New Jersey Devils: 2019 season preview, predictions

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 16: Jack Hughes #86 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates his first goal of preseason on the powerplay at 12:05 of the second period against the Boston Bruins at the Prudential Center on September 16, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

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Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images /

Weaknesses

Questionable Goaltending

The Devils goaltending is arguably their biggest weakness. Cory Schneider has been declining over the past three seasons and MacKenzie Blackwood has a very small sample size. The latter did fairly well last season, but now teams are going to have video on him. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts.

To be fair, Schneider ended last season on a nice run. In 17 games after the All-Star break, he posted a .921% save percentage. If Schneider can build off that, a bounceback year seems likely. However, the odds aren’t in his favor, especially since he’s 33 years old.

Fourth Line

The Devils offseason moves gives them depth. But I’m still not sold on their fourth line. Miles Wood has a lot of potential, but didn’t much last year to show it. It’s hard to see him flourishing on a fourth line. Pavel Zacha is a pretty weak five-on-five center, though he is a pretty strong penalty killer.

Jesper Boqvist could add a scoring touch to the Devils fourth line, but I’m not sure if he’ll be able to make much of an impact there. Their fourth line has the potential to be good, but I’m not completely sold on it.

Power Play

I’m curious to see how the Devils power-play will do this season. Last season, they were below league average, as they posted the seventh-lowest expected goals per hour rate on the power-play. It should be better this season, but of course, “should” is a hypothetical thing.

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