Devils Projected Lineup 2.5: Where Evangelista Fits, & Who He Bumps
Anthony Mantha changed the New Jersey Devils forward group in July. Luke Evangelista just changed it again.
The first version back on July 9 still had Connor Brown on Jack Hughes’ right side and Dawson Mercer glued to Nico Hischier. The 2.0 after Mantha signed moved Brown down and slid Mantha onto Hughes’ left wing. That one lasted seven weeks. Then Sunny Mehta spent a protected Colorado first — the same first he pulled out of Calgary for Simon Nemec — plus New Jersey’s own 2028 second, and the top six stopped being a puzzle with one missing piece. It became a crowding problem.
Evangelista put up 12 goals and 44 assists in 81 games last season, most of them in Nashville’s top six nd most of them as the passer on a line with a trigger like Steven Stamkos. He has one year left on his contract at $3 million and is a restricted free agent next summer. That is a hockey player you write into the lineup in ink and then work backward from the people he displaces.
I have him on Hischier’s right side. Mantha stays with Hughes. That is the whole piece. Everything under it is the fallout.
Forwards
| Left wing | Center | Right wing |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony Mantha | Jack Hughes | Jesper Bratt |
| Timo Meier | Nico Hischier | Luke Evangelista |
| Arseny Gritsyuk | Evan Rodrigues | Dawson Mercer |
| Jesper Boqvist | Cody Glass | Connor Brown |
Extras: Stefan Noesen, Nick Bjugstad, Amadeus Lombardi, Lenni Hämeenaho
Also in the mix: Riley Tufte, Shane Lachance, Marc McLaughlin, Xavier Parent
Defensemen
| Left defense | Right defense |
|---|---|
| Luke Hughes | Brett Pesce |
| Jonas Siegenthaler | Dougie Hamilton |
| Brenden Dillon | Johnathan Kovacevic |
Extra: Declan Chisholm
Pushing: Seamus Casey, Anton Silayev, Vladislav Kolyachonok
Goalies
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| Jake Allen | Nico Daws |
Pushing: David Rittich
Depth: Jakub Malek
Why Evangelista goes with Hischier, not Hughes
The easy graphic is Evangelista on Hughes’ wing. Skill next to skill. Assist machine next to the best passer in the building. It looks clean on a whiteboard, but it is the wrong first look.
Hughes does not need another connector. He is the connector. What he has lacked, in stretches, is a big body who will go to the paint and finish the chances Hughes already creates. Mantha scored 33 goals in Pittsburgh last season and is 6-foot-5. He is a left shot who can play the off wing. Put him on Hughes’ left, leave Bratt on the right, and you have the shape that line has been missing since the Tyler Toffoli days .
Evangelista’s best work in Nashville was next to a center who would win a draw, lean on a defender, and let the winger find the late man. That man was Ryan O’Reilly. With the Devils, that is a Hischier usage pattern, not a Hughes usage pattern. Hischier won 55.8 percent of his faceoffs last season and played 20:43 a night through a full 82. He is the one who can start a cycle in the other team’s end and not need the winger to manufacture the entire possession. Evangelista lives on the half-wall. He delays half a beat. He finds the trailer. Meier, on the other side of that line, is the net-front and the shot volume — 269 attempts last year, even in a 24-goal season that shot 8.9 percent and felt worse than it was.
You do not waste that by asking Evangelista to keep up with Hughes in transition for 18 minutes. You put him where the puck dies in the offensive zone and let him extend it.
There is a handedness piece too. Evangelista is a right shot. Meier has been continually deployed on the left. Gritsyuk is a left shot who can play either side, but he has not earned the Hischier minutes Evangelista just bought with a first-round pick. If Sheldon Keefe wants Meier on his natural right, you can flip them. I would not open camp that way. Meier-Hischier-Evangelista gives you size, two-way center, playmaker. That line can play against the other team’s best and not go under.
The on-ice profile backs the instinct. Evangelista sat in the 93rd percentile in even-strength offense and the 92nd in even-strength defense last season. Primary assists per 60 in the 94th. Offensive-zone time in the 96th. He is not a passenger you hide. He is also not a volume shooter — hardest shot in the 22nd percentile, mid-range rate that will not scare a goalie by itself. He shot 6.8 percent, a point and a half under his career mark, and finished about nine goals below expected. If that shooting luck merely regresses toward his own average, you are talking about a 20-goal, 60-point winger on a better team than the one he just left. That winger belongs with Hischier and Meier, and may even help the latter regain his even strength scoring touch. Not as Hughes’ third wheel.
Hughes-Bratt already generates offense. Adding Evangelista there stacks three passers and asks Mantha to bump down, which defeats the reason you signed Mantha. Split them.
The Hughes line, after Mantha
Mantha–Hughes–Bratt is the 2.0 call, and I am not moving it just because a better playmaker walked in the door.
Hughes played 61 games last season and still put up 27 goals and 50 assists. The Devils were 8-13-0 in the games he missed. That is not a trivia line. That is the franchise. When he is in, the team scores. When he is out, it scored 2.05 per game. Keefe said the quiet part last spring: the group looks one way with him and takes too long to recalibrate without him. Mehta’s whole summer — Mantha, Rodrigues, now Evangelista — is an attempt to make that recalibration shorter. It only works if the Hughes line is constructed to produce and if the Hischier line can survive a week without No. 86.
Bratt is the constant. 22 goals, 49 assists, 82 games, 18:46 a night. He is not moving off Hughes unless something breaks in camp. Mantha’s job on that wing is ugly and specific. Occupy the slot. Screen. Finish the cut-ins Hughes already sees. He does not have to quarterback anything. If he puts up 25 again in that usage, the trade grade on Evangelista looks even better, because you didn’t have to rip up the Hughes line to make room for him.
The risk is chemistry in September at the Devils’ training camp, not talent in April. Mantha is coming off a career year at 31. Those sometimes are the last ones. If he looks heavy next to Hughes in the first week of camp, you have the flexibility to flip him with Meier or even try him on Hischier’s left. That is a camp question. It is not the opening projection.
The third line is where the bodies land
Gritsyuk–Rodrigues–Mercer.
Mercer falls to the Devils’ third line. Leave him there until he’s needed when there is an injury in the top-six. Twenty goals, 22 assists, 82 games, three shorthanded goals. That is a third-line right wing who can still play up if Evangelista or Bratt misses a night.
Rodrigues takes the middle. Mehta traded for him and brought him to the Devils to play, not to watch Glass take 13 minutes from the bottom of the lineup. Thirty-three, both wings and center, enough pace to play with Gritsyuk and Mercer without turning the line into a dead zone. He will not win 54 percent like Glass. He does not have to. The third line’s job is to start in its own end, move the puck, and still create enough that Keefe does not hide it for 82 games. Rodrigues can do that. Glass’s 19-goal season in 13:37 average time on ice was a fourth-line and extra-shift number. Stretching him to 3C is how you turn a useful piece into a mismatch.
Gritsyuk stays on the left. Thirteen goals and 18 assists in 66 games as a first-year NHLer, 15:10 a night, contract Mehta wanted done in June. He does not take Evangelista’s minutes. Left wing next to Rodrigues is the promotion 2.0 already owed him, just without the Hischier ice. Retrievals, a look at PP2 if the top six goes stale, enough skill that this line can play against a real third line and not go under.
If Rodrigues looks slow next to Gritsyuk in camp, you have Glass right there.
The fourth line is Glass
Boqvist–Glass–Brown.
This is where Glass actually fits in the Devils lineup. Nineteen goals, 13:37 a night, 54.0 percent on faceoffs. Put that on a fourth line and the shooting percentage can regress without killing you, because the draws and the odd goal are the point. Ask him to take third-line minutes against the other team’s better extras and you are betting on a finishing rate that will not last. Ask him to take fourth-line draws and sneak a goal from a spot that does not need 18 minutes, and you have a roster piece.
Brown on the right is the rest of the demotion, although it’s admitedly undeserved Eighteen goals and 25 assists in 75 games last year, a lot of it next to Hughes when the top six needed a body. He is still useful. Penalty kill, detail, and a right shot who will not hurt you. He is not a top-six winger on this roster, and he is not a third-line winger once Mercer has that wing. Fourth-line right wing with PK1 is a good living.
Boqvist is the leftover skill from the summer trades. He can play up in the Devils lineup if Gritsyuk or Mercer sits. On this line he is the one who can still make a play off the rush. If he is quiet for a week, the look goes to Hämeenaho or Noesen. Bjugstad only comes in if Keefe wants a 6-foot-6 night. That is a scratch, not the projection.
Who Evangelista actually bumps
Mercer is out of the Devils’ top six. Third-line right wing with PK minutes is the cleanest job he has had in years.
Brown is out of the Hughes orbit and out of the third line. Fourth-line PK is the floor.
Gritsyuk does not get the Hischier promotion. He gets Rodrigues’ left wing.
Glass is a fourth-line center with real faceoffs, not a 3C stretched into minutes he did not play last year.
Bjugstad falls out of the 12. Size extra. Useful when you want to play heavy. Not a lock over Rodrigues or Glass.
Noesen stays in the extras with Lombardi and Hämeenaho. Net-front veteran, still useful, competing with Bjugstad for the 13th sweater. He can take a spot back if Boqvist loses the look.
Hämeenaho still has to beat Noesen and look better than Boqvist. The rookie games are his.
Lombardi is still the waiver problem. This table does not solve it.
Special teams
The Devils’ PP1 does not move from the previous projection. Mantha at the net, Hughes at the dot, Bratt in the bumper or the flank, Hischier, and Luke Hughes behind them. Evangelista is not on this unit.
PP2: Meier, Mercer, Evangelista, and Gritsyuk with Hamilton. Sixteen power-play assists last season is a second unit that can create. Rodrigues is the next forward if somebody in that group sits. Glass can sneak on as a right-shot bumper. I would not open him there over Meier.
PK1: Hischier and Brown up front, Pesce and Siegenthaler behind them.
PK2: Mercer and Glass, Dillon and Kovacevic. Rodrigues takes a look when you want another veteran forward on the kill. Bjugstad is the big body if you go that way for a night.
Evangelista is not a killer. Mercer and Glass both are.
Cap, extras, and the 13th
Extras: Nick Bjugstad, Stefan Noesen, Amadeus Lombardi, Lenni Hämeenaho
Also in the mix: Riley Tufte, Shane Lachance
The Devils’ cap space is still about $1.85 million. Dressing Rodrigues at 3C does not fix the cap math. It spends the money Mehta already spent. The 13th is Bjugstad if you want size, Noesen if you want the net, Lombardi if Mehta is willing to run the wire, Hämeenaho if the rookie games are not close. Only one of those four dresses unless somebody is hurt.
What would change this
If Rodrigues looks a step slow for a week. Glass takes back the 3C role, Bjugstad or Noesen goes in on the fourth line, Mercer stays on the right.
If Boqvist is quiet and Hämeenaho is not. Fourth line becomes Hämeenaho–Glass–Brown.
You want a heavy night? Bjugstad goes in for Boqvist. Glass and Rodrigues stay.
When Noesen beats Boqvist on net-front and Keefe wants that look. Same deal. The centers do not move.
The snapshot
Mantha–Hughes–Bratt
Meier–Hischier–Evangelista
Gritsyuk–Rodrigues–Mercer
Boqvist–Glass–Brown
Bjugstad, Noesen, Lombardi, Hämeenaho extra.