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We're in the throes of spooky season, and fittingly, the New Jersey Devils just got a lot scarier with the acquisition of superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.
One of the best goaltenders in the world, Hellebuyck fills the biggest need on the Devils roster. With him in between the pipes and an electrifying group of forwards, New Jersey will be a force in the Eastern Conference.
Don't take my word for it. Just look at what the Devils did Tuesday against the Dallas Stars. In his first start with the team, Hellebuyck stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced -- allowing one goal on 2.04 expected goals against -- in a 5-1 victory.
Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes each had multi-point nights as the Devils took full advantage of the chances they created against a stout Dallas team. This type of game has to be exactly what general manager Sunny Mehta envisioned when he swung the deal for Hellebuyck.
Moving forward, the Devils will be burdened with the pressure that comes along with being a bona fide Cup contender. For a franchise that's fallen short of expectations a few times lately, that can be a scary prospect, and it inspired a special Halloween edition of the NHL Power Rankings in which I highlight the scariest thing about each team.
Goals saved above average and expected goals data via Natural Stat Trick
Biggest Movers
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hurricanes | Depth | Seth Jarvis missed the start of the season. Jordan Staal is injured. Taylor Hall is banged up. None of that has mattered. The Hurricanes have the depth to overcome anything, and that was clear in last year's playoffs when the top line was a non-factor for the better part of two rounds. | -- | 10-2-2 |
| 2 | Oilers | Star power | When the Big Three get rolling, it's over. No team in the NHL can match the trio of McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard. Those three have combined for 79 points. Only one other player -- Vasily Podkolzin -- has more than five on the team. | -- | 8-2-2 |
| 3 | Wild | Kirill Kaprizov | The list of scarier players to see with the puck on their stick is in the single digits. Kaprizov is playing the best hockey of his career with 13 goals, 21 points and a plus-12 goal differential at five-on-five. | 3 | 9-3-2 |
| 4 | Lightning | Nikita Kucherov | The reigning MVP just became the all-time leading scorer in Lightning history with 1,138 points, and he hit that number in 192 fewer games than Steven Stamkos. Kucherov can still strike fear into even the best NHL defenseman. | 1 | 7-3-1 |
| 5 | Golden Knights | Theodore and McNabb | Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb are monsters on the back end in Vegas. With those two on the ice at five-on-five, the Golden Knights have outscored opponents 15-6 while controlling 58.4% of the expected goals. | 1 | 9-4-1 |
| 6 | Mammoth | Goaltending | Utah is capable of winning the West, but goaltending could lead the team to an untimely demise. Karel Vejmelka and Sebastian Cossa have combined to allow 7.73 goals above average. | 1 | 8-5-0 |
| 7 | Panthers | Injuries | As we saw last season, there is one thing that can end the Panthers' season before it even begins: Injuries. Florida has already experienced a bit of deja vu with Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand missing significant time. | -- | 7-4-2 |
| 8 | Devils | Expectations | The Devils won the Connor Hellebuyck sweepstakes, and they're now serious Stanley Cup contenders. Exepctations haven't been this high in New Jersey for a while. How will this team handle that pressure? | 10 | 8-4-0 |
| 9 | Bruins | PDO | If you put any stock into PDO as a gauge for sustainability, you have to be a little worried about Boston. The Bruins lead the NHL in PDO at 1.072, which is 35 points higher than the next closest team. They're due for a cool down. | 1 | 9-3-1 |
| 10 | Stars | Playoff shortcomings | Barring an unforeseen disaster, the Stars will be back in the playoffs, but that's where things get really interesting. After three straight conference final appearances, Dallas was eliminated in the first round last season. It's time for this talented core to get over the hump. | 2 | 7-4-1 |
| 11 | Senators | Tim Stutzle | The Senators captain is playing like a man possessed, and he was exceptional in Brady Tkachuk's return to Ottawa. His two points were critical in helping the Senators get the last laugh last week. | -- | 8-5-0 |
| 12 | Canadiens | Suzuki's injury | The Canadiens' captain is set to miss 2-4 weeks with a hand injury, and that puts a real dent in the team's center depth. Then again, maybe it's not so scary. Montreal is 3-0 without him, and it has allowed a total of two goals in those games. | 3 | 7-3-2 |
| 13 | Maple Leafs | Special teams (good) | Your best hope against the Maple Leafs is to keep the game at five-on-five because they are a machine on special teams. Their power play has been automatic at 28.9%, and the penalty has been impenetrable at 93.6%. | -- | 7-5-2 |
| 14 | Avalanche | Special teams (bad) | To see such a talented team struggle this much on speical teams for the second year in a row is more than a little unsettling. The Avs rank 23rd in power play (17.9%) and 21st in penalty kill (75.0%). | 5 | 6-5-1 |
| 15 | Rangers | Pavel Dorofeyev | This one is a double-edged sword. On one hand, Dorofeyev's goal-scoring prowess makes him a dangerous power play weapon. On the other, Dorofeyev's slow start after signing a $77 million contract has to be worrisome for the Rangers. | 7 | 7-6-1 |
| 16 | Capitals | Wingers | No team is more loaded on the wings than the Capitals with Tom Wilson, Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, Alex Ovechkin and Ryan Leonard playing up and down the lineup. That's real firepower. Just don't ask me about the center depth. | 2 | 6-4-0 |
| 17 | Kraken | Finishing | The rest of the league should be terrified by how well the Kraken are shooting -- but so should the team itself. Seattle is en fuego with a 13.3% shooting percentage, which ranks third in the NHL. I don't expect that to last forever, so Seattle needs to make the most of this heater. | 4 | 7-4-1 |
| 18 | Sabres | Regression | The hockey gods giveth, and they taketh away. Last season, Buffalo was a great story, but it ranked second in PDO at 1.022. The Sabres were playin a bit above their heads. This season, regression has hit hard, and the team boasts a .970 PDO, which ranks 31st. | 2 | 5-4-3 |
| 19 | Islanders | Matthew Schaefer | If opposing fans watching the Islanders ever wonder, "Does this kid ever come off the ice?" The answer is, "No." The young superstar averages just under 27 minutes per game, and he played all five minutes of overtime against the Predators on Tuesday. | 3 | 6-4-2 |
| 20 | Penguins | Father Time | Sidney Crosby is the best player of his generation. Full stop. Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin are Penguins legends. Erik Karlsson has a Hall of Fame case. That said, each of those players is at least 36 years old. How much gas do they have left in the tank? | 1 | 5-6-1 |
| 21 | Sharks | Youth | San Jose has the best young core in the NHL, and those players are poised to wreck the league for a long time. Of course, those young guns probably also raise Ryan Warsofsky's heart rate when they make inexperienced mistakes. | 2 | 6-6-1 |
| 22 | Red Wings | Dysfunction | All the storylines in Detroit have been off the ice so far. Dylan Larkin has been stripped of his captaincy atter requesting a trade. Simon Edvinsson hasn't played a single second due to a contract dispute. Oh, and an interim GM is overseeing this circus. | 4 | 5-4-3 |
| 23 | Predators | Power play | Don't even think about putting the Predators on the power play because the puck will likely end up in the back of the net. Nashville is converting on 31.7% of its man advantage opportunities, which is good because the team can't score under any other circumstances. | 1 | 4-3-5 |
| 24 | Jets | The future | After jettisoning a franchise icon who wanted out, the Jets face a tough road ahead. The core of the team is a bit older, and the prospect pool needs a little work. Is Winnipeg staring down the barrel of a complete rebuild? | 7 | 4-5-3 |
| 25 | Blue Jackets | Development | At one point, the Blue Jackets had a bright future with young stars Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson and Cole Sillinger leading the way. Well, that future is now, and it's rather bleak. None of those players have shown a ton of progress, and that's a problem. | 2 | 5-5-0 |
| 26 | Blues | Jordan Binnington | Even by goalie standards, Binnigton is very volatile. He could allow six goals, and his wires could cross in a meltdown. Or he could backstop a team to a Stanley Cup or gold medal. The highs and lows of Binnington are unparalleled. | 1 | 5-6-1 |
| 27 | Ducks | Cap mismanagement | Let's just be honest. GM Pat Verbeek botched the entire offseason. Because he played around with a few RFAs, Anaheim doled out $38.7 million just to retain three players and didn't have anything left over to replace the defensemen who walked out the door. | 7 | 5-6-1 |
| 28 | Flames | Irrelevance | The Flames have a long way to go before they're ready to contend again, and it's fair to wonder how many lean years this team will have to endure until it's ready to compete for anything meaningful. | 2 | 5-6-0 |
| 29 | Blackhawks | Stagnation | In the midst of a 4-8 start, the fear for the Blackhawks is that they're headed for another lost season. Top-five draft picks are great, but Chicago should be past that stage of its rebuild by now. Instead, the young players are ready for big roles, and there isn't enough veteran support around them. | 1 | 4-8-0 |
| 30 | Kings | Closing time | Turn out all the lights. Whatever window of contention that was open for the Kings -- be it playoff or Cup -- is closed tightly. Los Angeles is the oldest team in the NHL, and the hire of Peter Laviolette has proven to be ineffective in the early going. | 1 | 3-6-2 |
| 31 | Flyers | Offense | Philadlephia has scored 27 goals. Matvei Michkov has accounted for nearly 33.3% of those. Trevor Zegras and Porter Martone are the only other players with more than two. It's a struggle in the offensive zone these days. | -- | 3-7-4 |
| 32 | Canucks | 84-game season | Still 70 games left to go, Vancouver! You can make it! | -- | 3-10-1 |
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