New Jersey Devils Q&A: On ideal line combinations, trade targets, and deadline plans

I answered your questions re: the optimal Devils lineup, how they should attack the trade deadline, the next team poised for a big step forward, and more.

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I haven’t done a Q&A post since there were dinosaurs roaming the earth so I figured now was a good time to change that.

Let’s waste no time getting into it.

Q: What are your ideal lines with current roster (everyone healthy), including d pairings?

I’ll start with the forwards. Assuming Alexander Holtz isn’t going to get a look in the top-6 alongside Ondrej Palat and Jack Hughes – two guys he worked well with in preseason play – I’d roll with these combinations:

Palat - Hischier - Bratt
Sharangovich - Hughes - Mercer
Tatar - Haula - Holtz
Wood - McLeod/Boq - Zetterlund

Jesper Bratt shoots, and scores, more with Nico Hischier than with Jack Hughes. Lord knows the Devils need goals so having Bratt play more of a finishing role works for me.

The Hughes line has nearly identical xG metrics with Yegor Sharangovich playing in place of Erik Haula.

The difference is Sharangovich can actually score goals and his presence allows Haula to shift down the lineup and give the Devils the reliable 3C they brought him in to be.

Tatar and Haula is a fun dog-on-a-bone combination. They can do the heavy lifting in the defensive zone, and along the wall, and let Holtz just rip pucks.

Then there is the Zetterwood combination, which I like, flanked by a competent depth center. Jesper Boqvist gives the team more offensively but we all know Lindy Ruff will choose McLeod for his faceoffs and defensive prowess. Is what it is.

Having gotten this far, I realized in part of the question that you mentioned everyone is healthy – aka Nathan Bastian is back – so, in that case, I could see the Devils rotating Holtz/Zetterlund and reuniting the BMW line.

On defense I’d be fine with basically any combination as long as the best six guys are playing. That means less Brendan Smith and more Kevin Bahl, although the latter hasn’t helped his cause of late.

It would never happen but Dougie Hamilton has fantastic numbers alongside Ryan Graves and the Jonas Siegenthaler - Damon Severson combination has been more stout than Siegenthaler - Hamilton.

That’d mean: Siegenthaler-Severson, Graves-Hamilton, Bahl-Marino. Then we can swap Bahl for Luke Hughes for some real fun down the road. Let me dream, okay?

Q: How aggressive would you be at the trade deadline?

I would be aggressive in that I’d chase upgrades for the team on things that clearly need improvement. I’d also want to make at least one small move as somewhat of a reward for the players and the position they have put themselves in. I wouldn’t be chasing high priced rentals, though.

New Jersey’s window to contend is only just starting to open. You want as many kicks at the can as possible with this core so trading a bunch of assets for a player who will help for a few months – yet unlikely turn the team into one of the league’s top, top, contenders – would probably do more harm than good long-term.

Q: Three realistic trade targets?

Anthony Stolarz —> He is not having the best season but the Anaheim Ducks are a complete tire fire so I’m not going to hold that against him. He owns a career .911 save percentage, which is above league average, and the cost of acquisition is likely to be low. He could give the Devils some more stability between the pipes and, if things work out, may be a cheap option to run back in a tandem with Vitek Vanecek next season.