The New Jersey Devils are counting on offseason additions, players in the pipeline and a new coach to turn their fortunes around.
"Being competitive right now is the most important thing to me," general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. "Putting a competitive team on the ice that can grow together. We can utilize Binghamton (of the American Hockey League) for some of our young players, and when they're sniffing, we bring them up and give them a taste of the NHL."
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That will be the task for Lindy Ruff, who was hired as coach to replace Alain Nasreddine on July 9. Nasreddine, named coach when John Hynes was fired Dec. 3, 2019, remains as an assistant. Mark Recchi joined Ruff's staff as an assistant after three seasons in a similar role with the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he primarily worked with the power play, which ranked third in the NHL during his tenure (23.8 percent).
"I know there's a great foundation that has been built along with management and Fitzgerald
was placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout. Crawford will split starts with
Mackenzie Blackwood
.
"The goaltending situation has kind of been an albatross for us and weighed on us, heavily, so it was the first thing we were looking to address (in the offseason)," MacKinnon said. "You have to give a ton of credit to (executive vice president of hockey operations) Martin Brodeur. He and Fitzgerald] worked together to make Crawford happen because it wasn't a slam dunk at all. It took some selling, recruiting. But Marty's relationship with Corey weighed heavily into it, and the opportunity for [Crawford] to do something really meaningful here in kind of a tandem role with Blackwood appealed to him."
New Jersey also added defenseman Ryan Murray in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for a fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft on Oct. 8; forward Andreas Johnsson in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Joey Anderson on Oct. 10; and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who signed a one-year contract Oct. 22 after three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets.
Johnsson, who has three seasons remaining on a four-year contract he signed with Toronto on June 28, 2019, could fit on a line with either Hischier or Hughes.
"Our pro scouts like [Johnsson]; he's got high compete, can track pucks," MacKinnon said. "He does play a style that [Ruff] wants to bring to the table with an aggressive game, while hunting pucks and forcing things."
Forward prospect
[Janne Kuokkanen
, acquired in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 24, and defenseman prospect
Ty Smith
, the No. 18 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, should challenge for key roles.
"I think with the young players, they want to know that they're going to be counted on in key situations, that they're going to be an important part of the team," Ruff said. "As a coach, it's going to be my job to help develop that and put them in that position to help succeed and at the same time be very demanding of how we need to play as a team to be successful."
