2025-2026 NHL team preview: New Jersey Devils

LAST SEASON

It was a tale of two seasons for the New Jersey Devils of 2024-25. Before Jacob Markstrom hurt his knee during a collision with a then-Boston Bruins forward Justin Brazeau on Jan. 22, the Devils had the eighth-most points in the NHL. Markstrom, former Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe, and perhaps the deepest blueline in the Eastern Conference had helped steer Jersey to the league’s fifth-best defense (2.50 team GAA) through 50 games.

The Devils sputtered to a 6-5 mark during Markstrom’s month-long absence before the wheels fell off completely during the veteran goalie’s first game back. Star centerman Jack Hughes slid hard into the boards during that March 2 bout with Vegas, busting his shoulder and ending his season. Without Hughes to prop up their nonexistent scoring depth, and with Markstrom unable to regain his pre-injury form at the other end of the ice, the Devils picked up just 19 points from their remaining 20 games.

New Jersey’s anemic form without Hughes (9th-worst PTS% after 3/2) was good enough to limp to a 91-point finish and third-place in the wretched ‘Metro,’ the NHL’s weakest division. The injury-ravaged Devils, who lost Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon to injury in Game 1, fought valiantly but futilely over five games and four overtime periods, falling to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Devils still have a promising core in the brothers Hughes, Swedish playmaker Jesper Bratt, captain Nico Hischier, and a host of standout D-men. They just need to stay healthy, but then again, we said the same thing last offseason. Will bad luck continue to derail the Devils’ future, which looked so promising after 112 points and a series win in 2022-23?

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions

Arseni Gritsyuk, LW
Connor Brown, RW
Evgenii Dadonov, RW
Kevin Rooney, C (PTO)
Luke Glendening, C (PTO)

Departures

Erik Haula, C (Nsh)
Tomas Tatar, RW (Swi.)
Brian Dumoulin, D (LA)
Curtis Lazar, C (Edm)
Justin Dowling, C (NYR)
Nathan Bastian, RW (Dal)

OFFENSE

New Jersey finished 13th in scoring despite a dreadful second half (2.63 G/GP, third-worst), evidence of a dangerous attack before the season went haywire. Much of the Devils’ early effectiveness was built on the chemistry between the elder Hughes, who uses his blistering speed to create a high volume of chances (4 shots per game since 2022, fifth-most in NHL), and Bratt, a silky playmaker who led the team in points (88) and finished fifth overall in helpers (67).

Brawny Swiss forwards Hischier and Timo Meier anchor the second unit. Hischier, a former first-overall pick like Jack Hughes, is a tireless grinder and elite faceoff man (54.6% since 2020) who has quietly become a steady 30-goal scorer. His countryman Meier is also a handful (26 G, 141 hits), and has controlled more than 57% of scoring chances during his ice time with Hischier since coming over from San Jose. 

Unfortunately for New Jersey, the list of impact forwards ended there. Netfront grinder Stefan Noesen’s career-best offensive numbers were a bit misleading: 16 of his 22 goals came before Christmas. Ondrej Palat showed some flashes in the playoffs on the Hischier line, but doesn’t have much left from his glory days in Tampa (34 P per 82 GP for NJ). There are six million reasons he’ll get at least one more kick at the can in the top nine.

Fitzgerald spent his summer targeting depth guys who will give speedy third-line center Dawson Mercer something to work with, even if they don’t shake up the top six. Connor Brown can skate and kill penalties even when the points aren’t there, while 36-year-old Evgenii Dadonov doesn’t need much ice time (13:32 ATOI) to fill up the score sheet (20 G, 40 P). The duo looks a lot more promising than anything the Devils had in the bottom six last season, though Jersey fans know better than most how quickly veterans can go bad; Tomas Tatar and Erik Haula were fine until they weren’t.

On the blueline, Dougie Hamilton is eager to show he’s still one of the most dangerous power-play QBs in the sport after injuries limited him to 84 games (14 G, 56 P) over the past two seasons. Luke Hughes (49 P per 82 GP), meanwhile, will push hard to unseat the veteran as the team’s top offensive puck mover.

DEFENSE

If the Devils’ blueline looks formidable in the lineup our graphics team put together, remember to factor in big Johnathan Kovacevic, a gritty stay-at-home defenseman who will spend the first few months of his new contract recovering from offseason knee surgery. Even without his surprise breakout player of 2024-25, Sheldon Keefe is loaded for bear along the back line. 

Luke Hughes made huge strides on defense in his first season for Keefe, using his elite recovery speed (97th percentile in top speed among D, 98th in 20 mph+ bursts) to break up plays in transition. Hughes’s veteran partner Brett Pesce stood out as a warrior in the futile playoff effort against his old team (18 blocks in 5 GP), but he does his best defending when he’s denying the zone and getting pucks out quickly. The burgeoning pairing came on down the stretch even as the team struggled and will enter next season as the top unit for NJ. 

Injuries ended Hamilton’s days as top dog on Jersey’s blueline (19:51 ATOI, lowest since 2019), but he still has plenty of utility as a top-four puckmover and power-play ace. Brenden Dillon, a veteran blueline enforcer who skated with Hamilton in all 64 of his regular season appearances, did well babysitting Hamilton on defense, where his occasional gaffes are almost as famous as his devastating one timer. The pairing won its minutes 43-33 with solid metrics and should stick together. 

That leaves Jonas Siegenthaler, who spent last season across from Kovacevic, to team up with former No. 2 pick Simon Nemec. Nemec played the best hockey of his career during a three-game postseason cameo (2 P, +2, 20:40 ATOI), a level the organization is desperate to see more of. Siegenthaler suffers frequent injuries due to his fearless play (52 missed games since 2023), but his steady game (55.77% expected-goal share, best among Devils’ D) should help Nemec unlock his potential. If the mercurial 24-year-old can’t do that before Kovacevic returns, he’s coming to a Daily Faceoff trade board near you.

The Devils will get extra defense up front from Palat, Brown, and, of course, Hischier, a two-time top-four finisher for the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top two-way forward. A major cog in New Jersey’s second-ranked PK (82.7%), Hischier will win the thing one day if Aleksander Barkov ever takes a year off.

GOALTENDING

It’s not fair to judge Markstrom by his year-end stats (.900 SV%), which downplay a successful first season in the Garden State for the 35-year-old. Markstrom came as advertised before his knee injury, stabilizing the Prudential Center crease with his rare combination of size and post-to-post explosiveness (2.20 GAA, .912 SV% before 1/23). When the veteran rushed back into action to help his floundering club reach the playoffs, he ended up doing more harm than good (5-7-1, .869 SV% after 3/1). There was some thought that ‘Marky’ could lose the crease to platoonmate Jake Allen for the Carolina series. Instead, the Swede turned it around to the tune of a .911 SV% and put his injury woes firmly in the rearview. Markstrom is Jersey’s unquestioned opening night starter, and a high-end one at that.

Allen was much better than his 13-16-1 record showed, and was slated to become the top free agent goalie in a bear market. Instead, the former St. Louis Blue preferred to stay put with a five-year contract that will last the remainder of his 30s. The bargain $1.8-million AAV and bizarre length reek of cap circumvention, but maybe the Devils really think Allen can last that long. They know he can deal with a backup’s workload (2.66 GAA, .906 SV% in 31 GP), and, with just one 40-start season since 2019, Allen has fewer hard miles on him than the average 35-year-old netminder.

COACHING

Keefe’s first year as an NHL bench boss outside of the Toronto media cauldron had many of the hallmarks of his time with the Leafs. They finished in the top five of most major puck control stats throughout Keefe’s tenure, and the Devils quickly jumped into the top 10 in expected-goal and (51.38%) scoring-chance share (52.33%) under his tutelage.

There were other, less favorable parallels with Keefe’s stint in Toronto, where his teams became synonymous with collapses. In Keefe’s maiden voyage in New Jersey, there weren’t any flubbed Game 7s, but the Devils nonetheless seemed to lose heart when the going got tough, even before Jack Hughes went down. If anything, their slow death in the second half of the season (18-19-4) was more damning than any one ill-timed loss of focus. To Keefe and his men’s credit, they didn’t roll over against Carolina despite countless injuries.

Intangible questions will persist for this team until they cash in on their major talent and go on a deep run (sound familiar?), but the X’s and O’s concepts were strong: both special teams finished in the top three. That made it surprising when Keefe and Fitzgerald moved on from defensive assistant Ryan McGill. In his place comes Brad Shaw, who worked wonders on the Flyers’ talent-deficient blueline over three seasons and was disappointed to miss out on the top job in Philly. 

ROOKIES

The Devils don’t pump out Calder candidates like they used to, but they’ll still have at least one pro prospect to watch at either end of the ice. On offense, winger Arseny Gritsyuk, a fifth-rounder from back in 2019, signed over the summer after a lengthy and productive KHL stint (68 G, 152 P in 216 GP). A 5’10 175-pounder, Gritsyuk is a classic example of a top-six-or-bust option. The Russian has little chance of sticking in a checking role, and will apparently only suffer an AHL assignment in Utica for “two, maybe three months at most.” You can’t knock his confidence.

On the blueline, Seamus Casey has managed to avoid handing out ultimatums and looks like a future weapon on the power-play as a slick, undersized puckmover. Casey scored four goals and eight points in nonexistent ice time (12:39 ATOI) during his 12-game NHL cameo last season. Casey has only 42 pro games under his belt and can be stashed in Utica for a while longer. He might have to do some waiting there; Pesce, Hamilton, Kovacevic, and Nemec are the righties ahead of him on the depth chart.

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. What (or where) comes next for Dougie Hamilton? Nabbing Hamilton in free agency was a watershed moment for the Devils, an announcement that they were serious about getting out of the basement. Fast forward four years, and Hamilton’s $9-million cap hit doesn’t make quite as much sense for the club as it used to, especially as RFA Luke Hughes remains unsigned ahead of camp. With Nemec waiting in the wings and Hughes seemingly ready to take over the power play, New Jersey is one of the few teams that could stand to part with a right-sided player of Hamilton’s caliber. Is there a club out there that needs blue linehelp, is willing to dangle a top-six forward, and isn’t on Hamilton’s 10-team no-trade list? It doesn’t look that way for now, but Fitzgerald has gotten creative before.

2. Is Jack Hughes going to be OK at center? The quick and easy answer is “of course.” Hughes is a center, and a darn good one. Much of his explosive transition offense comes from bombing up the middle of the ice in a way that isn’t possible for outside players. The counterpoint is that the beating the rail-thin Hughes takes up the middle might slowly strip away that explosiveness. He’s missed 20 games to injury in each of the past two seasons, and his (still impressive) scoring returns have dwindled from 104.1 P/82 GP in 2021-22, to 97.87 in 2023-24, to 92.58 last season. Hughes was picked first in 2020 to be a franchise center, but would he be more valuable as a healthy, elite winger? It’s not like Keefe would miss his faceoff acumen (career 36 FO%).

3. Is this core good enough to win? Jack Hughes is a special talent. Hischier is the sort of winning player scouts are always trying to unearth. Bratt has gone from a good top-six winger to an elite top-line point producer. The fact that they’re all 26 or younger should make it much easier for Jersey’s ceiling to reach a championship level, but the roster construction is shaky in other places. Palat’s contract is an anchor. Meier was brought in and paid $8.8 million AAV to be an elite goalscorer, and he’s merely a solid second-line winger. Hamilton is arguably surplus to requirements as the team’s top earner ($9-million AAV). Both goalies are 35, and Markstrom needs a new deal. Fitzgerald has never come under serious pressure from the fanbase, but is it possible that he tried to force open a contention window with the wrong players? The homegrown stars look great, but the outside help has hardly been a home run.

PREDICTION

The Devils’ fans don’t dare assume they’ll have an injury-free season, but I have to if I’m going to predict where they’ll end up. In a top-heavy Metropolitan Division, a strong top six and an impressive blue line will be more than enough to hold serve in the automatic spots. A top-two berth (division crown?) should be attainable too; the Washington Capitals can’t rely on outlier individual seasons forever. The real litmus test will be the smothering Hurricanes at the end of the ‘Metro’ bracket.