New Jersey Devils notes: On Holtz, Mercer, and the optimal top-9

If Alexander Holtz is ready to take the next step, Lindy Ruff will be graced with another option to balance the top three lines.

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Alexander Holtz is a true wild card heading into training camp. Assuming he is not traded elsewhere in a deal for a goalie – I don’t envision that since Tom Fitzgerald held onto him in the Timo Meier deal – he will likely be given every opportunity to take the one remaining top-9 slot on the right side.

If he shows well, the obvious spot is to pencil him in on RW3 alongside Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula. That’d be a perfectly reasonable decision by Lindy Ruff if that’s the path he eventually goes down.

But is the obvious also the optimal? I’m not so sure.

Let me preface this by saying Dawson Mercer is a high-end top-6 winger. Even though he’s not as effective at driving his own line, he produces fantastic results when playing with the Devils’ top two pivots.

Over the past couple of years, Mercer has averaged 2.11 points per 60 with Jack Hughes and 2.43 per 60 with Nico Hischier.

For a little perspective, his 5v5 outputs in that span matched John Tavares/Mathew Barzal while skating with No. 86 and Mark Stone/Alex Ovechkin when with the captain. Pretty good, I’d say.