5 New Jersey Devils Who've Had Disappointing 2014-15 Seasons

With the New Jersey Devils facing a third consecutive season out of the playoffs, there is plenty of blame to go around.

Likely, it starts at the top with general manager Lou Lamoriello, whose personnel decisions have left New Jersey dangerously bereft of goal scoring. Former coach Peter DeBoer might shoulder some of the blame too, as the team's miserable month of December (4-8-4) under his reign is ultimately what took the Devils out of the playoff race.

But there is no doubt that plenty of blame can be placed on the players as well. Forming a list of players who have disappointed this season is difficult, simply because there are so many options to choose from.

This list will nonetheless look at New Jersey's most disappointing players this season, which, as you might expect, will predominantly lead to a conversation about forwards who have not pulled their weight.

Dishonorable Mention

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Jon Merrill skates through the neutral zone.

(Note: SAT per 60 minutes is a statistic that tallies the number of shots a team takes when a player is on the ice, subtracts that by the number of shots against when that player is on the ice, and divides the number by 60 minutes to provide a number that can compare players who have played in a different number of games. It is one way to measure how individual players impact the team's ability to possess the puck. I have also included how each player ranks on the team to give a relative picture in addition to the absolute numerical one. All SAT statistics courtesy of NHL.com.)

Travis Zajac

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
56	10	10	20	-3	23	-2.00 (4th)

Zajac is always going to get more grief from fans than he deserves, because the Devils signed him to a contract (he is getting paid $5 million this season) that simply does not match his current contributions. While this complaint is true, it is not fair to blame Zajac for the Devils not putting offensive talent around him, which is the biggest factor in his struggles.

Still, this season, particularly before the coaching change, Zajac has been somewhat disappointing. His 10 goals are actually a good tally for a playmaker, but having only 10 assists is not good enough. Part of this is due to the lack of talent around him, but it is not exclusively caused by that either. 

He has turned it around to an extent since the coaching change, so while he deserves a mention here, he does not belong in the bottom five.

Patrik Elias

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
54	10	17	27	-12	8	-3.82 (8th)

Elias' production in terms of goals and assists would be respectable for most 38-year-old forwards on other NHL teams. But, fair or unfair, the fact of the matter is that the Devils have needed more from Elias than he has provided this season. 

On a team lacking offensive weapons, Elias needs to be a clear-cut top-six forward. He has not always been that for the Devils this season.

Additionally, his plus/minus is tied for last on the team. From a player who has been excellent defensively throughout his career, this dip has been disappointing.

But a player with more than 25 points on an offensively anemic Devils team does not deserve to be put in the bottom five.

Jon Merrill

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
50	2	11	13	-9	20	-9.17 (20th)

Merrill, 23, still has a bright future ahead of him, but he has suffered from a minor sophomore slump. 

His offensive numbers are not of concern, as the Devils do not need him to be a puck-moving defenseman. But his subpar plus/minus and SAT are problematic.

Though it is disappointing to see his numbers plummet, part of the problem has likely had to do with his rotating cast of defense partners and additional responsibilities. Combine those factors with a team that has mightily struggled at times this season, and we are left with a young player in a very difficult situation.

Because his disappointing season has come in part as a result of several factors out of his control, Merrill deserves a mention here, but no worse.

5. Tuomo Ruutu

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Tuomo Ruutu screens the goalie.

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
60	7	4	11	-1	24	-4.32 (11th)

Tuomo Ruutu was never going to be a star for the Devils, but this season they could have desperately used the 30 to 40 points he averaged earlier in his career. 

Instead, they've gotten a serviceable fourth-line player with a physical presence and an occasional goal. This is not awful, but given his history, his cap hit ($3.8 million) and the number of players New Jersey already has that fit this description, his season can be thought of as nothing but disappointing.

Ruutu's non-offensive stats are decent. His SAT is middle of the pack on the team, which is acceptable for a fourth-line player. His plus/minus is above average among Devils players. 

But Ruutu just has not contributed any substantial offense. 

He went 12 games from November 25 to December 17 without registering a point, though he played over 13 minutes a night for the majority of that stretch. 

It was at this point that Ruutu was relegated to the fourth line, putting the official stamp on his disappointing season.

4. Eric Gelinas

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Eric Gelinas celebrates scoring a goal against Nashville on Tuesday. It was his first point in six games.

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
44	5	9	14	-2	28	3.06 (7th)

In a season often overrun by injuries, it is important to remember that Eric Gelinas' relatively low number of games played is a factor of poor play, not injury or illness.

The issue, which both the current coaching staff and former coach DeBoer have had with Gelinas, has to do with his defensive play. The result has been Gelinas being a healthy scratch for long stretches of the season. At first glance, though, his numbers seem to indicate his defensive play is at least passable.

There is a very simple explanation for how his plus/minus and SAT seem average—the Devils do everything in their power to keep Gelinas away from defensive situations. According to Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com, 42 percent of the faceoffs Gelinas is on the ice for are in the offensive zone, 6.2 percent higher than any other Devils player. His defensive-zone faceoff rate is 24.6 percent, the lowest on the team.

Given those considerations, his seemingly average non-offensive statistics are, in fact, well below average. 

Gelinas' offensive numbers are decent, but not good enough to counteract his poor defensive play. The Devils seem to have committed themselves to giving him a chance to improve his play by getting him into the lineup regularly, which is a step in the right direction. 

But there is no doubt that he has had a disappointing season to this point. Gelinas' season ranks as more disappointing than Ruutu's because Gelinas, only 23, has a ton of potential that to this point remains unmet. 

3. Martin Havlat

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Martin Havlat tries to convert from close.

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
38	5	9	14	-12	10	-7.43 (16th)

When the Devils signed Martin Havlat to a one-year, $1.5 million contract this offseason, it was a sensible, low-risk move. If Havlat could recreate his 20-goal seasons from Ottawa, Chicago and Minnesota, he would fill a huge need for New Jersey. If not, there would be very little lost.

The nature of the signing and the expectations surrounding it are the only reason that Havlat is not higher on this list. 

Havlat has missed a host of games due to injury and illness, which was perhaps the biggest concern regarding the 33-year-old coming into the season. But even when Havlat has played, he has struggled.

He has regularly been a defensive liability, which is made clear by looking at his plus/minus (tied for the worst on the team) and below-average SAT. Unlike the two players yet to come on this list, he has managed to stay out of the penalty box for the most part, but that may have as much to do with his poor defensive positioning as it does with his discipline.

Given Havlat's goal-scoring pedigree, he has definitely been more disappointing than anyone on this list so far, particularly given how badly New Jersey needs goals. But the relatively low expectations that accompanied him to Newark keep him from moving up any higher on the list.

2. Michael Ryder

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Michael Ryder unleashes a shot during a rare appearance in the lineup.

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
44	6	12	18	-2	30	-6.33 (13th)

Michael Ryder, like Havlat, is an older forward with a history of scoring goals who had not produced for a couple of years prior to coming to New Jersey.

Also like Havlat, Ryder's time in New Jersey has been a disappointment. 

His numbers certainly do not justify the $3.5 million contract the Devils signed him to before last season, but they are not as bad as Havlat's or Ruutu's either. But the higher expectations of him and his problematic attitude make him a bigger disappointment than either of those players.

Ryder felt, at least under DeBoer, that he needed more ice time to be a productive offensive player. DeBoer seemed to feel that Ryder needed to earn his ice time, which involved not only producing in the minutes he did get, but also being a smart two-way forward.

He was unable to do that under DeBoer and remains unable to do so now. As a result, he has been a healthy scratch in 15 of the Devils' last 17 games. 

Particularly frustrating is his penchant for taking unnecessary penalties. Most recently, he took an offensive-zone interference call with four seconds remaining in the second period of a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on February 13. It was a completely unnecessary penalty, particularly given the Devils were leading 1-0 at the time.

The Blackhawks scored on the ensuing power play, and the Devils ultimately lost 3-1. 

Ryder has only played once since then, perfectly summing up the disappointment of Ryder's season.

1. Dainius Zubrus

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Dainius Zubrus fights for the puck along the boards.

Games Played	Goals	Assists	Points	Plus/Minus	Penalty Minutes	SAT per 60 Minutes (rank on team)
56	2	5	7	-5	38	-8.07 (19th)

Dainius Zubrus did not enter this season with as high an offensive expectation as Ryder or Havlat. But his play in all three zones during his time in New Jersey has been incredibly reliable. So since his contributions in all facets of the game have been so flat this year, there can be no other choice for most disappointing Devil of 2014-15.

Zubrus has not gotten a point since January 31 and has not scored a goal since October 28. While he has never been an offensive juggernaut for the Devils, he did have 214 points in 480 games in New Jersey coming into this season. Clearly, he has fallen drastically from that pace.

His minus-five rating is obviously lackluster, but it is not awful considering the Devils have conceded 21 more goals than they have scored this season.

It is by looking at his penalty minutes and SAT that we see how much Zubrus has struggled in his own end this season.

With the departure of Marek Zidlicky and Jaromir Jagr, Zubrus' 18 minor penalties lead the Devils in that category. Zubrus has never been particularly quick, but the 36-year-old's lack of pace has come through even more clearly this season, as age has clearly caught up with him. The result has been regular hooking and holding. 

Zubrus' SAT is even more disappointing. He has always been asked to be on the ice in defensive situations, so his possession stats have never been phenomenal. But that his possession numbers are now the lowest among forwards on the team truly shows how far Zubrus has fallen this season.

Although the shortcomings of potential goal scorers like Havlat and Ryder have gotten more attention, Zubrus' decline from a solid second- or third-liner to a player who may not deserve to be in the lineup is more striking—and therefore more disappointing for the New Jersey Devils.