New Goalie? New Coach? New Top Six Winger? All of them pale in comparison to the importance of Jack Hughes’ injured shoulder.
I was planning on writing about goaltending today, but then I saw Gerard’s excellent piece and thought, it would probably be a little much. For what it’s worth, I think Gerard is spot on. Now I’m a big Markstrom fan and think he would be an excellent tandem piece with Jake Allen, my issue is that I don’t think Markstrom is worth what Calgary will likely ask for him. Especially when I’m a big fan of Kevin Lankinen, who is thought of by some goalie experts as possibly being ready to be the next Connor Ingram or Charlie Lindgren (both of whom Kevin predicted would break out before anyone else did). I also said that the Devils should’ve looked at Anthony Stolarz (NJ native FWIW) before he became legendary in Florida.
As ballots are being filled out for awards and all stars, Demko’s return last night was 2.16 goals better than expected, leapfrogging Markstrom into 3rd in goals saved above expected per @csahockey
1. Helle 27.24
2. Binner 25.81
3. Demko 19.34
4. Marky 18.17
5. Stolarz 17.71— Kevin Woodley (@KevinisInGoal) April 17, 2024
Any way, I could go on and on here, but let me get to my main point. It’s a relatively short one this week simply because I don’t think it’s been talked about enough. It’s not the lack of a scoring winger for Jack Hughes or more speed and possibly grit on the third and fourth lines. It’s not even an upgrade to the defense or a new coaching staff.
This is quite simply a post for all Devils fans to light prayer candles or hold vigils or whatever you need to do this summer to hope and pray that Jack Hughes’ surgically-repaired shoulder heals properly and well. There’s a reason that John Fischer calls him simply, “The Big Deal”. Hughes broke into the stratosphere last season, driving offensive play in a way that no New Jersey Devil has ever done before. He came one point short of the first 100-point season in franchise history and had a real shot at hitting 50 goals.
Now someone told me this week that Hughes has been dealing with shoulder injuries since before he was drafted. I’m not quite sure that is true, but we all know he was dealing with them this year as he got injured on January 5th against the Chicago Blackhawks by catching an edge and falling awkwardly to the ice. He was basically never the same player as he was going supernova earlier in the year, regularly putting up multipoint games and looking very early on like he would cement himself in the Hart Trophy conversation. He was basically driving the number one power play in the league that was (small sample size), early on, on a nearly historic pace.
Here’s Pucks and Pitchforks excellent article on the man who performed Jack’s surgery. I would highly recommend you take the time to read that piece because it gave me a bit more comfort. That being said, Jack’s health is the single-most important news this summer because we’ve seen how Jack’s ability to drive offense completely changes the Devils team. And no matter who coaches and no matter who tends goal, in order for the Devils to be all they can be in 2023-2024, Jack Hughes needs to do something he’s never done before. Play all 82 games and be healthy for it.
I do admire Jack greatly for playing with basically one shoulder for a good portion of the season and lots of people gave him tons of crap online for not being the Jack we’ve all come to know and love. Yes, he was still getting points, but he would lose the puck more easily than normal, not create as many turnovers and he would shy away from every kind of contact imaginable.
Tom Fitzgerald updated the media during his availability Thursday on Jack and Ryan Novozinsky from NJ.com covered it here.
All seems positive thus far. And I imagine things will likely quiet down now that the offseason is officially in full swing for the Devils and their fans alike. It seems like it was just yesterday and I was nervous as hell as the Devils prepared to take on the Rangers in their first round series last year. This is going to be one very long summer of hoping and praying that a shoulder comes back 100 percent, otherwise all the moves in the world that Fitz might make this summer could be relatively meaningless.
Fingers crossed.