Devils' finishing woes have seemingly started to disappear

One problem that has plagued the Devils for quite some time -- perhaps even more so than goaltending in recent seasons -- is finishing. Year after year, New Jersey seems to find itself at or near the bottom of the league in terms of converting their chances into actual goals, consistently underproducing their expected goal (xG) totals.

Last season alone, the Devils were far and away the worst in the league in goals scored above expected (GAx), scoring 37.4 fewer goals than expected. For reference, second-worst only scored 23.5 goals below expected in 2025-26, which is a gigantic disparity. By far, the Devils converted at the worst clip of anyone in the league, largely thanks to their second-worst 9.3% shooting percentage.

One season prior, the Devils were the eighth-worst finishing team in the league in terms of GAx (-18.8). Under Sheldon Keefe, the finishing just has not been there.

That held true for the beginning of this season, too, where the Devils were a bottom-three team in finishing once again for the first handful of games.

The New Jersey Devils are finally finishing their chances

The good news? They're rapidly on the up-and-up, and the results are starting to normalize. There has been some expected positive regression from the likes of Jack Hughes and Arseny Gritsyuk (perhaps unsustainably so in No. 81's case), and the additions of Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista have been positives for their overall finishing outlook so far. As it currently stands, the Devils are 15th in the league in GAx, still converting at a lower-than-expected rate (-1.4), but quickly approaching their expected results.

New Jersey has had games with five or more goals four times in their first 12 games, all of which have helped tremendously in getting their actual goals to mirror their expected goals in the aggregate.

Even better, there is reason to believe that there is more in the tank. Jack Hughes is still due for more goals, as are Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier. The power play as a whole has a bottom-three shooting percentage (9.7%) and the league's worst GAx, so that too is due for some positive regression considering the talent on the team.

All signs point to this meteoric rise continuing -- it wouldn't be surprising at all to see the Devils be an above-average finishing team come season's end.