One player from each NHL team who should be on the NHL 18 cover

New Jersey Devils: Cory Schneider

All the attention on the New Jersey Devils heading into this season may have been on Taylor Hall, but Cory Schneider is easily their best player. It’s not like he emerged from out of nowhere too, as he was always stellar in Vancouver. But poor management led to him getting unceremoniously shipped out, while the Devils have been reaping the rewards ever since.

Schneider’s breakout campaign was in 2011-12, a year after the Canucks failed to win the Cup. He took over the starting job while Luongo was hurt, and held it when he came back. He finished the year with a 20-8-1 record with a .937 save percentage, but when the playoffs rolled around, they did a poor job of handling the two goalies and lost in five games to the Kings.

A year later, everyone was led to believe that Schneider would keep the starting job while Luongo would get traded. But they moved Schneider instead for New Jersey’s first-round pick, which they used to select Bo Horvat. It looked like the Canucks had done well when they got to keep Luongo while Horvat was playing well, but they traded Luongo too and haven’t recovered since then.

Schneider, meanwhile, has put up exceptional numbers for the Devils since arriving. He put up save percentages of .925 and .924 in the last two seasons, but New Jersey’s offensive deficiencies prevented them from getting to the playoffs in both those years.

Even though Taylor Hall’s been great, they haven’t been scoring particularly well this year, either. Their offensive output so far ranks bottom five in the league. As always, Schneider’s been the key to their success, as he has a .927 save percentage at the start of this season.

He’s in the discussion of elite goaltenders in the NHL, and if he gets them to the playoffs, he should get Vezina consideration. But as long as Price is around, it’s unlikely that he’ll win it.