While New Jersey doesn’t play the boring neutral trap game they used to years ago, they’re still a strong defensive team to play against.
They won’t win many shootouts, but with their goalie, they won’t be in many of them anyways.
Forwards: Zach Parise is the future of this franchise up front. He has scored 31 and 32 goals the last two seasons, and pretty much the same amount of assists. He’s still young, and has a bright future ahead of him.
John Madden is a defensive specialist out there. He plays hard shorthanded, matches up against the other team’s best players, and scored 20 goals last season. He’s the type of all-around player every team needs bu so few has.
Patrik Elias has played all 12 of his seasons with the Devils. His numbers fluctuate from 45 points to 96, but he’s still a dangerous player, chipping in with almost double digits in powerplay goals every season.
Defence: Gone are the days of the strong defensive lineup of Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermeyer and Brian Rafalski. However, they still have a couple of strong players back there.
Paul Martin is the leader on the backend. He mans the point on the powerplay, and is tough on the puck.
Colin White is a bruiser on the blueline, but doesn’t take stupid penalties.
Goaltending: Once again, this team’s playoff push lies in the hand of Martin Brodeur. But Brodeur, one of the best goalies of all time, has been up to the task year after year. They guy is a beast. He has started at least 70 games in each of the last 10 seasons. His goals against was a sparkling 2.17, and his save percentage at .920. He’ll soon start passing records for most shutouts in a career, wins in a career, and so on. If you’re a young goalie, you don’t want to be drafted by the Devils, because you’ll never get a chance to play.
Pool picks: Brian Rolston could be worth a pick. He’s had at least 58 points in six of the last seven seasons. He’s also pretty durable, never missing more than five games a year in any of those seasons. Stay away from: Brian Gionta. He had one good season of 89 points a few years back, but hasn’t had more than 53 in any other year. Not worth a pick.
Miscellaneous: The core of this team (Martin Brodeur, Colin White, Jamie Langenbrunner, Jay Pandolfo, Zach Parise, Brian Rolston and Patrik Elias) are all signed for at least three seasons. So for good or bad, this team will be together for quite a while.
Expected finish: Fourth in the Atlantic division, seventh in the Eastern conference.
Overall: Martin Brodeur will keep this team from missing the playoffs. However, they may not have the grit and depth needed to make a deep run.
But when you have Brodeur, anything is possible.
