The New Jersey Devils were the most disappointing team in the NHL last season. You can talk about the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings or Seattle Kraken all you want, but the Devils were the only team that many people thought was in the Stanley Cup race that didn’t quite make the playoffs.

Injuries are to blame. The goalkeepers are to blame. It could be the defense, Lindy Ruff or even Timo Meier’s inability to get going until the last quarter of the season. There was a long list of reasons for the Devils’ failure last season. Still, it was only one season. Whether the team can win the Stanley Cup in the near future will hardly matter.

It’s a difficult task, but this team is built for it. If you compare this squad to last season’s squad, there are hardly any shortcomings. And it all starts with the most important position in hockey.

Number one on the list is the obvious choice. Most would say the season was lost because of the goalies. Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanecek were not the answer when the Devils couldn’t find a solution like Connor Hellebuyck. The Devils hoped that Vanecek’s playoff woes were just a small problem in a bigger solution. That wasn’t the case. They hoped that Akira Schmid could handle the load. He couldn’t.

Then the Devils tried to trade literally every available goalie all season. They couldn’t. It sounds like they could have traded Jacob Markstrom, Jake Allen and Linus Ullmark at various points during the season. All three fell apart for one reason or another (though Allen finally transferred to the Devils when it was much too late).

Now the Devils have Markstrom and Allen. They are a veteran duo that can get wins for the Devils on a nightly basis. Nico Daws is no longer recovering from hip surgery, and this team can no longer blame the man in goal for its problems.