New Jersey Devils: 2 Players Who Will Bounce Back Next Season

With the off-season starting to slow down a bit, we now have a better idea of every team's roster going into next season. Of course there will be other moves, but the craziness from the Expansion Draft and first day of free agency is officially done.

In this segment, we will be taking a look at two players from each NHL team who are set to bounce back next season. Sometimes players will have down seasons, but end up completely turning it around in the following one. This will inevitably happen for this upcoming year, too.

With this specific piece, we will be looking at the New Jersey Devils. There is no denying that they had a rough year, but nobody expected them to make any real noise. However, they have had a strong off-season and brought in some very solid players, including Dougie Hamilton. There are also two players from them who are prime candidates to have bounce back seasons. In fact, one of them is also a newcomer.

MacKenzie Blackwood G: MacKenzie Blackwood is in line to have a rebound season. His first two seasons in the league were fantastic, as he would have a .918 SV% in his rookie campaign and then .915 SV% in the following one. However, this year was a step back for the 24-year-old. He had a 14-17-4 record and .902 SV%. There is no question that this was low for him, but when seeing as how the Devils have added both Hamilton and Ryan Graves to the backend, he will have more assistance. This should be enough to spike his numbers back up.

Tomas Tatar LW: Tomas Tatar found himself out of the Canadiens' lineup during their postseason run. In 50 games during the regular season, he had 10 goals and 30 points. Thus, he was still productive, but it was a noticeable step-back from his 61-point campaign in 68 games the previous season. He should have plenty of opportunities with the Devils to produce similar numbers, as he will almost surely be given top-six minutes. Also, he could be the winger that Jack Hughes needs to take that next step offensively.