The Debrief | 10 TAKEAWAYS

The final day of the season is always a long one, with interview after interview as players clean out their lockers and start to drift into the offseason. Some hang around a little longer before heading home, others stay local with families and kids still in school, but either way, the shift is jarring. 

For months, every part of the day is mapped out, meals, meetings, buses, puck drop, flights, every second accounted for. And then, just like that, it’s gone. Now comes the part of the year where you actually have to remember what day of the week it is, no more “Game Day,” “Practice Day,” or “Off Day.” It takes some getting used to, even for the staff. As I am sure it is for the fans too. 

And before everything fully slows down for the summer it’s worth taking one more look back at some of the details and takeaways that came out of that final day of interviews.

1. 

Ok, I lied, we won't start with the locker room cleanout day... let's start, briefly, with the big news that came out on Thursday night! 

A big welcome (back!) to Sunny Mehta, now the sixth General Manager in team history.

When the Devils players left the locker room on Wednesday for the summer, there was still some uncertainty about who was going to guide the ship going forward. The General Manager’s job was still vacant, but it is no longer. A little more than 24 hours after the players packed up the locker room, New Jersey native Sunny Mehta was named the sixth GM in club history.

Mehta will certainly look to make his mark on this team, and even before the announcement of a new GM, players inside the Devils' room knew that something like this was certainly on the horizon.

“With some new leadership coming in here, it's going to be interesting to see how things shake up and see where we go from there,” Brown said, before the hiring of Mehta.

Mehta will be formally introduced next week at a press conference… so we’ll have plenty more on the new man in charge coming up!

2.

One thing that came through clearly from the core players on the final day of the year was that the expectations weren’t the problem for this group. They believed in how high the bar was set, and if anything, felt it should’ve been even higher. There was no deflection either, just an understanding that they didn’t meet what they know they’re capable of. That accountability matters because it shows a group that isn’t satisfied with simply aiming high; they expect to deliver on it.

And they didn't. And they're dissapointed in themselves because of it. 

In fact, many players, including the leadership, were asked if the expectations were set too high and what they should look like next year.

Everyone pushed back on that suggestion, even noting that the expectations for the group they have are, and despite not meeting the standard, should be even higher. 

"The expectations've been high for us for a few years, which is good," Nico Hischier said. "That's what you want. And obviously, when you're not getting there, it sucks. And we didn't deserve it. Like I said, we didn't play consistent enough the whole year. But the expectation will be the same as this year, next year. I think even higher, to be honest, because nobody in here wants to have a year like that again."

3.

I think the most pointed words came from Connor Brown, who, this season, was a new and fresh set of eyes on the team, from within. 

Before the final day of the season, and after the final game of the year, Connor Brown had these words to share with me: 

“Some major growth needs to be done," he said. So, when he arrived for his exit interviews, I asked him to expand on that growth, and he didn't hold back.

"I think when you kind of zoom out and look at our season as a whole, and you look at it analytically, we obviously didn't respond very well when guys were kind of going down. And that stretch of hockey really was the nail in our coffin.”

When he talks about not responding well when guys went down and calls that stretch the “nail in our coffin,” that sounds like him subtly saying the group didn’t handle adversity the way a true contender does. And he knows what it takes. He’s been there with Edmonton. His last two summers before this one involved trips to the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton.

“You saw how well we played coming back from Olympic break," he added. "So that's a big thing. Being able to have that sense of belief that whoever steps up is going to be able to get it done, and when the puck's not going in, finding different ways to score, finding different ways to win, finding different ways to just believe in one another and believe in the process and the situation that we have, and the players and the people that we have in this room."

Reading between the lines, it doesn’t sound like he thinks the expectations were too high at all; in fact, he’s kind of reinforcing them. He keeps coming back to the idea that the team has “a lot of the ingredients” and that nothing “magical” needs to change, which really points to this being more about mindset than talent. 

“And so things like that, I think is the biggest step. And when the biggest step for a group is mentality and mentally, I think that's a good thing, because that means that there's a lot of skill. I've been on teams that didn't have a lot of skill, and that's a much harder problem to solve, obviously, is if you don't have that type of skill and game breakers and players, then the game becomes really tough. And I think we have enough, and so that's what makes me feel optimistic about the future here.

And when he frames the biggest step as “mentality,” it feels like a quiet challenge to the room, basically, everything you need is here, but it has to show up every night, especially when things aren’t going your way.

4.

So, Hischier finished the regular season as the only player in the NHL to win over 1000 faceoffs. His grand total after 82 games came in at 1008. He also took the most draws in the league: 1808.

Cody Glass had a good laugh at those numbers in the most respectful way. Many times throughout the year, Glass has talked about being reliable as a piece that can help take some of those DZone draws away from Hischier and help manage his workload. Glass, no slouch at the dot himself, could only laugh when presented with Nico's numbers.

"I help him out, but he still took like 2,000 face-offs," Glass joked. "For him to have 1,000 face-off wins is insane... He's incredible. I feel like that kind of gets thrown under the radar with play and how important that actually is. PK, D-zone, a minute left, empty netter, and he's out there playing as hard as he possibly can. So that's something you love to see in a captain, that guy that doesn't cheat anywhere on the ice, and he's one of those guys that never complains about it."

Here are Glass’s faceoff numbers from the season: he took a total of 896 and won 54 percent of them. He talked about taking defensive zone draws, a way to take a load off of Nico, and that is, in fact, where he took most of his draws this year, with 342 coming in the DZone. It’s also where he had the most success at the dot at even strength, winning 59.6 percent of those draws. 

5.

For the players who weren’t able to finish the season because of injuries, it doesn’t appear that there will be any issues going forward. Arseny Gritsyuk, his arm in a sling at his final press availability of the year, said he has no worries about being healthy for next year. He says he should be good to go in about six weeks' time.

The same for Jacob Markstrom, who sat out the last couple of games with nagging injuries. He won’t go to the World Championships with Sweden, either, saying that his rest and recovery for the New Jersey Devils is his priority.

As for Stefan Noesen, he had been dealing with a cyst in the back of his knee, something he had been dealing with for a few years. He had it removed and has no worries about being ready for training camp.

Luke Hughes had his procedure done on his upper-body injury. He's already back at home in Michigan, starting his rehab. 

6.

Someone who won't have to - thankfully - rehab this summer? Jack Hughes. 

And he's excited for it, too. 

"More golf this year than the last couple of summers," he joked. "So, I'm excited for that, just to be able to do things I want to do and not be sitting on the couch in a sling. That's something I'm looking forward to doing. 

The last couple of off-seasons, the Devils' star forward has had to focus on rehab and recovery to get ready for the next season. This particular summer, he heads into it fully healthy and ready to take advantage. 

7.

Gritsyuk is always good for a quote; it’s the combination of his personality and still grasping the English language. It makes him almost unintentionally funny… like this quote, when he was asked about what he learned about the NHL in his first year:

"So tough league. Everybody wanna hit you, kill you, and in front of the net, you don't have chance stay, like, more two seconds."

8.

Congratulations are in order for defenseman Johnny Kovacevic and his fiancée, Mady. The couple are preparing for the birth of their first child this summer, he revealed.

 It might not be a ‘normal’ summer with all the changes that come with bringing a child into the world, but it certainly beats a summer spent rehabbing from his knee surgery.

Kovacevic had felt like he was just coming back to his right baseline as the season was coming to an end. It had been a long, grueling rehab to get back into game action, and even then, when you’re back, it’s not always smooth sailing. He said it was really only in the last 15 games that he felt ‘free’ to not think about his knee, and just play his game.

"It took maybe 15, 20 games to really get to a point where I felt like I was me again and I was playing without thinking about my knee or without checking in on it," he said. "And then I could just play. In hockey, you're at your best when you're not thinking. The game's just instinctual to you. And so I do think I got to that place, it just took a little longer than I thought.

9.

What's in a B-Game? Well, a lot, actually.

For Nico, it’s certainly the bare minimum he expects from the team he leads.

"I think the B level should be the bare minimum," he said. "It's not like getting to that; I think that's the bare minimum, and that's got to be a consistent enough game that keeps us in games or gives ourselves a chance to win hockey games. And then if we have that as the standard, whenever we play better, we have more chance to win. But the B level is already a high standard. So that's kind of what I'm trying to say.

No team, even the best of the best, will have their A-Game every night, it’s just simply not possible. But the idea of relying on a B Game, well, that might be the most important thing to sort out. 

They need to figure out what that reliable, fall-back game looks like when things aren’t quite clicking on all cylinders. It ties directly into what Brown was getting at with “finding different ways to win” and handling adversity better. A few guys basically admitted that if their A-game wasn’t there, their results dropped off too sharply, which is something playoff-caliber teams usually avoid.

Others echoed Brown’s comments, saying “didn’t respond very well when guys were going down” and struggled to grind out results. It all circles the same point: the talent and A Game are in place, but the next step is building a version of their game that still holds up on off nights—because that’s usually what separates a good team from one that can actually push deep.

10.

Going to Worlds? Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Timo Meier certainly are. They also get the unique experience of playing the tournament in their homeland. The Worlds were originally supposed to be held in Switzerland in 2020, but Covid wiped them out, so they're finally getting the chance. 

Timo Meier did preface that he'd, of course, prefer not to be thinking about Worlds, even with it in his homeland; right now, he'd much rather have the chance to compete for the Stanley Cup. But they are certainly looking forward to the experience, now that it's on the table in front of them.

Siegenthaler is from Zurich, where the tournament is being held, and said he actually lives quite close to where they'll be playing. 

As for other Devils' players and World Championships... Jacob Markstrom won't be going, saying his rest and recovery are his priority, and the New Jersey Devils are his priority. Jesper Bratt remains undecided at the moment.

The same goes for Jack Hughes, who hasn't committed to play for the USA yet. 

And Simon Nemec, who has been a staple on the Slovak blueline, will not go. He is a restricted free agent heading into the summer and won't play for Slovakia without an NHL contract sorted out for next season.

Bonus!

Congrats to Amy and Brett Pesce who welcomed their first child this week! A baby girl named Blake.