Matt Halischuk may be destined for the AHL this season, but he may be another young Devil who can impress down the road. Halischuk has the ability to be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL, but more importantly is that he could become a solid play-making center for the Devils as well, while Brad Snetsinger could also be a top OHL-Alum to watch for as well.
Oduya think you’re better than me eh? Well let me Salvador my reputation…
If you’re familiar with Canadian politics, then you know who Paul Martin is—but that knowledge makes you useless in this case.
The other Paul Martin—the defenseman for the New Jersey Devils—has steadily stepped up as different parts of those excellent Jersey units left over time. Scott Stevens left, and Martin’s role increased. Scott Niedermayer left, and Martin’s role increased. Brian Rafalski left (rather quietly) last season, and Martin upped his performance with the added responsibility.
What followed was a career-best plus-20 rating—it’s scary that this wasn’t the best on the team—and a solid five-goal, 32-point season. Although his offensive production may level off in the 30-point range, Martin is steadily becoming a solid defender in the NHL.
While Martin continues to improve his all-around game, Colin White will continue to use his big body to clear out space for Martin Brodeur, while offering very rare offensive spurts. It’ll be interesting however to see if a midseason eye injury has any lingering effects on White this year. Although he did come back last season, eyes are a tricky thing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re a bit finicky going forward.
In his second season, Johnny Oduya was a very pleasant surprise for the Devils. He nearly doubled his offensive production from the previous season (from 11 points to 26), and posted a startling plus-27. Although Oduya has shown strong offensive talent in the past, don’t expect him to get too far past the 30-point plateau, although it’s practical to believe that Oduya’s defensive prowess will steadily improve in New Jersey.
Acquired in a trade late last season with St Louis, Bryce Salvador is also back, fresh off of a four-year extension. Although his career hasn’t been anything to write home about so far, Salvador had a strong showing with St Louis (11 points, plus-12 in 56 games) and a fairly strong post season by his standards.
He may not seem like much more than an alternate option, but it’s also quite conceivable that New Jersey’s style could cover up some flaws in Salvador’s game, as well as those of Mike Mottau, Sheldon Brookbank, and Jay Leach if they see significant ice time in the NHL.
Matt Corrente is a fairly young defenseman coming out of the OHL who saw some success, but only played 21 games in his final OHL season. Despite that—and an minus-38 rating in his rookie season—Corrente posted some steady point numbers, and started to turn into a very reliable source of defense.
Andy Greene, Mark Fraser, and Taylor Eckford may also be three young defenders to see some time within the NHL ranks in the event of injury or under-performance.
So what's it all mean?
The Atlantic Division is a hard division to decipher.
The Devils have the best goalie in Martin Brodeur, but the Penguins have the most firepower, while both the Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers are difficult teams to place.
In light of last season’s second place finish, I feel it unjust to rank the Devils so low, but also consider this—it’s possible for all of the Flyers, Rangers, Penguins, and Devils to make the playoffs.
The Southeast is fairly weak, with Carolina and Washington being the two real challengers. The Northeast is also a tough egg to crack, as there’ll be no easy games in that division.
Then you factor in Pittsburgh’s injuries on defense to Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar, and the career of Philadelphia's Derian Hatcher being in jeopardy, and things are complicated further.
If I say the Devils need to score more to be more of an impact, then I get ripped because they only allowed 197 goals last season. But that’s last season.
To be competitive for top spot in the Atlantic, though, I think they do need to score more, and I’m not sure that depth is there. I’m also not sure how much “better” the Rangers, Flyers, Devils and Pens are than each other because only seven points separated first in the division from fourth, while second and fourth were separated by just four.
Basically it means they're close. I don't like close. Close is hard.
As of now? I see the Devils fourth—but with teams that evenly matched, they'll be locked in a battle for third with Philadelphia, and could easily hop as high as second.
Fourth in Atlantic
Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and an NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. If you want to get in contact with Bryan, you can do so through his profile, and you can also check out all of his previous work in his archives.
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