8 Positive Things to Come Out of the 2024-25 Devils Season
With the 2024-25 season coming to a close, let's reflect on some positive developments for the Devils.
There are just two games left for the New Jersey Devils in the 2024-25 regular season, and though there have been some issues this season — ones I will touch on in tomorrow’s piece — the season has mostly been a positive one for the team.
Without wasting much time, let’s get right into 10 things to be happy about in pertinence to the 2024-25 Devils’ season, in no particular order:
1. Playoff Hockey
As I said in the last sentence, this list is in no particular order, but this selection at #1 certainly deserves that spot. After missing the postseason last season, the Devils cemented their spot and will participate in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Many fans have put an asterisk on the season and talked about how “weak” the Eastern Conference is, and, quite frankly, I don’t care about it. The Devils made the playoffs and weren’t a wild-card team. That is an accomplishment. If, at the beginning of the season, you were told that the Devils would be a playoff team and finish ~10 points above the New York Rangers, you’d have thought the Devils would be in contention for the Presidents’ Trophy.
2. Goaltending
I can’t stress enough how important the flip into having competent goaltending has been for the Devils this season. After perhaps the worst goalie season the Devils have had in the 21st century last season, getting a competent tandem that can — and for the most part has — provide above-average to great goaltending all season has been an awesome development.
Last season, the Devils got -17.3 goals saved above expected (GSAx) from their goaltenders — firmly bottom-five in the league. Flash forward to this season, and between Jacob Markstrom, Jake Allen, and Nico Daws, the Devils have gotten a GSAx of +30.0 — firmly top-five in the league.
Ah, the duality of man.
This mark would be even higher if Markstrom hadn’t struggled so much since coming off of his injury, but outside of a stinker against the Bruins a week or so ago, he has re-established himself as an above-average goalie who has been providing the team with better than adequate goaltending. Jake Allen has been the best backup in the NHL, and Daws cemented himself as the backup of the future.
3. Another Step From Bratt & Hischier
With Jack Hughes out for a good chunk of the season, attention shifted to the Devils’ two next-best players: Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt.
Both of them have had monster seasons.
Bratt has admittedly taken a bit of a dip in his underlying statistical profile, particularly defensively, but the box score makes up for that. Not only are his 67 assists handily the most of his career, but they’re the best single-season output in Devils history. He has the most points at every strength for the Devils, and he’s done it without the help of the team’s best player next to him.
Meanwhile, Hischier is having one of the most prolific seasons from a Devils player in recent memory. Beyond his counting statistics — he’s scored a career-high 35 goals and has floated just below a point-per-game despite playing tougher minutes than he ever has been — his underlying metrics are some of the league’s best. Hischier has the second-highest expected goals above replacement (xGAR) in the NHL, behind only Leon Draisaitl, who really should be given the Hart Trophy, even though he missed a handful of games.
4. The Entire Defense Corps
One complete revamp the Devils had this past off-season was in their defense corps, with John Marino, Kevin Bahl, and Brendan Smith exiting and having their roles be filled by Brett Pesce, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Brenden Dillon. Despite however much I’d prefer to have someone else occupying Dillon’s slot, it’s hard to ignore how superb the results have been for the bulk of the Devils’ defense corps.
The pairing of Jonas Siegenthaler and Kovacevic was the league’s best pairing, defensively, until Siegenthaler went down with injury. They were on pace to destroy all-time defensive numbers for goals above replacement (GAR), so much so that despite Siegenthaler having missed the last 25 games, he still leads the NHL in defensive GAR at even strength (11.1). Kovacevic is 4th (9.2).
Despite their late struggles, Pesce and Luke Hughes have the makings of one of the most dominant pairings in the league. They went through a stretch in December where their xGF% was the best in the league — in the mid 60%s — with their game being top-five in the league both defensively and offensively.
Going a bit further, Pesce is a known commodity, but Hughes’ development has been unbelievable, at least from the eye-test. Very rarely do players with microstatistical profiles like this not turn out to be two-way world-beaters. I’d expect a massive leap from him next season:
Dougie Hamilton has also been a rockstar this season, particularly on the power play. Despite missing the last 17 games, Hamilton still ranks second in the NHL among defensemen in power-play xGAR. His 13.31 xGF/60 while on the man advantage is handily the highest in the NHL. Actually, it’s the highest mark of all time. He’s been able to drag Dillon out of the mud at 5v5, too.
5. World-Beating Power Play
Jeremy Colliton was a superb hire for the Devils. He’s completely transformed the way the team plays on the man advantage, and there’s a legitimate argument (through underlying statistics) that this Devils PP is the best of the modern era.
This Devils power play has produced the most expected goals per hour (xGF/60) of any power play ever (10.84), and that’s even with the Devils dropping significantly from the numbers they were putting up with Dougie and Jack in the lineup. On top of that, they’re also producing the most scoring chances per hour (SCF/60) of all time (76.51) and the fifth-highest high-danger chances (HDCF/60), with 33.27. As I said, it's arguably the best power play of all time, and that’s with two main members being injured for the last two months of the season.
6. First Look at Seamus Casey
I’ve probably been a bit tougher on Seamus Casey than I need to be, but I was honestly so tired of the fanbase touting him as the next Brian Rafalski that I felt the urge to bring everyone’s opinions down to Earth a little bit.
With that said, the first looks at him as an NHLer have been legitimately encouraging, at least from an eye-test perspective in the offensive zone. He walks the blue line better than anyone else in the system — including Luke Hughes — and his IQ and playmaking chops have been on full display. Casey obviously still needs some polish in his game, but the preliminary looks have been phenomenal, and believing in him as a prospect and future stud has never been easier.
7. Prospect Development
The Devils have had a strong season in the pipeline, highlighted by a few notable performances and steps forward:
Mikhail Yegorov
When the Devils selected Mikhail Yegorov in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft, I was under the impression that he was good, not great, and that Jakub Malek was the organization's unparalleled top goalie prospect.
Flash forward to today, and I’ve completely flipped on that. Yegorov’s tenure in the USHL was deceivingly strong, posting solid box score numbers on a team that frequently gave up 50+ shots. He expedited his matriculation to Boston University — for good reason — and proceeded to take the NCAA by storm, bringing BU to the championship (unfortunately without winning) and sporting some of college hockey’s best goaltending metrics. Even considering the final game in which he gave up six goals, Yegorov ended the year with a .927 SV% and 2.15 GAA. Really, really incredible stuff from the 19-year-old.
Matyas Melovsky
One prospect who has flown under the radar for the most part is Matyas Melovsky, the Devils’ sixth-round selection from the 2024 NHL Draft. The double-overager draftee had a spectacular QMJHL season with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, totaling 83 points (26 goals) in 57 games. He’s too old to continue playing in the CHL, so look for him to make the move to Utica for the 2025-26 season, where he may be able to slot in as a top-six center immediately.
Anton Silayev
The Devils’ first-round selection from the 2024 NHL Draft, Anton Silayev, has also enjoyed a step forward in his game. The point production was practically identical to his draft-year production — 12 points in 63 KHL games — but the role he played was much larger than before. He played almost three minutes more per game than he did last season, despite not appearing on his team’s power play anymore, logging more meaningful minutes at 5v5 and on the penalty kill. Silayev leaned more into his physicality this season, too. I’d normally not care in the slightest about that, but for a player of his size and playstyle, it’s an encouraging development.
On top of the three names involved here, there have been steps forward for pretty much every notable Devils’ prospect this season. Lenni Hameenaho continued his rampage as Liiga’s most prolific U21 player, Arseni Gritsyuk took another step forward in the KHL (and will be signing his ELC shortly), Ethan Edwards established himself as UMich’s 1D before signing his ELC, and so on and so forth. It was quite an encouraging year as a whole for the Devils’ pipeline.
8. Quietly Intelligent Trades
I know the Devils didn’t have the trade deadline that many wanted and envisioned, but the moves made were quietly excellent.
The Devils made four trades that I’d like to briefly talk about: the Brian Dumoulin, Cody Glass, Daniel Sprong, and Shane Lachance trades.
Starting with the Dumoulin trade, although I was hard on it at first and still hold the opinion that the Devils could have traded a different prospect than Traff, it has turned into a retrospectively smart decision. Traff is a good prospect, but Dumoulin has been a great player for New Jersey since his acquisition. He has taken on the Jonas Siegenthaler role and has re-unlocked Johnathan Kovacevic’s strong play — the latter of whom has been arguably the Devils’ best defenseman since the trade deadline. I don’t think Dumoulin will stay in the organization for another season, but it was a heady addition and a good trade by the Devils’ front office in a vacuum for this season.
The Cody Glass trade has been a smash hit so far — trading a 2027 3rd Rounder, Chase Stillman, and Max Graham for who should be the Devils’ 3C of the future was a no-brainer acquisition at the time and has held up even better than imagined. The former sixth-overall selection has taken the slow-blossoming development arc that many scouts noted would probably be the case and has quietly turned into one of the better shutdown centers in the NHL. Glass’s offensive play still has some work to be had, but he has been an effective playdriver thus far into his Devils tenure and has shown off a bit more flash than I think many anticipated. Add into account the fact that he’s cost-controlled and just 26 years old, and I couldn’t be happier about the trade.
The other two trades — acquiring Sprong and Lachance — were just savvy. Sending a seventh-round selection for Sprong, who has been one of the league’s most efficient bottom-six goal scorers and playdrivers, was excellent asset management (yes, even though they could have gotten him for free off waivers). I hope the front office is as keen on him as I am and that they bring him back next season for pennies on the dollar. As for Lachance, acquiring a surefire NHL-caliber prospect for practically nothing was immaculate work by Tom Fitzgerald. A quarter-season of retention on a cheap contract (Trent Frederic’s) should have netted a mid-late draft pick, not a solid prospect who will be signing his ELC shortly. Excellent, excellent work.
Tomorrow, I’ll touch on some of the more prominent negatives this season. Overwhelmingly, though, it has been a great season for the Devils, even though the second half of the season has largely been a slog.
Even if they’re eliminated in Round One of the playoffs, the fact they’re in them at all should be enough to call the season a success.