Devils need a stronger start from Sharangovich in 2022-23

Yeezy was slow out of the gate in each of his first two seasons in New Jersey.

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By Alex Chauvancy (@AlexC_THW)

Though the New Jersey Devils added Ondrej Palát and Erik Haula to their forward group this off-season, they'll be relying on their young core to provide most of the scoring.

That does not mean just Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt, either. Other players will have to step up and act as complementary scorers; as they did a season ago on a team that finished 11th in the NHL in 5-on-5 scoring. 

One of those players is Yegor Sharangovich, who finished with 24 goals and 46 points in 76 games last season. No one will complain about the end result of his year, but if the Devils want to put themselves in a playoff position early on, they'll need a stronger start from Sharangovich.

Sharangovich's first two seasons were identical

Sharangovich's first two seasons in the NHL don't look all too different from each other.

He produced at a 24-goal pace during the COVID-shortened season in 2020-21 and, as mentioned above, finished with 24 goals a season ago. How he got to those results was quite similar, too. 

During his rookie season in 2020-21, he totaled seven goals and 12 points across his first 33 games. That was understandable, though, as the highest level he had played in prior was the KHL.

Even during his time with the Binghamton Devils (AHL), he wasn't a high-end scorer, so there was going to be an adjustment period. 

That adjustment period finally started to bear fruit when the Devils traded Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri to the New York Islanders at the 2021 trade deadline.

Coach Lindy Ruff moved Hughes to a line with Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen, and Sharangovich popped.

In his final 21 games, he finished with nine goals and 18 points while averaging 2.24 points per 60 minutes at five-on-five across that stretch.