The Devils have a MASSIVE decision to make...

The Devils have a massive decision to make with one player looking to make his season debut, another one feeling better. How do you incorporate them into a lineup that's already found chemistry, sometimes struggles to finish, or do you incorporate them at all? Welcome in to Devils Digest. Appreciate you guys being here today. Always love when you guys hit the subscribe button, stick around, talk some more Devils hockey. It helps out the channel a ton. likes don't hurt too much either now Amanda Stein reported from practice today Connor Brown and Luca Evangelista were both on the ice for Devils practice look Luca Evangelista uh you know wasn't feeling good Sheldon Keefe saying today he feels good talked to him looked good in practice and I expect him to give us a little push tomorrow Devils are against Colorado Avalanche tomorrow now it's pretty clear Luca Evangelista is going to be back in this lineup i mean you go and you look how he's already fit with this team i mean clear chemistry with Meyer and he's sure i mean that was one of the lines that was going every single night and Luca Evangelista has already scored three times this year he's clearly someone the Devils wanting to line up he's clearly a good add from sunny meta his thing was was to put pucks in a danger scoring chances and that's what he's and the thing that was maybe you know you kind of thought might not work or you know maybe he struggled a little bit was in terms of finishing well he scored three times so it's clear Luke Evangelista works with this lineup and when you look down this lineup there are a lot of things that work I mean so far putting our sending good stuff with Jack Hughes and Jasper Pratt has worked perfectly fourth line best fourth line we've had in years I mean there's a ton of things here that have worked now the thing that maybe all of a sudden doesn't feel as good is the consistency because you know you have Detroit and the New York Rangers you scored 12 goals in two games and you go into Washington and you score one, we saw the New York Islanders game, no goals offense, you know struggled to score a little bit more in the beginning of the year so there are things that clearly you know haven't worked even if the numbers say it is working and it's going to work and I do believe that you know this team's gonna start scoring more and more consistently there's a question, well could we upgrade it, could we maybe do a little bit better and that's where you think about Connor Brown, how does Connor Brown play into this team, well looking at his numbers from last year, I mean he had 18 goals last year, 43 points, he played in the bottom six I mean or that's probably where you want to put him I know sometimes he was up with Jack Hughes but realistically this is more bottom six so where does he fit in the bottom six, well fourth line best fourth line they've had in years, I mean that's one line you can't get away from and when you think about Sonny Mehta and what he's trying to do this offseason, trying to find more goals well his fourth line is from two ads, Jesper Boqvist, Lombardi, I mean you had two ads from Sonny Mehta be playing on your fourth line Cody Glass I mean look all last year they couldn't figure out fourth line center, Sonny Mehta's figured it out because he went and got Evan Rodriguez to be their third line center so it's clear he had envisioned this fourth line, so where would Connor Brown come into play right now if you wanted to do it, well I think there's one player who probably would be the one to come into the lineup and that's Dawson Mercer, well you look at Dawson Mercer so far this year he hasn't scored yet um you know when he's on the ice Devils don't do as well in terms of getting chances now you could say look it's jumbled up these aren't bad numbers whatsoever it's just this team finds ways to score and if this team's finding ways to score um you know there's got to be somebody coming out and fourth line really good Evangelista's Definitely coming back in, playing on that second line. You know, Nason coming out of the lineup. I think, you know, that's where Evangelista comes in, Nason back out. Arseny Grintchuk, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt. Well, yeah, that works. So there's only really a few select players you could pick from. You could pick, well, you know, that line, you know, not as much. Third line, not as much. Well, Evan Rodriguez, I mean, he's in there. And you can put Cody Glass on your fourth line. So just playing process of elimination, it pretty much comes down to, if you want to do this, you take out Dawson Mercer. Now, the other scenario here is you just wait on Connor Brown's season debut. Look, this offense so far, I know they've been inconsistent. I know that, you know, the goals aren't always there every single night. This offense so far is one of the best in the league, and it's going to keep trending that way because with how often they're scoring, look, if you're top in expected goals and you're top in Corsi, that's going to change okay those things are going to even out you're not going to keep you know getting these one goal games you're going to get you know those more three four goal games a lot more often than you get that one goal game it's just not going to keep going in that trending direction so when you think about it here you know first line works second line comes goes back to working when Evangelista's back fourth line that's been the best i've had in years you know you start playing with how you can switch up this lineup it looks like it'd be Dawson Mercer or Connor Brown and when you think Connor Brown last year you know 18 goals 25 assists Dawson Mercer I think adds a little bit of extra skill to this team I don't think you change it I think you keep it how it is obviously Evangelista in for Stefan Noesen, Nason comes out Evangelista in second line back together um that's the lines this lineup seems like it's working like they are going to score more I know you're not always seeing it right now but it's going to score more and when you really leverage it taking out a guy like Dawson Mercer for Connor Brown who scored 18 times does it really make a ton of sense because we know at some point Connor Brown's gonna get into the lineup but do you really need to do it are you forced into doing it right now I don't see why you would be because you bring Evangelista back second line back together your first line you figure that out you know when you start to think how this lineup comes together it doesn't feel like you're forced into it doesn't feel like you know Connor Brown has to come back in the lineup now we don't know if he's going to be you know even available tomorrow he practiced he's been practicing again um but it doesn't feel like you're in a rush if he is available tomorrow that you have to go ahead and change things up you can keep it as it is fourth line's working you're not going to take out one of your fourth line players for Connor Brown you're not really going to touch your top two lines so your third line fourth line Connor Brown that's his skill set right now third line fourth line fourth line you're not touching third line well if you want Evan Rodriguez in in you know you can keep Cody Glass your fourth line center well you kind of look Mercer Mantha well Mantha was just brought in I think there's a good chance that they keep it together that's what i would do let me know what you think down in the comments though who would you take out do you put Connor Brown in do you make him wait let me know in the comments i always appreciate when you guys hit the subscribe button and i'll see you guys all really soon