New Jersey Devils: Devils win the Draft lottery again, here are three initial thoughts

Impact on Taylor Hall

A large portion of the Devils on-ice failures this season can easily be correlated to the fact that Taylor Hall only played in 33 games all season. Once he spent a lot of time down, the Devils were struggling, it made sense to have him sit more time out.

And for much of the time he was out injured, he still led the team in points. But finally, Kyle Palmieri, Nico Hischier, Travis Zajac, and Damon Severson were able to pass him, but Hall’s 37 points in those 33 games is still a much better pace than Palmieir’s team leading 50 in 74 games.

A thing that is still true about Hall is just how much the Devils ride or died based on his health. His MVP year, as you might remember, he led the Devils in points by a wide margin (41), and this year he was 11 points off the team lead in points in way fewer games.

As you also might know, he is set to be a free agent after this upcoming season. Having THAT much of the team’s success come down to his performance is quite alarming. He is going to be a hot commodity and if the Devils didn’t improve, or failed to build around him, he could have chosen to leave.

While he still could, there is no way of knowing, the Devils getting the first overall pick and presumptively Jack Hughes, the Devils can now build better talent around him, get better players overall, and be a better team giving him more help.

A team with Hall, Nico, and Jack Hughes, maybe Palmieri, a healthy Cory Schneider, Mackenzie Blackwood, is a lot more enticing and easier to commit to then having had a few things go wrong, or had they not won the lottery again.

With the first pick coming in, and an otherwise stacked draft, the Devils can now build around Hall and are way more legit than before. Taylor Hall might have always wanted to stay, but now he might be unwise to leave, that is a big difference.

The Devs can now build around Hall easier rather than crumble without him.