New Jersey Devils: How High Can Kyle Palmieri Go?

New Jersey Devils forward Kyle Palmieri is in the midst of a career season despite the issues plaguing his team. How good can he be this season?

Kyle Palmieri started the 2018-19 season for the New Jersey Devils as the hottest skater in the entire league. That’s right, not Connor McDavid nor Patrick Laine or anyone else in the league was scoring like Palmieri was in the first two weeks. Obviously, scoring seven goals in the first four games is not a sustainable stat, but it sure was fun.

Palmieri ended October with an average of one goal per game, ending the month with a total of nine. It was great to see, as Palmieri was helping carry one of the best lines in hockey along with Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier.

Then November happened, and everything seemed to fall apart. Palmieri scored just three goals in 15 games, and we all now how the Devils record looked. It was about as bad as it possibly could be. The Devils couldn’t get goals when they needed them, and it ended with a lot of losses.

Things are going a little bit better in December, especially for Palmieri. He has five goals in six games. The Devils are 2-0-1 when he scores this month, and probably should be 3-0 if it wasn’t for three own goals.

Timo Meier and Cam Atkinson are the only two players who’ve played 30 games or less and have more than 17 goals. Palmieri is on pace for 46 goals this season. That’s an insane stat, and we can’t predict that’s where he will end up, but with his hot streak back on how high can he go?

Can Palmieri actually hit 40 goals this year? He just turned 27 years old, so he’s technically in his prime right now. It should last another season or two, and the Devils should cherish it while it is happening. I don’t want to say the sky is the limit for Palmieri, because there is a limit for him, but he has a high ceiling.

Palmieri can easily get to 35 goals. The way he’s been shooting the puck, his accuracy is off the charts. It will be extremely hard to keep his 18.3% shooting percentage. During his only 30 goal season three years ago, he shot 13.5%.

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He’s currently on pace to take a career-high 254 shots this season. It’s not out of the realm of possibility the Devils allow him to continue his three-shots-per-game pace.

If Palmieri shoots his average with the Devils, which is around 13.5%, with his current shot pace he will end the season with 38 goals. As long as Palmieri doesn’t get injured, that’s extremely doable.

Asking him to shoot over 18 percent for the rest of the season is a little unrealistic. There are some crazy shooting percentages out there, but they are coming from Auston Matthews and Elias Peterson. Those are two of the biggest budding superstars in the league. However, even if his shooting percentage evens out, he can still hit career highs in almost every stat.

Even with helpers, Palmieri is on pace for 30 assists. That would also be a career high for him. With Hall coming back soon, and should get scoring any day now, one could conceivably think Palms could hit 35 assists.

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I think that’s where he will land this season. 35 goals and 35 assists for his first 70 point season. With those numbers, the Devils must be extremely happy with his $4.65 million cap hit. It’s one of the best contracts in the league for a player not on his entry-level contract. He’s been great for this team, and is going to break most of his career highs barring injury.

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