Team: 2017-18 New Jersey Devils

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 7, 2017

Published: Jul. 8, 2017

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

*This is purely my opinion. No trades assumed. Only RFAs the Devils have the rights to are signed.

The Devils are starting to look up again but mostly everyone else has become much better as well. Drafting a slick, creative player like Hischier first overall and trading for Marcus Johansson have made the top 6 look respectable again. Hopefully Taylor Hall is happy again. Zacha and the addition of Brian Boyle complete a very strong center core that have strengths in different areas. With more experience and if he proves to be the player the Devils expect, the Devils can task Hischier with taking draws as well. The bottom 6 wingers need work. There is no brawn there and those spots are taken by players who are just skilled enough to crack the team. They don't add any other elements that most other teams' bottom 6 have. This Devils team needs to start living up to its name and get some more tenacity but small steps right? At least this is a nice improvement from the forward group I saw last year. On defence, we still have a barren wasteland ruled by the likes of Andy Greene and Damon Severson. Greene isn't Benjamin Button though so they shouldn't count on relying on him for too much longer. They have to hope that guys like Mirco Mueller and Michael Kapla come close to hitting their ceilings and Santini has another strong year developing for the Binghamton Devils in order to be considered a threat on defence. In goal, I am really pleased they are returning the tandem of Schneider and Kinkaid. Schneider has shown his brilliance and can be an effective starter as long as his workload is reduced a bit. That's where Kinkaid comes in. He more than proved he was someone the Devils could call upon in goal and is a more than capable backup to spell Schneider when needed.

Forwards (top 6) - B
Forwards - C+
Defence (top 4) - C+
Defence - C -
Goaltending - B
Depth - C