skater to Hamilton and is one of the key players who will help the Devils gain the zone on the power play in the first place. The Devils typically have Jack, Luke, or Bratt carry the puck in and taking one of them away limits their options and looks they can throw at the opposition. Luke is also a key player to have on the perimeter as a “last line of defense” where if the puck takes a weird bounce and all of a sudden it’s a breakaway the other way, he can skate with most forwards in that position and potentially break that play up to break up a potential scoring chance. The same can’t be said for Hamilton.
But I think its also fair to ask whether or not Hamilton is still a better shooter than Luke at this stage of their respective careers.
Luke has obviously made major strides in that area this past offseason, and while NHL Edge stats can be misleading, they do have Luke registering a harder shot this season than Dougie. Dougie has averaged about 3.5 more MPH on his shot than Luke, but a harder shot doesn’t automatically mean better if said shot isn’t on target. Dougie is also settling for more long-range shots from the point while Luke has more consistently gotten to those mid range, home plate areas of the ice where the magic happens. That’s not just a “this season” thing either….that happened last year too.
I’m not trying to disparage Hamilton. I just think that the conventional thought process with regards to Hamilton is that “He’s got a big shot, so he should be on PP1”. But just from watching the games this season, I’m not sure that Luke hasn’t caught up to Hamilton in terms of having a quality shot from the backend. And if Hamilton isn’t significantly better at shooting than Luke is, I’m not sure why the Devils would pull Luke from PP1 when Luke holds several other physical advantages over Hamilton. Hamilton isn’t going to walk the blue line like Luke can, nor will he be any better helping the Devils gain the zone.
It’s a trade off that will probably have negligible results at the end of the day.
One other slightly off topic thought since I’m on the topic of zone entries. I do think for all the griping about the slingshot, it’s actually quite effective and better fits the personnel on this roster than just dumping and chasing the puck. I don’t think its going away, nor should it.
Are Any Changes Coming?
Sheldon Keefe recognized that some change needed to be made at Monday’s practice, swapping out Luke Evangelista for Connor Brown on the top unit and establishing him as the net-front presence. It’s an interesting idea, especially when you remember how the top power play unit had success in finding the back of the net with Brown in that role. Brown himself had 4 goals and 4 assists on the power play, and the Devils scored 16 of their 45 power play goals last season with Brown on the ice.
I didn’t dislike the work that Evangelista did on the top PP unit but I think making this change makes sense. Brown has no issues getting to the tough areas of the ice and making things happen, and you do need that on a top power play unit. I’m not saying he’s Chris Kreider from a few years ago where he’ll just park in front of the goaltender and make a living cleaning up all the garbage in front of the net, but I do think there’s proof of concept off of last year’s games that he’ll be fine in that role.
Of course, that leads to another common complaint with the Devils power play in that they lack a pure sniper. That they need a player who will shoot first and ask questions later.
I do think there’s some merit to that argument.
While I want to be clear that I don’t think overpassing has been a fatal flaw from what I’ve seen from the power play this year, I do think the Devils have been guilty of “making that one extra pass to set up the perfect shot” in the past. Too often, instead of taking the shot, someone makes the one extra pass that doesn’t connect for one reason or another. Someone gets a stick in the lane to break it up. Whoever is receiving the pass isn’t ready for it so it’s not handled clearly.
The Devils top power play unit, by default, has a lot of natural facilitators. It’s not that I think there’s an unwillingness to shoot, but I consider Jack Hughes to be a facilitator, first and foremost. I consider Luke to be the same. There might not be a bigger facilitator on the roster than Jesper Bratt. Heck, it won’t be long before he passes Scott Niedermayer and Scott Gomez for #2 on the franchise’s assists leader list. But I do point this out to suggest that there might be a bit of redundancy of the skillsets of the players on the top power play unit. This might not have necessarily been an issue in the past when Dougie Hamilton was on the top unit, but it goes noted now.
This is where I would suggest that if they were going to do something drastic, they should consider pulling Jesper Bratt off of the top power play unit for a natural shooter. So my suggestion would be to replace him with Arseny Gritsyuk and have Bratt and Hamilton quarterback the second unit.
Gritsyuk may already be the best shooter on the roster, and he’s not relying on power play production either as all of those goals have come at even strength. He’s shown that he knows how to put himself in position to make plays and get his shot off.
At the end of the day though, I think the top power play unit might have too many facilitators, but not enough natural shooting threats. Conversely, I think the second unit has willing shooters, but lacks a QB to get them the puck. Moving Bratt to the second unit to set up whoever the shooters there are (probably some combination of Hamilton, Mantha, Meier, and Evangelista) makes sense, as does getting one of the best shots on the team in Gritsyuk with the Hughes brothers.
Final Thoughts
I think the primary issue with the Devils power play, first and foremost, is “they’re not finishing”, and most other complaints about the power play are either window dressing or of the nit-picking variety. There’s enough of a track record with players like Jack Hughes, who has zero PPG as of this writing, and even Jesper Bratt, who has one PPG, where I would trust that eventually, the puck is going to go in for them. To bring this full circle with Jackson’s post from earlier in the week, I don’t think the Devils power play “ineptitude”, for lack of a better term, is sustainable.
I’d be more concerned if I consistently saw the Devils power play having issues in the offensive zone. Where they were consistently having trouble gaining the zone and getting set up. Where they weren’t creating legitimate scoring chances. Where they were consistently bleeding scoring chances the other way when they’re supposed to be the team with the man advantage. I’m not consistently seeing that in the early portion of this season. Maybe someone with more of a keen eye for the X’s and O’s can tell me why I’m wrong in the comments, but I would disagree with the notion that the unit needs major changes, generally speaking.
That’s not to say there’s not the occasional shift here or there where that hasn’t been an issue, but by and large, I feel like the process when it comes to the power play has been good. I don’t mind Keefe switching things up by putting Brown back on the top unit. I also appreciate him not looking to reinvent the wheel either with something more questionable. There may come a time where said changes are necessary. I don’t think we’re at that point quite yet.
Then again, the Devils scored two power play goals last night against the Oilers. One of which a direct result of Connor Brown being inserted netfront. They also nearly had a third if not for an incredible save by Tristan Jarry off of a Luke Evangelista redirected shot from Timo Meier.
Maybe the Devils will be fine.
(stats referenced in this article do not include the 11/3/26 game vs. Edmonton)
