3 things that went wrong for the New Jersey Devils in 2023-24

A lot of things went wrong for the New Jersey Devils which is why they are not going to the postseason in 2024.

It is very smart to understand that this is a young team that was always going to grow through some growing pains that teach them lessons.

This season has been a great lesson learned for the young core. Now, it is time to identify where things went wrong and figure out how they can address them.

Of course, the core guys do need to be even better. Everything went right for them in 2022-23 and everything seemed to have gone wrong this year.

As an organization, these are the three things that need to be fixed as they went terribly wrong for New Jersey in 2023-24:

The New Jersey Devils were not healthy enough this season

For the New Jersey Devils (or any NHL team) to make a run, they need their best players to play. The New Jersey Devils did not have that luxury for the entire season this year.

Dougie Hamilton played in 20 games before his season-ending injury came in November. He is one of the best defensemen in the NHL and losing him hurt. That forced them to use teenagers like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec way more than they wanted.

Jack Hughes had a few stints of time missed with injury. He only ended up in 62 games and he wasn't at 100 percent for about half of them. He still managed to have a 100-point pace season but it isn't enough when you don't play enough.

Nico Hischier missed nine games early on and it was hard to win while he was out. That set the team back from the start. Timo Meier got hot at the end of the year but the injury bug hit him early on too which impacted his start. He played in only 69 games which is a number he needs to get back up.

We know what this group can do when everyone is healthy. Once they return next year, they have to do what they can to stay on the ice so that the team can reach its potential again.