James Nichols
It must be August. Fans of the New Jersey Devils are chomping at the bit for action, whether it be on the ice or by way of transactions. There’s still about a month left until on-ice activities, and still more to take care of with the roster. However, entering the 2025-26 season, what should the Devils’ expectations be?
READ MORE: Let’s Get Real About the Devils’ Offseason, Roster Thus Far
Let’s be clear, plain, and simple. The Devils should be competing for a championship at this point.
Their goaltending? Rock solid. The blueline? Deep. The forward group? Well, it needs work.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald went out this summer and accomplished what he said he wanted to accomplish. Find depth scoring.
Enter Evgeni Dadonov, Connor Brown, and Arseni Gritsyuk, and the Devils have a fresh look in their bottom-six.
However, and as previously stated, there are some roster holes. They need a top-six forward, and a third-line center. Therefore, that bottom-six doesn’t come without question.
Why?
Right now, Devils’ best option at 3C is Dawson Mercer. That could work, but it’s been a long time since Mercer consistently played down the middle, and has yet to do it regularly at the NHL level. Mercer was drafted as a center out of the QMJHL in 2020. Yet, he’s played the majority of his NHL career on the wing. And the options after Mercer are Cody Glass, Juho Lammikko, and perhaps Thomas Bordeleau and Shane LaChance.
All come with questions.
In the top-six, trying to run back Ondrej Palat with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt for a third straight season would be a mistake, and remains their most pressing need since the departure of Tyler Toffoli.
Still, there’s no denying the Devils have elite talent up front. Obviously Jack Hughes is the face, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier follow, and Timo Meier, although yet to realize his full potential in New Jersey, certainly fits among the elites. The complimentary pieces are satisfactory in Stefan Noesen and Mercer—if he finds his way back to the top-six.
The truth is, the Devils’ expectations should be to compete for a championship. However, they run the risk of being another first-to-second-round exit, leaving those voids unchanged.
The fact of the matter is that injuries are a factor here.
It’s tough to trust they won’t happen again. With a fully healthy lineup as currently constructed, this Devils team can certainly make some noise.
Yet, reflecting on their history, their franchise player has struggled to stay healthy. If Hughes goes down with injury for an extended period of time again, the already thin center depth gets even thinner. And on the wing, it thins out real quick with one injury to a top-six forward.
Fitzgerald has done a good job of boosting the depth scoring. Last summer, he ensured the goaltending and defense would be stable.
The last pieces to the championship contending puzzle are to fill out the voids they currently have on paper. It’s likely only one is viable before the puck drops this fall, and that’s fine. So long as the other is addressed by the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
The Devils’ expectations should be to move from playoff to championship contender. However, barring an unforeseen breakout performance, they’re running the risk of being a three-seed or wild card, who could bow out in one of the first two rounds of the playoffs.
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