Are the Devils a Deep Playoff Team Upfront?

Zach is young and will be fine. Kovalchuk is not in his early twenties anymore and will likely face a small amount of fatigue in the playoffs, especially with his huge frame. Elias… isn’t as quick as he once was, but I feel he never tires.

Can’t help but feel all of this is off. Kovy is only a little more than a year older than Parise, yet somehow he’ll be more tired? If anything, he’ll be the one of the 3 who will be fine.

Once playoff time comes, the Devils big questions will be on Kovy and Marty. Can Kovy actually relax and not try so hard during the playoffs where he becomes a selfish player yet at the same time play at the highest level we all know he can? Does Marty have the endurance and enough gas in the tank to get passed the 1st round and further?

I just want to get to the 2nd round at the least, It sounds like I have low expectations but its been forever since we’ve been past the first.

Neighbor Bob made a good point related to this topic:

You’ll have to Ctrl-F search for it if you want to read the entire context.

Kovalchuk’s $6.666mil cap hit ranks as the 29th highest cap hit in the NHL. At this point, it is hard not to say Kovalchuk hasn’t been one of the most valuable offense-men in the league this year.

Kovalchuk has 56pts in 51 games. That’s 1.1 points per game.

In comparison, take a look at these players with higher cap hits and a lower point per game average;
- Eric Stall has a caphit of $8.2m. He has 44 pts in 57 games. Good for a .77 goals per game average.
- Alex Ovechkin – $9.4m – 44pts/53gms – .83ppg
- Rick Nash – $7.8m – 39pts/57gms – .68ppg
- Scott Gomez – $7.54m – 8pts/27gms – .29ppg
- V Lecavalier – $7.7m – 45pts/56gms – .80ppg
- Dany Heatley – $7.5m – 40pts/56gms – .71ppg
- Jarome Iginla – $7.0m – 45pts/56gms – .80ppg
- Brad Richards – $6.6m – 39pts/57gms – .68ppg

With that said, Kovalchuk ranks #1 in icetime for forwards and 16th overall. I’m going to venture to say Kovalchuk has been a STEAL thus far.

Kovy’s 1.1 PPG is 6th overall in the league. While he’s well-paid and gets a lot of ice time, he’s also very productive. He has proven the critics wrong, again, and is thriving on it. Parise and Elias are not far behind in their PPG either, as you’ve noted.

With an ensemble cast like Henrique, Clarkson, Zubrus, even Sykora, and potentially Ponikarovsky… I think the team can make a run because they have threats from many players. But, they need threats from more lines and players returning fully healthy. I think this is why so many people on this blog nit-pick their preferences for line combinations.

The Devils need more balance on the 3rd line and a relevant 4th line. I hope between Bernier, Ponikarovsky, Zajac, Palmieri, Tedenby, Carter, etc we’ll see that down the stretch. Palmieri is back up, practicing in Newark. Hard to say whether Tedenby or Carter will be.

Looking at just the forwards, on paper, I think the Devils have borderline enough depth. I would rate their top 12 as (no particular order):
Parise, Zajac, Kovy, Elias, Zubrus, Poni, Clarkson, Sykora, Henrique, Josefson, Bernier, Carter (Maybe Tedenby)

That group looks pretty solid except when you consider a couple of things: Zajac is not healthy and may not be back to 100% this year, Josefson missed significant time, Sykora has slowed down a bit. Borderline forward depth is acceptable, but not without a very good defense and/or goaltending and that doesn’t really scream deep playoff run.

Excellent article. It’s nice to see this all on paper.

I think the only thing missing is some offense from the D, I mean offense from the fourth line would have been good too, but that has literally not happened at all.

One reason that Kovy can log so many minutes is that he is a very fluid skater. He does less cutting back and forth, less digging in the corners, which is Parise’s style of skating. I would think that all of the direction changes that Parise does takes more energy.

This is a very cool comparison. Have never looked at it this way. Hopefully the depth can come through this year.

If we could pass the 1st round, it would be a winning season personally.