We lost 2 quality D men in Mikkelsen and Register (with offensive upside too) and replaced them with bang average players who I would argue are “solid” at best In Crawford and Thompson - and Jardine just hasn’t got going really for whatever reason. Louis and Batch, well we know what we're getting from those guys and as a 3rd D pairing, you can’t complain really about them. Add to that inconsistent goaltending, a misfiring attack and a rookie coaching set up and you've got this pretty poor Devils team at the moment, who struggled to qualify in the CC and aren't exactly setting the league alight either. The one very good forward line we had, well we had to split that up to cover for the inadequacies of Reid and Crandall and DuPont doesn’t seem to know what to do with Joey Martin. It's a bit of a mess.