NHL teams
Matthew Coller, Special to ESPN 10y

Summer Skate: Devils

NHL, New Jersey Devils

Summer Skate series index

Although the weather outside doesn't necessarily make us think of winter pursuits, it's a good time to take the temperature of every NHL team. Hockey Prospectus will guide us through the league-wide tour and spotlight one player trending up and one player trending down for each club, as well as a key statistic as we look ahead to the 2014-15 season. References will be made to goals versus threshold (GVT), a Hockey Prospectus proprietary statistic; for more on GVT, click here. All other advanced stats are courtesy of Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

Bad bounces played a major role in the New Jersey Devils' missing the playoffs in 2013-14. They had an incredibly unlucky 0-13 record in shootouts and ranked 26th in shooting percentage at even strength. Although some of those numbers could be due to a lack of snipers in their top six, it seems nearly impossible that a team could continue to lose the "coin flip" time after time and shoot that poorly for another season.

The Devils will bring a very similar roster into this season, with the one major signing being scoring winger Mike Cammalleri. But they made an addition by subtraction. The exit of legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur will open the door to one of the league's best in Cory Schneider.

Even with a dose of luck and better goaltending, the Devils are aging on the blue line, and they lack the elite talent to duel with the best in the East. They will be hoping for a wild-card slot.


Trending up: Adam Larsson, D

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