New Jersey Devils: Dawson Mercer’s Big Night Comes With Concerns

It was the living equivalent of the “he’s already dead” meme from The Simpsons. Team Canada just put a depleted Germany team through a beating on Saturday night. Germany was missing multiple players, and they had to go into the game trying to piece together a lineup. Meanwhile, Canada has some of the best players in the world all playing at the same time.

This led to Canada taking a 12-1 lead going into the 3rd period (sorry, I’m not waiting until the end of this game), and at the time New Jersey Devils prospect Dawson Mercer had four points. He was really good, even taking the terrible German team into account. His first goal was a beauty wrap around after stealing the puck from the goalie. He positioned himself well. He was making the right passes and taking the right shots.

Still, there is one major thing that concerns us about his performance. Well, this has more to do with his “lack” of performance.

It’s one game. Not even. It’s two periods in one game. However, when Kirby Dach went down with an injury, the hope was it would really help Mercer get more opportunities. However, it looks like the opposite is happening.

It’s crazy efficient that he had a point on 40% of his shifts, even against Tim Stützle and a German beer league team. It’s absolutely wonderful that he put up stats, even in a meaningless game against a do-nothing opponent. However, the long-term issue here is ice time. Mercer needs to get more ice time for this tournament to actually help his development.

Hopefully, this has something to do with it being the first game of the tournament. Mercer was supposed to be on a line with Quinton Byfield and Jakob Pelletier. Instead, he’s been roaming lines as an extra forward. He needs to have a better spot in this lineup, even if the lineup is absolutely stacked.