Devils Sheldon Keefe Makes Big Changes to Lineup

There wasn’t a complete overhaul when New Jersey Devils head coach made lineup changes on Thursday morning. However, they’re significant enough changes to the forward group that things will look different tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

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Perhaps the biggest change comes with Paul Cotter who has now been placed on Jack Hughes’ left-wing in the top six. Typically, that’s a spot for Timo Meier. However, he’s now playing next to his fellow Swiss-mate, Nico Hischier.

On Cotter’s new role in the top-six, Keefe explained he didn’t want him to change the way he approaches the game.

“If he plays differently, he won’t be there very long. That was my conversation with him,” Keefe started. “He’s shown good ability in his game, and we think those assets can help those guys. I think that’s the greatest challenge for anybody that moves up to play with elite players, is you start to complicate the game. You start to defer.

“He needs to play to his strengths, which, as I said, is transporting the puck when it’s his turn to carry through the neutral zone, do so. And once it’s time to forecheck and get to the net, he’s got to do so and have that be a strength for him and his role on the line. So that’s what we need for him. If he starts complicating things, then we’re going to have to rethink it.”

Hughes and Hischier kept their right-wing counterparts. Jesper Bratt remains with Jack and Dawson Mercer will continue to play with Hischier.

That means Tomas Tatar has been moved down the lineup next to Erik Haula and Stefan Noesen.

The most surprising move is within the middle-six. Cotter had formed real chemistry with Haula and Noesen as one of the Devils’ better forward trios through six games. However, it’s not as surprising to see the former Vegas Golden Knight to move up to the top-six given his impact thus far. The 24-year-old leads the Devils with four goals.

It’s also not as surprising to see Meier placed back with Hischier. Hughes and Meier never really meshed, as both are capable of driving play, yet sometimes clash when on the ice together at even strength. Meier has shown far better chemistry with Hischier in his international and Devils samples.

“[Meier’s] a good player in this league. I just gives that group a little more offensive pop,” Keefe explaind. “I wanted to give it some time with the look that we’ve had through five, six games there. But I think it’s a good opportunity to look at something different.”

And although the Tatar-Hischier-Mercer combination was still working at an elite rate in two out of three zones, they lacked the offense to keep them together that Keefe is searching for.

Keefe already tweaked the fourth line when he moved Cotter up previously, only to move Ondrej Palat down to the fourth line. That will remain the same, for now.

Here’s the new-look forward group heading into Thursday night against the Senators:

Thursday Morning’s Forward Workflow

Paul Cotter – Jack Hughes – Jesper Bratt

Timo Meier – Nico Hischier – Dawson Mercer

Tomas Tatar – Erik Haula – Stefan Noesen

Ondrej Palat – Curtis Lazar – Nathan Bastian

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