There is no secret that the 2021 New Jersey Devils had one of the worst special teams performances on both penalty kill and power play.
If the Devils want to make the playoffs and take a big step forward in their rebuild, they must establish their physical presence on the penalty kill. With Dougie Hamilton and Ryan Graves, they have size and must protect Mackenzie Blackwood's crease. Too many times last season, opposing forwards were left wide open on top of the crease as the defense looked out of position. However, the penalty kill improved towards the end of the season.
As for the power play units, Tomas Tatar will give them a boost offensively. Yegor Sharangovich and Jack Hughes will look to improve and hopefully a healthy Nico Hischier will win faceoffs and score clutch goals on the man advantage. I would expect Dougie Hamilton and Ty Smith to play significant minutes quarterbacking the power play.
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Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.
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