New Jersey’s depth has fueled their devilishly hot start

With a 6-1-0 record, the New Jersey Devils stand alone at the top of the Metropolitan Division with 12 points.

It’s been a remarkable start for the club, coming off a Game 5 loss in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. They’ve managed to do so with injuries to guys like Stefan Noesen and Johnathan Kovacevic – two notable contributors when healthy. But that’s because the team’s depth is getting the job done. A total of 10 players have at least four points through seven games, with five having at least six.

That’s the type of depth that wins you games, as Daily Faceoff Live’s Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discussed on Thursday:

Tyler Yaremchuk: “The offense has been very noticeable for the Devils. They’re top 10 in scoring chances generated at five-on-five, and top five in goals at five-on-five. They have seven different players who have two or more even-strength goals this year. I went and looked through a bunch of the other good offensive teams to start the season. None of them had more than five. The (Vegas) Golden Knights only had three. The fact that you can look up and down this lineup and find guys who are contributing or have contributed multiple times to the five-on-five scoring, that’s reason to believe that this might be sustainable.

“They’re not going to win six out of every seven. There’s going to be a tough stretch here and there. And I know a lot of people had the Devils as a playoff team as well. But when you start to compare them now to some other teams in the Eastern Conference and with some other teams who’ve had slow starts, they might be closer to No. 1 seed territory, where a lot of people had them maybe like No. 6-7 seed territory.”

Carter Hutton: I do believe in that. And I think there’s also the maturity of this lineup. Nico (Hischier)… he fills a lot of minutes. He does a great job. And Jack Hughes, obviously, the superstar he is now, it comes down to health for these guys. In my mind, as I look back on the last few seasons, Hughes being healthy, what he can produce – we got to see him score a hat trick the other night firsthand – but just what he creates and how much attention he draws in a lineup. And all of a sudden you start getting better matchups in other areas because of what Jack Hughes brings to the table.

“Without him, you can scatter that a bit, which is important for a team when you’re talking about slotting and you’re talking about minutes. Then the other factor for me in this lineup is on their D-core with Dougie Hamilton staying healthy as well. He is still a big piece that can eat up a lot of minutes, spread it out. They have a big back end in that sense. So I think for him, being healthy as we move on for this Devils team is going to be a big example of how they can maintain this Metro Division lead.”

The rest of the episode can be found below: