On Palat's struggles and strong early returns from Meier-Hischier-Noesen

Ondrej Palat is not providing much (any) juice offensively. Plus, Stefan Noesen has solidified the team's other top-6 line.

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A few New Jersey Devils as they go through their bye week:

Ondrej Palat isn’t cutting it ✂️

Ondrej Palat was once a good top-6 forward. A very good one, even. Those days have passed.

While I still think Palat is a useful player, and can absolutely appreciate the little things he does defensively and off-puck to make life easier on his linemates, the reality is he needs to provide more than that if he’s skating on a line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.

Palat is giving the Devils absolutely zero juice offensively. Zero. He has four points at 5v5 through 20 games and is averaging just 0.98 points per 60 minutes.

That’s a stark contrast from what he produced over his first two seasons in New Jersey (1.64/60 and 1.61/60), which still had many clamouring that the team needed more from him given the money he was pulling in.

He’s not putting up points and, quite frankly, he’s not helping his line get results either.

While the Palat-Hughes-Bratt trio does have strong on-ice metrics, Palat has not made the Hughes-Bratt duo better in any objective manner.

The argument anybody would try and make for Palat playing with Hughes and Bratt is that maybe he lowers their offensive ceiling but makes them a better, more responsible defensive line. There is nothing in the numbers that proves that to be the case. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Hughes-Bratt duo has allowed more shots, chances, expected goals, and goals with Palat on their line as opposed to without. This while faring worse across the board offensively as well.

The Devils will probably need to ride things out with what they have for a while. That’s just a reality when you’re 25% into the season and next to nobody is prepared to sell.

That being said, it’s becoming more apparent with each passing day the team will need another top-6 winger – be it Arseny Gritsyuk or somebody on the trade market – before the games really matter come spring.

The perfect fit 👌