Devils just getting started, Woll's stock trending up, and 4 other NHL items

New Jersey Devils players woke up Friday without a game on the schedule for the first time in seven months. It surely felt horrible to challenge the shorthanded Carolina Hurricanes in the second round but ultimately drop Game 5 and the series in overtime. Losing always sucks.

Give those players a few days, though, and the entirety of a wildly successful season should come into focus. The 2022-23 Devils set franchise records in wins and points. Center Jack Hughes leveled up from star to superstar. They beat the rival New York Rangers in the first round. Most crucially, they experienced the highs and lows of playoff hockey as a group.

Josh Lavallee / Getty Images

This is only the beginning for New Jersey. Hughes, 21, and captain and Selke Trophy finalist Nico Hischier, 24, combine to cost only $15.25 million over the next four seasons. That's a dream scenario under next year's $83.5-million cap limit, and the sweetheart deals will get only sweeter as the limit rises.

Ondrej Palat, Dawson Mercer, and Michael McLeod - the latter of whom had a coming-out party in the playoffs - provide an enviable base for the supporting cast up front. The defense corps is in capable hands with veterans Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, and John Marino under contract through 2026-27. The goalie duo of Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid isn't ideal but is competent enough and signed at a combined $4.25 million cap hit. And youngsters Alexander Holtz, Simon Nemec, and Luke Hughes - the latter looked both 19 years old and brilliant in three playoff games - all have star potential.

Rich Graessle / Getty Images

Otherwise, general manager Tom Fitzgerald has a good dozen decisions to make on free agents. The unrestricted class - Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar, Miles Wood, Damon Severson, and Ryan Graves - is a mixed bag, with the smart money on only one or two guys returning. The restricted class - Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, McLeod, Kevin Bahl, Nathan Bastian, Jesper Boqvist, Yegor Sharangovich, and Mackenzie Blackwood - is naturally more straightforward.

The beauty of Fitzgerald keeping the books clear of albatross contracts while also locking up cornerstones on team-friendly deals is that New Jersey can tolerate imminent raises for 32-goal scorer Bratt and 40-goal scorer Meier. Fitzgerald can theoretically run back the same core and upgrade the club's depth pieces through free agency or trade. He has flexibility most GMs don't.

The Devils project to be the toast of the Metropolitan Division for years to come. They're one of a handful of teams across the entire league with an NHL roster, prospect pool, and cap sheet that screams future powerhouse.

Nothing to hang your head about, Jersey.

Woll's stock trending up Eliot J. Schechter / Getty Images

Regardless of what happens in Friday's Game 5 between Toronto and Florida, one thing appears certain: the Maple Leafs finally developed a goaltender.

Joseph Woll, a third-round pick in 2016, turned aside 24 of 25 shots in Wednesday's Game 4 to improve his career save percentage to .921. The Panthers didn't test him often in his first career playoff start and 14th overall appearance, but the 24-year-old still looked like he belonged in an NHL crease.

Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, who opted to start Woll over two-time Stanley Cup winner Matt Murray in the wake of No. 1 goalie Ilya Samsonov's injury, said Woll is "ready for this." In the context of the big-market Leafs, "this" is the immense pressure associated with coming in cold while trailing in a series.

"He's dialed in, and he's just a really, really focused kid," Bruce Racine, Woll's former goalie coach in the St. Louis area, said via phone Thursday.

Joel Auerbach / Getty Images

Racine, who's known Woll for 16 years, coaching him for the first 10 or so, praises the 6-foot-3, 203-pound goalie for his size, technical base, athleticism, and work ethic. It's all there. Yet Woll's edge is his mental makeup. He takes criticism well. He's intelligent on and off the ice. He's learned how to quickly get over bad goals and bad outings. He's calm, meditating between whistles.

One time, Racine gifted a young Woll a mental toughness packet: three pieces of paper stapled together containing lessons on mindset. For instance, if a coach is running a three-on-zero drill in practice, it's natural for a goalie to think, 'Oh my god, I hate this.' A healthier inner dialogue might be, 'OK, this is a tough drill, and I'm going to fight through it, no matter what.'

Woll, it turns out, cherished those three pages. "His mom told me a year and a half later that it's been on his bedside table the whole time," Racine said.

Put another way: So much of the goaltending position is mental, and Woll is advanced for his age. (Much like his former goalie partner Jake Oettinger.)

The Leafs haven't turned a draft pick into an NHL starter since James Reimer, a fourth-round selection in 2006. Woll, a Boston College alumnus with two world junior medals and 83 AHL games of experience, isn't quite ready for the No. 1 job, but he's tracking towards claiming it down the road. He's a bargain, too, signed for the next two years at $766,667 annually.

Endless respect for Cogliano

Injuries defined the 2022-23 Avalanche campaign, and next season is already off to a miserable start, with captain Gabriel Landeskog ruled out for 2023-24.

Andrew Cogliano is another Av with an uncertain future. The 35-year-old winger suffered a fractured neck in Game 6 of Colorado's first-round series loss to the Seattle Kraken. He was considered "out indefinitely" at the time and entered the offseason without a contract for 2023-24. Cogliano's endured plenty of wear and tear over 1,200-plus games spread across 16 seasons.

Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty Images

If this is it: Bravo.

Cogliano, the 25th overall pick in 2005, has an impeccable reputation. His teammates love him. Coaches love him. Rivals love him (as much as one loves a rival). And he's adapted his game over the years, becoming a pseudo-defensive specialist while bouncing from Edmonton to Anaheim, Dallas, and San Jose, before landing in Colorado. Prior to the 2022 trade deadline, Avs star Nathan MacKinnon reportedly lobbied management to acquire Cogliano.

At the end of the regular season, I poked around NHL dressing rooms to find out what makes a "good room." Figuring the wily vet would be an expert on the topic, I made sure to approach Cogliano when Colorado visited Toronto.

"Selflessness. That's probably the biggest thing, to be honest with you," Cogliano said matter of factly on March 15. "It's a business. It's a sport where you have to take care of yourself individually. That stuff matters. But a good room - a good team culture - comes when you get guys who are selfless and through their actions show that the team is more important than themselves."

Dustin Bradford / Getty Images

To many, Cogliano embodies that selflessness through his commitment to the sport, once dressing for 830 consecutive games. He's long embraced the less desirable aspects of the job, like absorbing slap shots on the penalty kill.

"I remember last year watching the Stanley Cup when Colorado won, and so many of the guys who had been on that team for a while talked about how Cogliano had such a big impact," Detroit Red Wings forward Alex Chiasson said, bringing up Cogliano unprompted when discussing good rooms.

"He was traded at the deadline. He came into a new team. Yet they singled him out in interviews. That speaks for itself. He was playing 10 minutes a night. He knew his role. A lot of experience. But how much of his impact in the room translated to the ice? I'm sure that was really big, just because in such a short amount of time, he became so important to the rest of that group."

Parting shots

Defenseman factory: The Anaheim Ducks are likely taking forward Adam Fantilli second overall in June. It'll be more riveting to watch who they select with their other eight picks because Anaheim has an outstanding track record of drafting and developing blue-liners, regardless of draft slot. From 2008-18, the Ducks drafted Hampus Lindholm (sixth overall), Cam Fowler (12th), Jake Gardiner (17th), Shea Theodore (26th), Marcus Pettersson (38th), Justin Schultz (43rd), Brandon Montour (55th), Sami Vatanen (106th), and Josh Manson (160th). One day we might look at the 2019-22 cohort of Jamie Drysdale, Jackson LaCombe, Noah Warren, Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Tristan Luneau just as fondly. Mintyukov (OHL), Zellweger (WHL), and Luneau (QMJHL) won their league's top defenseman award this year, making Anaheim incredibly the first NHL team to sweep all three in a single season.

Olen Zellweger's WHL season:

Regular Season (55GP): 32G, 80PTS
Playoffs (14GP): 11G, 29PTS

WJC Gold
WHL Defenseman of the Year (2nd consecutive win)

And the Memorial Cup still awaits.

- /Cam Robinson/ (@Hockey_Robinson) May 9, 2023

Road-ice advantage: As of Friday morning, road teams in this year's playoffs owned a 39-29 record (a 57.4% win rate) and were being outscored by a single goal, 218-217. Last postseason, road teams went 35-54 (39.3% win rate) and were outscored significantly, 309-244. I'd love to say there's a seismic shift unfolding before our eyes, however, road teams' success this year might be an anomaly. You should always want the home-team benefit of last change and a favorable crowd. The wonky numbers probably speak more to the league's parity - the home team isn't necessarily the better team, but the one that cobbled together a few extra points over a long regular season.

That last 5 minutes of that #Oilers #VGK playoff game was as old school hockey as I've seen in an @NHL game in a while. I think that ending helps EDM headed into the next game, on the road. Can't wait.

- Aaron Ward (@NHL_AaronWard) May 11, 2023

Flyers hires: Philadelphia ownership is following a familiar playbook by hiring Keith Jones as its president of hockey operations and making Daniel Briere the permanent GM. Briere, who paid his dues as a minor-league executive and is by all accounts a sharp hockey mind, deserves to be the full-time GM. No issues there. Tapping a second ex-Flyer for the president's role is the eyebrow-raising part. The club could have brought in somebody with a deep hockey ops resume or track record of strong leadership in other fields to diversify the front office. Jones is a straight-up "hockey guy." That said, I don't hate the hire given the uniqueness of the Philly market and that Jones, a longtime broadcaster, has connections everywhere. Yes, there are inherent risks in again handing the keys to ex-players and an old-school coach in John Tortorella, but this isn't a guaranteed tire fire, as some suggest.

Danny Briere's NHL debut (March 19, 1998) came against Keith Jones, who was on the Avalanche.

Briere was on the Coyotes. His assistant coach was John Tortorella.

Now, all three are running the Flyers together.

- Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) May 11, 2023

Takes, Thoughts, and Trends is theScore's biweekly hockey grab bag.

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email (john.matisz@thescore.com).

Copyright (C) 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.