Dobber’s offseason fantasy hockey grades – New Jersey Devils

For the last 18 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 19th annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what I take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone – Mikhail Maltsev, Will Butcher, Matt Tennyson

Incoming – Ryan Graves, Tomas Tatar, Dougie Hamilton, Christian Jaros, Jonathan Bernier

Impact of Changes – This seems to be the offseason that New Jersey wants to define as the turning point in their rebuild. Signing Dougie Hamilton adds a perennial Norris contender to the blue line and at 28 years old, is positioned to help this team in a major way for at least the next half-decade. The opportunity for teams to acquire a player of this calibre outside of the draft are few and far between, and he can significantly improve their offence when he's on the ice, whether at 5-on-5 or on the power play. Of similar importance is that fact that bringing in Hamilton reduces the burden of other players, hopefully making them more comfortable in their roles. Adding someone like Hamilton can have a bigger effect than just what he does on the ice himself. That doubles for Graves, though obviously to a much lesser degree. He should be able to play significant minutes for this team, allowing someone like Ty Smith to avoid all the tough matchups and roles… Bringing in Tatar should be a nice boost for the top-6. He never earned his playoff relegation in Montreal and has been a consistent producer and defensive winger nearly his entire career. That kind of player will be necessary to replace Kyle Palmieri, traded during the season last campaign… Jonathan Bernier in goal will provide a solid backup for MacKenzie Blackwood, though it's a wonder if it might not cut directly into Blackwood's starts. It isn't as if Bernier is some throwaway, min-price signee. He is being paid over $4M each of the next two seasons. While it could help the team, this might hurt Blackwood's fantasy value in the short term… It will remain to be seen what kind of impact losing Butcher might have on this blue line. Though he had been inconsistent at times in his career, he had been good offensively until the shortened 2021 campaign. So, in that sense, losing Butcher might not hurt them compared to his play in 2021, but if he return to his form of 2-3 years ago, it could be a loss for the Devils. Though, as mentioned, picking up blue liners like Hamilton and Graves will help immensely in this respect.

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Ready for Full Time – The big question, following the graduation of Ty Smith last year, is whether Alexander Holtz will be ready for this year. He is still just 19 years old and played just 10 games in the AHL last year. It sure seems that unless he completely blows the doors off in training camp, he won't be in the NHL to start the season. At least not after a month. The most-ready player they have for the NHL roster in October of 2021 might be Nolan Foote. He was acquired from Tampa in the Blake Coleman deal and had 17 points in 24 AHL games in 2021. The first-round pick from 2019 is – or should be – a good goal scorer, and those are in limited supply on the Devils. With a good training camp, he could lock down a third-line role and move his way up through the season. There may be a role for Marian Studenic as well, as he showed out at times in Binghamton last season and will vie for a bottom-6 role this season. He could provide some depth scoring for a team that doesn't have much of it. It does seem, however, there's not one Devils prospect that is a lock for a full 82-game season.

Fantasy Outlook – Even with all the additions, we need to remember this team was 26^th in scoring last year and 24^th the year before. Even a big jump will see this team somewhere around the middle of the league, so it's not time to go overboard on Devils fantasy selections just yet. With that said, Jack Hughes has all the makings of a huge breakout season and Ty Smith is rounding into that puck-moving quarterback they were hoping for. Nico Hischier should be fully healthy, Yegor Sharangovich has another year of experience, and there are good supporting pieces like Jesper Bratt and Andreas Johnsson. At the least, this team should have a decent top-6 and a decent power play. It might not be enough for them to make serious noise in terms of a playoff spot, but it'll be enough to support at least 3-4 fantasy options in shallower leagues. It has been a couple years since they've had at least that many reliable fantasy options in the lineup at any one time in smaller formats. It is a team on the rise, it just still has a ways to go.

Fantasy Grade: C+ (last year was B-)