The future of coach Pete DeBoer and many of his players are up in the air (NJ.com)

I know I’ve said this a lot over the past few years but this is yet another very important offseason for the Devils.  While unlike prior seasons we don’t have to worry about re-signing the top FA’s on the market (though Jaromir Jagr is clearly priority #1 before July 1), there clearly have to be additions made to the roster one way or another, and perhaps shedding some dead weight as well.  Particularly on defense where Lou Lamoriello‘s constant hoarding of d-men the last two years have led to daily lineup problems for coach Pete DeBoer.  If anything deciding DeBoer’s own future is probably Lou’s first order of business at the moment since it’s been widely assumed – though not proven – his contract is up and multiple sources are already speculating that new Leafs president Brendan Shanahan is high on the Devils’ current coach.  Latest word last night from Elliotte Friedman on HNIC is that the Devils and DeBoer are working on a contract extension, but we’ll see whether that materalizes.

All I can say is if Shanny does get him well, buona fortuna!  I’ve personally had it with Pete’s constant ‘we battled’ meme every single night when we lose the majority of them.  I’m starting to get flashbacks of the Rich Kotite era with my Jets where ‘trying hard’ was enough.  And let’s face it with the way every player under 25 has gotten the shaft under this head coach – sans Jon Merrill and Adam Henrique (and the latter only got a real chance out of circumstance early in ’11-12) – Pete might be the wrong coach in the wrong place right now.  Especially with younger players like Adam Larsson, Eric Gelinas, Reid Boucher and Stefan Matteau that are going to have to be integrated into the lineup sooner or later.  There’s nothing that says you can’t win and develop at the same time…the ’98-00 Devils proved that.  For whatever ills then-coach Robbie Ftorek had, they were able to transition over to the next generation of players smoothly.  At some point as an organization though, we’ve started rushing kids before they were ready by and large (Matteau, Larsson and Jacob Josefson all played their first NHL game as teenagers) and then casting them off at the first side of trouble.  That has to change, whether it’s Pete or the next coach doing it.  Merrill was an example of doing it right in terms of development, he spent three years in college and a little time in the AHL before he came up…and voila, you don’t have to teach him anything, he’s ready.

Of course the youth isn’t our only worry…really the Devils have to address every position in one way or another, starting with the goaltending.  With Cory Schnieder set to be a UFA in 2015, the Devils are going to have to sign him to an extension sooner or later, or trade him if he won’t sign.  Losing huge assets for nothing because you won’t talk contract during the season is a Lou policy that has to stop.  This organization’s been devastated by the twin departures of Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk in consecutive offseasons, and though keeping Parise on a one-year deal proved to be the right decision at the time given the Devils’ 2012 run, we’ve been paying the price ever since.  It just cannot happen with Schnieder, especially since he’s become vital to keep (and we traded a top ten pick to get him, to boot) – certainly Cory’s W/L record wasn’t his fault given his 1.97 GAA and .921 save percentage.  Not when you score 84 goals in the 43 games he starts.

Of course Cory isn’t the only big-name goalie Lou has to make a decision on.  As much as Martin Brodeur‘s meant to the franchise over two decades, to put it bluntly now it’s time to cut the cord.  Give him the home finale this afternoon, let him and the fans say goodbye once and for all.  At this point, it’s what’s best for everyone.  Best for Cory going forward to finally be the undisputed #1 (his two best stretches of the season came when he was playing every day), best for Marty to find an opportunity to play or be told emphatically one doesn’t exist, and best for the organization.  Marty’s chafed publicly all year about not being able to play and is still in denial that he can be a top goalie again if he just got 65-70 games, in effect actually blaming the fact he wasn’t as good as Cory on that.  While you’ll never get any of the other players to admit it was a distraction, it had to be one.  Especially around the trade deadline when things came to a head, and after it when Marty made various comments about how Lou should have worked harder to kept Parise, and how the Devils have accepted mediocrity – among other things – as truthful as the latter might be.  Hopefully Marty’s public petulance (not to mention decreased quality of play) finally convinces Lou to let go of a player he thinks of as a surrogate son, and clearly has bent over backwards for at different times this season.  I’m not going to post a Marty retrospective today unlike most of the media, cause quite honestly I’m not convinced he’s gone as much as he says he is.  I’ll save that for when he actually does retire or move on, and the annoyances of this season have long passed.

On defense, hard choices have to be made there as well.  With Larsson and Gelinas now eligible for waivers, things may finally come to a head this offseason as far as Lou’s logjam on defense that he hasn’t been willing to alleviate for two years.  Assuming Larsson and Gelinas are both still here, they have to play.  Gelinas is too important offensively and the fact Larsson spent the majority of the year in the AHL is a disgrace.  Of course there’s the matter of signing both to new deals since they’re currently RFA’s.  Five other defensemen are under contract for next year – Andy Greene, Bryce Salvador, Anton Volchenkov, Peter Harrold and Jon Merrill (still on an ELC), though Greene, Salvador and Harrold are all going into the last year of their deals.  With Marek Zidlicky and Mark Fayne set to go UFA this summer, decisions will have to be made.  I wouldn’t mind keeping either guy but if you keep both, you’ll probably have to buy out either Volch or Sal, and trade one of the young d-men.  If you keep one, you can get away with just buying out Volch or captain Salvador – who between injuries and diminished play has become less a part of the team this year.  Perhaps Sal’s a big reason for the ‘culture of mediocrity’, certainly he’s a hard-working, well-respected player but he’s not the type of personality that’s going to make waves criticizing someone in the room.  While I’d prefer to buy out Sal over Volch, it’s obvious this staff isn’t as high on Volch given his diminished icetime…perhaps the only reason he’s still in the lineup is because he’s a good PK’er (not to mention his contract).

Up front lie the biggest issues with the team, both in terms of age and lack of speed, lack of offensive talent, and only one center that can win faceoffs.  In short, we pretty much need everything up front and it isn’t going to be easy to get considering we’re tied in to several long-term deals that run through at least the next two seasons from Travis Zajac and Patrik Elias to Adam Henrique, Ryane Clowe, Tuomo Ruutu and Danius Zubrus.  All six players are signed through at least 2015-16.  While the first four are essential for different reasons, you have to worry about Clowe, who’s now suffered two more concussions this year and quite frankly needs to give some serious thought to what continuing his career is going to do to the rest of his life.  Ruutu really petered out after a hot start and honestly we have too many players like him – over 30, grinder qualities with a lack of scoring talent despite Lou’s erroneous assertion he was a scorer based on his pre-2010 numbers.  You could say the same thing about Zubrus, who had a poor season though he picked it up down the stretch, but at least Zubrus you can deal with having given his intangibles – specifically his puck possession skills along the boards and the fact he can play any position up front.  Plus let’s be honest, a seven-year Devil in Zubrus deserves a bit more leeway from criticism than a guy that’s been here five minutes.

Aside from those six, team MVP Jagr (24-41-65, +15 in 81 games) is also essential to retain.  Honestly I was surprised how good Jagr was at 42 years old, and how much of a team leader he became in his one season.  I’ve said this before but I can see why Derek still follows him years after his last game as a Ranger.  While it sounds like Jagr’s amenable to returning despite the team missing the playoffs, you wonder how much a coaching change would affect that since Jagr’s endorsed Pete’s return – or more specifically endorsed the system.  Either way we know in Devil-land nobody’s ever really back until they say they’re back, no matter how promising things look.  Unlike Jagr though, it really isn’t essential to keep Michael Ryder or Damien Brunner around (both are signed through next year only).  Of the two I’d rather keep Brunner because of his speed and creativity, though it hasn’t translated into production most of the time.  Ryder’s been an even bigger dissapointment though, for a guy that’s been a 35+ goal scorer in the league his eighteen goals were unacceptable, especially given his long cold streak from January on, and the fact he really brings nothing else to the table when he’s not scoring.  With one year deals they’re easy to move if you can get assets and upgrade another way.

It’s around those issues that the Devils have to find some way – any way – to vastly improve their talent level in the top nine.  Whether it’s by trade, going after FA’s like Paul Stasny or Thomas Vanek, or promoting from within (of our forward prospects only Reid Boucher and Stefan Matteau are even close to ready, though neither stuck in their first call-ups – this year in the case of Boucher, last year in the case of Matteau).  Our entire fourth line is up for free agency too and sadly it seems as if CBGB has outlived their welcome as a line.  After a good year last year, Steve Bernier had a poor one this year (three goals and a -15 in 77 games).  Stephen Gionta, well everyone knows the deal with him – max effort guy who occasionally can hit someone and provide offense but also has severe limitations – sizewise and in the faceoff dot.  Plus he continually gets overused and overexposed under this head coach.  Ryan Carter is the one of the three I’d be okay with bringing back though he only put up ten points in sixty-one games (seven goals), at least he can play wing/center and bang guys, score some big goals.  Overall though it feels like it’s time for a different look and younger legs there – Bernier’s 29 and the other two are 30+.

Of course it would be nice if at least one or two of the new forwards can score a goal in the shootout as well…the less said about our 0-13 record in the shootout or our 4-45 shooting average the better.  What makes it baffling is guys like Elias and Clowe as well as both goaltenders HAVE had success in the shootout in the past.  Clearly at some point along the way this became a mental block, maybe even starting with the home opener where we went 0-6 against the Isles and it set a bad tone for the season.  After losing yet another shootout on Thursday in Ottawa, Schnieder vented some frustration on a lost season:

We win half the shootouts, we’re right in it. We score six more goals here or there, we win games we may have lost, but we’ve got to do something because it seems that after 80 games it’s been a pretty consistent theme of losing games that are winnable, and we’ve got to make some adjustments.

I’m not going to attribute our woes this season to the skills competition solely, that’s the easy way out.  Yeah we might have made the playoffs if we had just an average record in the shootout but honestly could you see this team beating Boston as presently constituted?  Or even Pittsburgh, now that they’re getting healthy?  Even Lou said it the other day, just making the playoffs is still mediocre.  There are fundamental problems with this team and they need to be addressed in a hurry.  Lou doesn’t want to rebuild, doesn’t want the word in his vocabulary but at a certain point soon this organization will have no choice.  Either you make serious changes now, or the whole house built on a faulty foundation’s going to crumble in on you.

With that, and the Devils’ season ending today I’ll probably take a vacation from writing here too during the playoffs, other than maybe a random comment here and there.  Since Derek’s Rangers are the only playoff team in the group, it’s his – and their – show now unless something Devil-related happens before the draft (like a DeBo extension or whatever).  However, I’m sure it’ll be busy enough in the summer to write then.