New Jersey Devils: 5 Takeaways From Final 23-Man Roster
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils waited until Monday evening to announce their final 23-man roster, and there are some interesting takeaways from who they chose over who they decided to let go to the Utica Comets. The roster is a nice mix of players who were fighting for contracts and young players who are ready for a breakout year.
There are surprises on the roster, injuries to deal with, and a lot of first-time New Jersey Devils looking to make a name for themselves. As far as takeaways go, don’t expect “Dougie Hamilton makes the roster with Ryan Graves” to make this list. These are surprising takeaways from the final roster. This is something we might not have known or expected when we woke up on Monday morning. We have a final roster, and now it’s time to prepare for Friday.
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Now that the New Jersey Devils finished their final roster, what are the biggest takeaways from their decisions?
1. Dawson Mercer makes it, Alex Holtz does not
We covered Alexander Holtz’s setback earlier on Monday. The Devils announced Holtz would be sent down to the AHL to continue his career with the Devils, which meant they decided he was not going to be starting out with the big club. There were moments where he seemed like a fixture on this roster, but as the preseason and training camp dragged on, he seemed to fall further and further down the lineup.
The Devils are right. Holtz should not start on the NHL roster playing 8-12 minutes per night and getting held off the power play. He needs to play on as many units as possible to get used to the North American style. He is clearly very close, and we should expect to see him with the big club at some point this season, but this was the move to make.
The one player who never showed anything but an ability to push him to play to the NHL level was Dawson Mercer. The Devils came into training camp playing Pavel Zacha at center, giving Jesper Boqvist hard looks with NHL players, and forcing Mercer to prove he was the right fit on the third line. Mercer was awesome in preseason.
Mercer scored two goals on three shots in three games. He added a primary assist while playing more than 16 minutes per night.