After a busy offseason the Devils had an almost brand new roster coming into this season, no one knew how thr roster would perform at all. Gone were key contributors to last years finals run such as Burns, Giordano, Kane, Yandle, and Radulov to highlight the big guns. In fact if you compare this years rosters to last years, only 6 players returned and that’s including the goalies. So with that in mind lets take a look and see how the new-look Devils have performed thus far this year.

Offence

The Devils have been a good team offensively this year, they currently rank 7th in GF/G and 6th in PP%. What is surprising though is the guys who have been leading the way for them. Their top scorer is old man Kovalchuk who has put up an impressive 12 points in 11 games so far. What makes Kovalchuk’s performance even more impressive is that he isn’t playing minutes with New Jersey’s top players, those players being Bergeron and Tatar. The 2nd place scorer on the team is almost more surprising than Kovalchuk being the leading scorer. The 2nd leading scorer is Noah Hanifin who has 10 points in 11 games thus far. While neither player will keep these paces up it is good to see them stepping up when Bergeron has struggled to get it going this year. With only 7 points in 11 games Bergeron hasn’t lived up to being “the guy” for New Jersey this year. His linemate Tatar has played well and Tanner Pearson, who hasn’t been with Bergeron all year mind you, has also played well. Once Bergeron gets going it will be intersting to see where New Jersey will be in the standings.

Defense

The Devils have also been pretty good defensivly, currently they rank 5th in GA/G and 18th in PK%, however their PK% is at 85% so they are more than happy with that. While there are not really any stats to go off of player wise for defense their is one player that New Jersey hopes will step up and that guy is Ben Chiarot. He has been alright through the first 11 games but he’s only averaging about a hit per game, and with physicality being his biggest strength they hope he steps it up.

Goaltending

Carey Price has played extremely well for the Devils to start the year. He currently has a 6-4-0 record but has a 2.22 GAA, a .919 save%, and has recorded 1 shutout. After him being exposed in the finals by the Sharks elite offence it’s nice to see he has rebounded. Bernier has only started 1 game thus far but in that 1 game he recorded a shutout so that was pretty good as well. If this duo can keep it up the Devils will be in nice shape this year.

Overall Outlook

Currently the Devils are 6th place in the East and overall in the league they currently place 10th. The East seems like a battleground compared to the West this year as early on 4th place and 10th place are only separated by 4 points. The Devils aren’t a true contender this year like they were last year, they might even sell a couple of players at the deadline for picks, but as of right now the Devils look to be in good shape. The key for them to reach the next level is for their stars like Bergeron and Chabot to get it going.