Coming off a 70-point last-place finish, New Jersey doubled down. The Devils chose Nico Hischier first overall (over Nolan Patrick) and traded a pair of 2018 picks to Washington for 26-year-old Marcus Johansson. Washington's consistently productive forward has two years left on a reasonably cap-friendly contract ($4.583 million per) and had a career season in 2016-17 with 24 goals and 34 assists in 82 games. He had at least 44 points in each of his last four seasons. Add in Taylor Hall, and the Devils are not likely to repeat their paltry goal total of a season ago (183). They did, however, suffer a blow with the recent news that top center Travis Zajac will miss four to six months because of an injury.