One Devil of a Situation

Ilya Kovalchuk, and the rest of the New Jersey Devils, have been knocked around early this season

Since their inception, the New Jersey Devils they have been one of the most dominant franchises in the NHL, especially between the mid 90s to the early turn of the millennium. They have won three Stanley Cups since 1994, consistently been one of the top teams in the league finishing first in the Atlantic division four times, and not having missed the playoffs since the 1995-1996 season. The Devils have had “struggles” if you wish to call them that. They have only won two playoff series since winning their last cup in 2003. Yet they still have won their division and have been one of the best teams in the league every season since that point too, only having once not reached the 100 point plateau, falling one point short in 2008. Added the fact the Devils play in a very competitive division featuring the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh, the bruising Philadelphia Flyers, and the overpaid project of Glen Sather’s New York Rangers makes the fact of what the Devils have done even more impressive.

So what gives all of a sudden?

In case you were in a coma, in your bunker awaiting Armageddon, or trapped in a mine in Chile over the summer the New Jersey Devils were big players this off-season replacing defenseman Paul Martin with Anton Volchenkov and Henrick Tallinder, bringing back Jason Arnott to center a line just like the old days, and hiring Johan Hedburg to ride the pine until Marty Brodeur finally wants to hit up a buffet with his senior citizen discount. And oh yeah, that other incident. That being signing Ilya Kovalchuk to a ludicrous deal that set the Devils to plaid until the NHL went all Lone Star and said that seemed a tad ridiculous. So a few years were knocked off, a million dollars or so adjusted, and the Devils made a deal with their Devil for life signing Ilya Kovalchuk to a 15 year 100 million dollar contract.

Great deal! Right? 6.66 million a year for a guy that nets 40 goals at least consistently isn’t bad. Plus the 6.66 really is appropriate. Except for the fact that Kovalchuk’s contract is clogging things up so bad for the Devils that it resembles Elvis’s arteries. And with the amount of unmovable contracts on the roster because of their overpriced-under efficient attachments things for the Devils has gotten even trickier. They already have gone a few games this season playing with a shortened bench.

Ilya Kovalchuk's massive contract is currently causing big time issues for the Devils' cap situation

And don’t even get me started on their cap hell situation for next season where Zach Parise is set to become a restricted free agent. The New Jersey general manager, Lou Lamoriello, has been skilled with icing a great team and managing the tough fiscal calls but all of a sudden the team that looked great on paper with the big price tag is an early train wreck with a big price tag.

The Devils are off to their worst franchise start of all time and to make matters worse Parise is out with an injury for the next couple of months. So the wheels were off before the season started. How? They are getting shots (15^th), doing ok preventing them (11^th), and their penalty kill isn’t terrible (16^th). But the chances they generate aren’t converting. They are second to last in power play conversion, and the goals for is absolutely miserable with only 1.54 goals per game averaged which is in last by nearly .75 goals. The goals against isn’t pretty either with the Devils in 25^th, ahead of such porous teams like the Ducks and Oilers.

Marty Brodeur’s save percentage is only at 90.2% and Johan Hedburg’s is an ugly 75%. The looks and second opportunities teams are getting are slamming the Devils defensively. It’s not good when five of your defensemen are rookies, and with Volchenkov out there are plenty of unblocked shots. But this is to be expected with most of the team’s payroll wrapped up in the forwards. A lack of depth is to be expected. But no depth at all? And as for those forwards two veteran centers, Dainius Zubrus and Arnott, have just as many points as Kovalchuk (or in Zubrus’s case, one more point). No one on the team has over seven points, or more than three goals. And they were 13 games in at this point. The Devils are -22 in the goal differential, the next closest team is a -13 (Anaheim). The offense isn’t being generated. The defense is too inexperienced. The older players are being overworked. So how do they go about putting the wheels on?

Given that the team, with their high finishes, hasn’t drafted the crème de la crop, and not likely to now with their draft picks forfeited with the NHL’s ruling against the initial Kovalchuk deal, building for the future is going to be difficult. The contracts limiting who is brought on are even more difficult to manage. They need to be dealt. Mainstay players like Patrick Elias, Zubrus, Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner, and even Brian Rolston need to be dealt. Rolston may be unmovable because of the size of the contract and the fact he is benched regularly. The other four may not fetch much either unless more production comes out of them because other teams know Lamoriello is completely pinned against the cap. Plus this also plays into the issue of players being dealt back to New Jersey since they would need to fit under the cap, and also the number of teams willing and able to take on the bloated contracts is few and far between.

But a defenseman is the first issue. A good veteran puck mover is something the Devils are missing entirely. Matt Taormina was completely exposed with his inexperience so far. But where to get that player? Chicago’s Brian Campbell? Edmonton’s Sheldon Souray? The Rangers’ Wade Redden? None of these players are astounding, though they may have been at one point in the last decade, but this is likely the only deal that may ever happen. Toxic assets for toxic assets. But it still also rests on the Devils getting some production from some of their offense. As for what is going to solve that, well, who knows. I sure don’t.

The Devils can't score but they are pretty good at getting scored on

The only other options are to do something similar like the Wade Redden situation and maybe throw a player to the minors. Or to just deal with things, but the Devils are likely to be in a lot of trouble come the offseason. Elias’s, Rolston’s, and Zubrus’s contracts are still on the books for next year. And again Parise will be a RFA, with Andy Greene becoming a free agent, and nearly every depth blue liner becoming RFAs as well. With Langenbrunner and Arnott likely to leave this does open up 7.3 million, and if Rolston is actually dumped one way or another (unlikely), this increases things about up to 12.3 million. Still, choices will need to be made, and players will need to be brought in to fill the gaps, likely to be that of free agents since the farm system is likely to be picked over and not replenished.

This season though is going to likely rest with the players that are currently in New Jersey and no one else. If there is a turnaround in play the landscape shifts entirely, but the inability to change hinders this, creating the crisis. Losses require change, yet making the changes require output, but the losses are brought on by lack of output. The Devils are truly in a hellish situation.