The New Jersey Devils are officially eliminated. And this time, they won’t even be able to claim that the conference was just too difficult or that they matched last season’s record. They will fall short of 90 points in the standings. And unless they score 10 goals a game for the rest of the season, they will finish with a negative goal differential. The result you see is the result the team earned and deserved with their play this season.
The organization might be a plane with no pilot, as no interim
general manager was named after the team fired Tom Fitzgerald four days ago. But there are supposedly still people working in the Devils’ front office. Dan MacKinnon and Kate Madigan have, for now, retained their positions as Assistant General Managers. Martin Brodeur is still in the organization. Surely, somebody has the power to continue with Fitzgerald’s basic duties, or at least tell David Blitzer that they can still do X, Y, and Z. Lo’ and behold…it’s Martin Brodeur. And he’s doing things:
Halfway There: Nico Daws and Jakub Malek Should Finish This Season, Not Jake Allen or Jacob Markstrom
With three measly games remaining, the Devils had the opportunity continue to run their old goaltending tandem out onto the ice. But why bother? These two have proven, and I mean they have absolutely proven that they cannot be trusted to take a team to the playoffs at their combined age. On that, I will start with Jake Allen, who has a more palatable contract and has better stats on the season.
I think Jake Allen can still be a backup in the National Hockey League, but not a 1B-type goaltender. He is a good backup, if you have a goaltender like Connor Hellebuyck or Ilya Sorokin. This is evident in how steeply his performance declined as the season went on: I would love having Allen around as a guy who just needs to play 20 or 30 games. Beyond that? He is simply too old.
- First 10 games (11/15, 18 team games): 7-2-0, .916 SV%
- First 15 games (12/6, 29 team games): 8-6-0, .908 SV%
- First 20 games (12/27, 38 team games): 10-8-1, .910 SV%
- First 25 games (1/29, 50 team games): 12-11-1, .908 SV%
- First 30 games (3/14, 66 team games): 13-15-1, .905 SV%
- All 36 games (4/9, 79 team games): 16-17-2, .903 SV%
Jake Allen’s own cramping issues hurt the tandem early on. When Jacob Markstrom had to come in for the final 20 minutes of the team’s third game of the season on October 13 against Columbus, Markstrom hurt himself in the final seconds of the game. Markstrom would miss two weeks, coming back looking pretty rough. But in the five games Allen had to handle, with Sheldon Keefe ceding just one start to Nico Daws, Jake was great with a .915 save percentage and a perfect 5-0-0 record. Allen has just a .900 save percentage since those games despite a reduced workload.
Markstrom, meanwhile, took until December to have a singular five-game stretch where he held a .900 save percentage: from December 14 to January 3, when he had a .932 save percentage. He had an .876 save percentage in the five preceding games and a .851 save percentage in the five that followed. I did think that Markstrom had finally turned it around by the end of January. He had a 5-3-0 record and a .916 save percentage from January 29 to March 8, with some great play in the Olympics during the break. Since then, though, Jacob Markstrom has been an architect of the Devils’ elimination with a 4-4-0 record and an .860 save percentage. Once the Devils started playing their best hockey, Markstrom went back to his early-season form.
Getting out of the extension Markstrom signed with Fitzgerald would not be easy for the Devils, but they do not have to worry about the specifics right now. They should be preparing for alternatives. By calling Daws up, the team is showing that they might actually understand things need to change in net.
Nico Daws and Jakub Malek have shared the net in Utica for the majority of the season, except when Jeremy Brodeur filled in for Daws during Markstrom’s injury. Their numbers are not stellar. Daws is 15-16-11 with an .891 save percentage and 2.84 goals against average, while Malek is 11-13-5 with an .894 save percentage and 2.76 goals against average. Eight overtime losses for Daws brings the save percentage down quite a bit, though, and his actual regulation save percentage would be fairly closer to .900. But I don’t even care about that very much. Why? Two reasons:
- The Utica Comets were very bad this season. Like the Devils, they saw massive declines in performance among nearly all skaters. Perhaps the systems pushed in the organization were a little flawed.
- Nico Daws is 4-1-0 in seven games with a .945 save percentage and 1.49 goals against average over the last two seasons in the NHL.
On the other hand, this was Malek’s first season of North American hockey, and he did decently on a poor team. It would be a great finish for him to get a taste of NHL action, opening the door for him to compete for a starting role on the New Jersey Devils as soon as next season. He is 24 years old, and he has played in multiple professional leagues. Holding him back because two old goaltenders are signed for too many years could come at the expense of the team’s competitiveness. He should be up in New Jersey with Daws, not left behind in Utica.
If you are afraid that the Comets might run out of goaltenders, fear not. They have signed 2024 fifth round pick Veeti Louhivaara to an Amateur Tryout Contract. Louhivaara, 20, had a .905 save percentage in his first North American season in the USHL. If they wanted to give him and Tyler Brennan, who improved from an .878 save percentage to a .901 save percentage in the ECHL this season, the remaining games in Utica, that would be another positive developmentally-minded move.
These games do not matter to the Devils in the standings. Promote the young goaltenders and shut the old guys down. They can earn their jobs in September or not.
Topias Vilen Called Up: Why Stop There?
I have long been a fan of Topias Vilen as a prospect. He just turned 23 on April 1, and this is his third season with Utica. In the 2022-23 season, he got my attention by scoring nine goals and 17 points in Finland’s Liiga for the Pelicans when he was just 19 years old. Since then, he has been one of the steadiest players in Utica, scoring 29 points in 54 games at age 20, 24 points in 58 games at age 21, and then 24 points in 59 games at age 22. The lack of rising production is a little concerning, yes, but he is the only Utica Comet to have an even or better plus/minus rating in all three seasons. This season, he is one of only seven players with a positive rating, leading all Comets who have played 30 or more games (Colton White has a +5 in 25 games) with a +3 rating. He can occasionally pick a corner from distance, too.
Dennis Cholowski, of course, had a -6 in 13 games with five points. Going into slightly more advanced stats on AHL Tracker makes the gap even bigger. Vilen had a whopping +7.5 relative goals for percentage with Utica this season, which is even better in all situations (+9.3%) because Utica was unstoppable on the penalty kill with him on the ice. Though we don’t know how many minutes he played there, the Comets scored eight shorthanded while only giving up 14 goals on the penalty kill with Vilen on the ice. Cholowski was the inverse player for the Comets. He is not only bad in the NHL, he is still bad in the AHL, too. With a -10.3 relative goals for percentage at five-on-five and -14.6% in all situations, Cholowski has not even earned his minutes in Utica, yet he was floundering away in the latest loss to Pittsburgh.
So, great, it looks like Daws will play at least one game for the Devils while Vilen comes in for Cholowski. But just as I argue that Malek should play at least one for the Devils, I will also argue that Ethan Edwards should come up, too. Edwards had a middling season in his first full year of AHL action, with a -2.5 relative goals for percentage at five-on-five and a -4 rating with 10 goals and 23 points in 64 games, but the promise is there. He is scoring goals and had a decent first AHL season. But he is nearly a year older than Vilen, and there is no time better than the present.
On the other hand, Brenden Dillon is 35 years old. I will not say that he needs to sit every game the rest of the way, but the team should not hold him in the way of younger guys who need NHL reps. He has not had his best season, especially since his 1000th game, and I am unsure of his place in the Devils’ future. The Devils need to know all of their alternatives. Between him and Johnny Kovacevic, the Devils should be able to find three games for Ethan Edwards.
I would argue for even more defensemen, but the Devils only have Seamus Casey and Calen Addison signed among right-handers, and they had poor AHL seasons, on top of Casey’s injuries. The Devils could call up Mikael Diotte, who had seven assists in 48 games with a -7 rating, but his on-ice rates at five-on-five (-8.4 relative GF%) do not indicate the Devils have much to gain by giving him a look. So, if the Devils want to really give the defense a shake, their only option would be Colton White after Ethan Edwards.
I know Colton White can be a solid sixth defenseman in the NHL. Especially if the Devils had, say, two left-handed defensemen who play between 23 and 25 minutes a night, Colton White would be perfect for filling in those remaining minutes. That might be something to keep in mind for the future. But why not see what else he can do? I say: invert the lineup entirely! Run with this and see what your Utica guys are made of:
White — Nemec
Vilen — Hamilton
Siegenthaler — Edwards
The Devils have nothing to lose and only information to gain. Where will Vilen actually end up? Presumably, he will be on a pairing with Johnny Kovacevic. But I want to see more proactive behavior from the Devils.
Why Not Some Forwards?
The forwards in Utica are not the cream of the crop, per se, but I still cast an eye of distrust towards the kind of hockey the Devils organization was pushing down on skaters this season. Xavier Parent and Angus Crookshank looked like they might actually have the heart to give it their all on the fourth line earlier this season, when they carried Luke Glendening to passable results in a handful of games. But I would also be interested in seeing younger players such as Shane Lachance (24 points in 57 games, -17) and Matyas Melovsky (20 points in 50 games, -6). Their first AHL seasons may not have been the best, but Lachance seemed to improve down the stretch, and Melovsky was hot early on before an injury slowed him down.
I, unfortunately, am not a big fan of Marc McLaughin’s game. He does not have a single shot on goal in over 30 minutes of NHL ice time this season. In fact, he has zero shots in six games for the Devils over the last two seasons. He might be a fine extra, but I do not think the Devils are learning anything about their fourth line options for next season by continuing to play him. It’s time for Matyas Melovsky to play a few games on the fourth line instead.
Brian Halonen might have more to him, but he is similarly disappointing from a shot creation standpoint. He has played 13 games for the Devils this season and only amassed five shots so far. By comparison, Maxim Tsyplakov had 19 shots in 21 games, but that was not enough for Sheldon Keefe and the Devils’ remaining brain trust. Nick Bjugstad was promoted from fourth-line center to third-line right wing and has not really fit in there too well. In my opinion, Bjugstad currently looks like the best internal option for the Devils as their 4C next season, but I would like to see them open it up to Melovsky now that the playoffs are mathematically out of reach.
In place of Halonen, if Tsyplakov cannot get back into the lineup, I would like to see Shane Lachance. I want to see if he can just park himself in front of the goalie and knock one or two past. The Devils have longed for their netfront presences this season, and seeing if Lachance can turn into something like an early Nathan Bastian (with more upside) would be something I would sign up for. Plain and simple, the Cotter-McLaughlin-Halonen line has not shown me anything that I would like to continue watching, aside from a kind of goal Cotter can score with any linemates.
Since I would also be interested by seeing Angus Crookshank and Xavier Parent play more games, perhaps in bigger minutes than they previously received, I think the team should shut a couple forwards down for the final three games. Nick Bjugstad is older and we know what kind of player he is. He’s a good fourth-line center option, but he’s probably not going to do much higher in the lineup at this point of his career.
Otherwise, any Devils that have been playing through injuries this late in the season: what are you waiting for? Everyone should be following the lead of Arseny Gritsyuk and Luke Hughes. I do not want to open Twitter on April 15 and see five surgery announcements from the Devils. Anyone who knows their offseason is going to involve rehabbing should get a head start now, because the goal has firmly shifted from making the impossible happen to make the playoffs this season to getting the team’s act together and playing the best 82 possible next season.
Like with the defense, I would like to see a very different look. This would be my bottom six suggestion to see if anyone in Utica has something to offer the Devils next season:
Crookshank — Glass — Parent
Lachance — Melovsky — Hameenaho
Whatever it takes, whether it be pushing guys to go for their delayed surgeries now or just shutting guys down to protect their health in games that are meaningless in the standings, the Devils should be trying to change things up in these final 180 minutes of hockey. This is the time to learn something about the young guys whose paths have been blocked by underperforming veterans.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Devils calling Daws and Vilen up? Should they go further, as I suggested? Who would you want to see get a chance? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
