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New Jersey Devils Stock Up/Stock Down: Downed in the Desert

The slow crawl to the finish line continues for the New Jersey Devils as they embarked on a three-game road trip out west. With the season looking increasingly grim, the Devils faced off against the Dallas Stars, Arizona Coyotes, and Vegas Golden Knights in their last trek outside of the Eastern Time Zone. The trip started off great with a surprise 6-2 win over Dallas. However, that’s where the good times started and ended. Two nights later they fell 4-1 to Arizona, followed by a 3-1 loss to Vegas. On a positive note, last evening they returned to home ice. They took down the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 5-2, marking their seventh win in a row against them.

New Jersey Devils Stock Up/Stock Down: Start with a Pleasant Stock Up

Jake Allen

Allen’s Devils debut started about as bad as possible. He left in two goals on the first three shots he faced, including a horrific sharp-angle shot. However, he clamped down after and stopped the next 35 shots and posted a Goals Saved Above Expected of two as the Devils went on to beat the Stars. His encore performance a few nights later against the Golden Knights was equally as good. Despite the loss, Allen had a GSAx of 1.14 and saved 34 of 36 shots. In his next start, Allen saved 36 of 38 in last night’s victory in another stellar performance, against the aforementioned Penguins. The acquisition of Allen at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline was questionable given his stats over the last few years. Still, he has put together three very strong performances, and looks like he will be a capable 1B goalie next year.

Stock Down

Travis Green

Assistant coach Travis Green was the obvious choice to take over as the interim following Lindy Ruff’s firing. However, it’s going about as bad as it possibly could. The team has shown no signs of life or a “new coach bump”, and in fact, looks even worse than they did under Ruff. Given the late timing of the move, this was always the most likely outcome for a Devils team that has seemingly checked out of the season. The sentiment around the Devils fanbase was that there was a shred of hope Green could impress and get the full-time job given some of the success he had in Vancouver, but it’s evident this group needs a new voice.

Stock Up

Draft Position

Here we go again. The conversation around draft position and tanking is all too familiar for the Devils in recent years. Moreover, that’s where we’re at with a month left in the season. The Devils currently sit with the eighth-best odds in the draft lottery and a chance to select Macklin Celebrini. A lot can change between now and the end of the year, but the Devils are beginning to position themselves in a prime draft position. Their 2024 first-round pick was part of the Timo Meier trade, but with the conditions likely to not be met, they look ticketed for another top-10 pick.

Stock Down

Power Play

Well we have to unfortuantely end this edition of New Jersey Devils Stock Up/Stock Down with a stock down. For probably the last time this season we will talk about the Devils power play. There once was a time when they were scoring at over 40% and were winning games solely on the back of the man advantage. Now, they’ve plummeted to 16th in the league at 21.6%. When you dive a little deeper the numbers are worse. Since the start of 2024, the Devil’s power play percentage is at a staggeringly low 11.6%. If you shrink the sample size to just March it is slightly better at 17.4%. Since the start of the month, they’ve gone 4-23 on the PP with two of their goals coming in one game. Considering all the talent in their lineup, the falloff from the power play may be one of the more shocking things to happen this season.

Main photo: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

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