3 New Jersey Devils to blame for overtime loss to Arizona Coyotes

2. Timo Meier

There are high expectations for Timo Meier who signed an eight-year extension in the offseason. It’s his first full season in New Jersey, and fans are expecting him to live up to the contract. It’s very early, but Meier hasn’t gotten off to a great start. He has no points through two games and has been underwhelming so far. 

Much like Mercer’s role in the loss to the Coyotes, Meier was invisible. In addition to having no positive impact, he took a penalty for slashing. Meier had the worst GameScore composition on the team according to the stat card by HockeyStatCards on X (formerly known as Twitter). He had a negative offensive impact and the worst defensive impact on the team.

Meier is capable of being a very impactful player, and the Devils will need him to perform like he did last season for the San Jose Sharks before he was traded to the Devils. It takes some time to find chemistry with a new team, so he wasn’t to blame for not being as successful after the trade as he was before. But now that he’s had time to get acclimated, Jersey wants Meier to be the monster he can be.

If Meier, Hischier, and Mercer don’t get going as a line soon, don’t be surprised to see them get split up. It might be too soon for a shake-up, but if it doesn’t happen yet and the line continues to struggle, a reshuffling of the forward lines could help.