New Jersey Devils Q&A - May 1, 2024

I answered your questions re: upgrading between the pipes, hiring a new coach, bounce-back candidates, and much more.

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With the opening round not yet finished, and double-digit teams still playing for the Stanley Cup, there isn’t a whole lot going on in terms of off-season fun.

I haven’t done a Q&A post in quite some time so I figured now would be a good opportunity to change that.

Let’s get right to it.

What would need to happen to have you deem this off-season a complete failure?

Not adding a No. 1 goaltender.

I like Jake Allen as much as the next person – and think he’s a very strong backup/1B option – but the Devils really can’t afford to go into the year with Allen and, say, Ilya Samsonov. They just can’t.

Goaltending is such a high-variance position and it’s physically demanding. They need one of the 10-15 goaltenders who reliably provides stable goaltending each year over a large body of work.

Allen isn’t a starting goaltender and he has dealt with three lower-body injuries over the past couple of seasons. The Devils can only put so much on the plate of the soon-to-be 34-year-old.

Samsonov, Kaapo Kahkonen, Kevin Lankinen, and most of the ‘notable’ free-agent goalies also haven’t proven they can perform while maintaining large workloads.

If the Devils go into another year with a ‘this should be okay’ platoon they’re asking for trouble. We have seen it fail too many times of late.

Perhaps the only exception I can get on board with: if the Devils brought in someone like Anthony Stolarz – who has posted very strong GSAx numbers several seasons running – at an affordable price and used excess money and assets to load up the rest of the roster.

Who is your ideal coach for this core, and why?

This is a hard one because there are a bunch of legitimately good and proven coaches who are or could be available.

Jay Woodcroft would probably be at the top of my list right now. He’s a younger guy who can relate to players more easily than some of the other candidates.

He has experience working with superstar players, he’s enjoyed playoff success, and his teams generally fare very well analytically.

Even when the Oilers were piling up the losses early on this year, the team’s process looked strong – they simply couldn’t get a save.

I think he’s a good coach who could help this team take another step and grow with them for the long haul.

If available, Mike Sullivan provides the highest floor/ceiling combination. He has a very good track record at the NHL level and his teams are consistently strong at both ends of the ice.