3 things that went wrong for the New Jersey Devils in 2023-24
The New Jersey Devils were not very good in 2023-24. There are three big reasons why.
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.
The goaltending for this New Jersey Devils team couldn't have been worse
The New Jersey Devils did have some awful goaltending for most of this season. They came in with Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanecek leading the way. They moved on to Nico Daws when they sent Schmid down.
By the end of the year, they had Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen via trades. The latter two played very well but they were acquired way too late.
Schmid's NHL season saw him go 5-9-1 with a 3.15 GAA and a .895 save percentage. Vanecek went 17-9-3 which is a good record but his GAA was 3.18 and his save percentage was .890. That tandem just wasn't good enough.
Daws had some good games but nobody would say that he was good enough. He went 9-11-0 with a 3.15 GAA and a .894 save percentage.
Allen may end up being the backup next season if they go out and address the situation even more while Kahkonen is an unrestricted free agent.
If New Jersey doesn't fix this problem before training camp, they will be in big trouble once again. You can't win in the NHL without good saves.
The New Jersey Devils were let down by their head coaches this year
Lindy Ruff came into this season thinking he could get this group over the hump. The fanbase chanted "fire Lindy" early last season but it was changed to "sorry Lindy" before you knew it.
This year, the negative chants never turned positive. Before you knew it, Lindy Ruff was fired and Travis Green took over. Neither of them did a particularly good job.
Timo Meier was used on his off-wing, Alexander Holtz was benched despite mostly playing well, Jack Hughes wasn't being used as a center, they had certain players (Brenden Smith, Kurtis McDermid) playing too many games, etc. It was just bad coaching all around.
During the next few weeks, Tom Fitzgerald needs to conduct a well-rounded search with no stones unturned.
They need to search far and wide to find the right person for the job. There are plenty of solid candidates out there. It could be the difference between being bad, good, and great.
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