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Looking at the 2019-20 New Jersey Devils

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P.K. Subban is hopeful that his good health will allow him to play for years to come and discusses the future of the New Jersey Devils, including 2019's first overall pick Jack Hughes.

With the 2019-20 NHL season on hold we are going to take a look at where each NHL team stands at this moment with a series of posts examining their season. Have they met expectations? Exceeded expectations? Who has been the surprise? All of that and more. Today we look at the New Jersey Devils.

New Jersey Devils

Record: 28-29-12 (69 games), eighth in the Metropolitan Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference
Leading Scorer: Kyle Palmieri -- 45 points (25 goals and 20 assists)

In-Season Transactions:

• Acquired Louis Domingue from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2021
• Traded Taylor Hall and Blake Speers to the Arizona Coyotes for Nate Schnarr, Nick Merkley, Kevin Bahl, a conditional 2020 first-round pick and a conditional 2021 third-round pick
• Acquired Nolan Foote and a 2020 first-round pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Blake Coleman
• Traded Andy Greene to the New York Islanders for David Quenneville and a 2021 second-round pick
• Acquired Zane McIntyre from the Vancouver Canucks for Louis Domingue
• Traded Wayne Simmonds to the Buffalo Sabres for a 2021 conditional fifth-round pick
• Acquired Janne Kuokkanen, Fredrik Claesson and a 2020 conditional fourth-round pick from the Carolina Hurricanes for Sami Vatanen

Season Overview:

Even though they missed the playoffs last season, there were moderately high expectations surrounding the Devils heading into this year. After all, they still had Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier and they were adding Jack Hughes in the NHL Draft. Former general manager Ray Shero also made a splash when he acquired P.K. Subban from Nashville for next to nothing.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the Devils flopped this season. Subban looks like a shell of his former self. Hughes showed flashes of brilliance in his rookie season, but he didn’t appear to be ready for the NHL. Overall, it just didn’t work.

Shero was allowed to make the Hall trade with Arizona in December, but he ended up getting fired later on in the year. Yes, they were on track to miss the playoffs in back-to-back years, but something clearly happened behind the scenes with the organization and their general manager.

In fairness to interim GM Tom Fitzgerald, he did a remarkably good draft leading up the trade deadline. He was able to acquire some youth and some more draft capital. Whether or not he gets the job on a full-time basis remains to be seen.

But whoever the next GM is will have to determine how much longer this rebuild needs to go. The Devils have been lucky to win two draft lotteries over the last few years, but it doesn’t look like they selected franchise players with those picks. No disrespect to Hischier and Hughes, as they’ll both be really effective players for a long time. But they aren’t Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Steven Stamkos or Connor McDavid.

Highlight of the Season:

MacKenzie Blackwood’s improvement throughout the season has to be the highlight of the year for the Devils. He was terrific in February, as he posted a 6-0-1 record with a 1.27 goals-against-average and a .967 save percentage (he gave up nine goals in seven games).

More:
Devils’ biggest surprises and disappointments so far
What is the Devils’ long-term outlook?

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.