Who did not achieve enough for the New Jersey Devils in 2024-25?

In John's post on Friday, when he reacted to the press conference at the end of the year in Tom Fitzgerald and Sheldon Keefe, he dived in Fitzgerald's explanation for depth evaluation. For today's article, I wanted to put them deeper into this question to determine where the fault lines are most on the team's offensive. Fitzgerald said in response to a question from the media: “Oh, I think the players have undergone. For everything about the jersey, John wrote:

Second, This is a point that Todd Cordell has done And I will repeat it, who got under the deep storms exactly in 2024-25? Dawson Mercer may not take a step forward, how she and I may have liked, but After a season in which he scored 20, he scored 19 goals in 2024-25. Ondrej Palat was a consistent scorer in the area of ​​15 goals And he scored 15 goals last season. Erik Transora sat from 16 goals to 11, but he was also missing more time because after the return of injuries, an injury was initially terrible. It was certainly not expected that Tomas Tatar, Justin Dowling, Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian would score double -digit goals, and they didn't.

The attempt to get into the head of Tom Fitzgeralds is difficult here, but the three players that John picked out is a legitimate point of criticism. Dawson Mercer was only one goal outside of his 20-goal season in a row, but he should be really more productive based on the top six and the gaming time he had. Sure, a good part of Mercer's season comes to the penalty murder, and he is an all-stulation player, but the planning of a man to become a man with 50 to 60 points and collect 69 points together in the past two years can have a general manager that things do not work as they should.

The real disappointment about the offensive is Erik Transora. Darka has dropped 21 points throughout the season and has had more in his second year in his second year in his second year in his second year in his second year. After 76 points in the first two years as a devil, Erik Transora looked lost for a large part of this season, but there were a few factors in the game. The first such factor was the health of Transpor, since he missed 13 games (most of it, which he had missed in a no longer idiot since his beginner) and probably can bring out a few more. The second factor was Sheldon Keefe's defense system, the Transpara seemed to be fighting to thrive about half of the season. After league in the Pavel Zacha trade was brought along, he should be a winger of the third center or in the second wing player who opens ice cream and matchups for the top centers of Devils. As Alex found on Saturday, Erik Transora had a much better time in the playoffs, although his line in the goal scoring front seemed a little unhappy.

I say that Transora was more disappointed than the palat because Palat played a career in a career in minutes per game and still scored 15 goals, which corresponds to his career average. 15 goals are also the highest Graf palate, has scored in a Devils uniform, and he followed it with a presence in the only great five-on-five playoff line of Palat Hischier-Meier. While Palat's contract is much more out of than that of Erik Transk of what John prompted yesterday, he could make him a buyout candidate. Assuming that the team believes that the palat can contribute more to this during the season and in the playoffs, I would be shocked that it is so off.

The proportion of defense in the guilt and the lower six difficulty

Another problem – and one of the New Jersey Devils can repair without mixing staff – the defenders' hits. Devil's defensive made 31 goals this season, from 33 in 2023-24 and 48 in 2022-23. A big factor there was that Dougie Hamilton scored 22 goals in the team's playoff appearance, but the devils also had goals from Damon Severson (7) and Ryan Graves (8). The Devils may have defensive players in their places in Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon, but there is still no striker of Middle-Six striker who did the defense (while they scored similarly dominant defensive results) when they scored the second round two years ago. I assume Hope This decline can be reversed next season.

However, if it is not the other way around, the devils have to take these 17 missing goals into account somewhere. If the team of the team had scored these additional goals this year, the Devils in the league, shortly before the Rangers, would have taken the goal in the total number. Instead, they stood under several mediocre clubs with the 20th in the league in goals. Not a single team under the 15th (Panthers) in gates is still in the playoffs. Do Arseni Gritsyuk and Lenni Hameenaho do that Tom Fitzgerald can not move anyone, and just shuffle a fourth line in and out to say that the team does not come back with the same group? Sure, that could go down in the “12 players with more than 10 goals” before the depth that Fitzgerald mentioned in the press conference, but the devils have to maximize their high-end players. Or if Sheldon Keefe can keep Daniel Sprong, he may be able to use these “high-end-no-NHL skills in relation to the finishing skills” to increase the lower six. Or maybe we have Kurtis MacDermid playing 10 games. Who knows?

The way it is, the devils can expand their Blueline rating by Hamilton, Hughes and Nemec. Seamus Casey is certainly a threat to the score, but his place in the team next year is difficult to take on: it will probably play most of the year in Utica. However, NEMEC must be more aggressive in the transition and, like in game three of the first round, make their own shots. Luke Hughes also wears one of the lower percentages in the league with only 36.9% of his attempts to bring it into the net, so that he may see an explosion in point production when he learns to beat the defense and bring more rubber into the net. Yes, many defenders are in the area of ​​the low 40s, but the less time Luke spends pursuing rebounds from Shin Pads, the better. As long as the devils have these offensive defenders under their maximum potential, they are also part of the problem and the prospective solutions.

Can the upper strikers be better?

Apart from Jack Hughes, who was cut off in 62 games this season, there is a “Core” deer, which in my opinion would be someone who must be better in 2025-26, would point out: Timo Meier. Do you remember Pavel Zacha, the malignant player who was previously referred to Erikbansport trade? Meier has eight points more than Zacha since the sixth overall winner was shipped to Boston in 2015. It's just not enough.

I don't write this to worsen the year that Meier had. With a new trainer, Timo played the most defensive game he has ever put together, and breastfeeding 26 goals. However, it fell under 10 Power Play goals for the first time in 2020-21 when he was 24 years old. While Meier was not always on the Top Power Play unit this season, he was mostly there anyway, and I think he could have still turned 10 one-timer to the cord. Mind you, Timo had 17 Power games goals when he scored in 2022-23 40. Only when Meier returns to this level can he take it away need For an additional lower six goal scorers.

Final tidbits and their thoughts

For me there are only a few players that I cannot point out that I have to score more. For the most part, the devils have to improve internally, and although this is frightening for a team that was bounced down in five games, the second year next year is to work with Sheldon Keefe. Next year is another year of the core of the team that becomes tires and more efficient players. Everyone – from top to bottom – can do something different to achieve a few additional goals to rebuild the team's attack.

So, pretty much nobody scored enough.

What do you think about the team of the team's team? Who are you looking for an improvement next season? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thank you for reading.