The New Jersey Devils took a one-year hiatus from the FanSided 250, but this year they made it back on this list again!
This is a rough year for the New Jersey Devils and it’s fanbase, but despite the despair and pain that has caused many of us to turn on each other when we disagree, we’ve made it to the FanSided 250!
The FanSided 250 is the annual list by the parent blog of Pucks and Pitchforks ranking the best fanbases in all of sports and pop culture. The Devils came in at 217 on the list, just behind the Philadelphia Flyers, but ahead of such franchises as the Buffalo Sabres, the Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes and the Colorado Avalanche. They ranked 17th out of all NHL teams overall.
In other sports, the Devils beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Angels and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. They honestly beat a ton of teams to sneak into this list.
This team is holding good company. Within ten places of us, we have UFC and WWE superstar Ronda Rousey, the always loved but often heartbreaking New York Mets, the mustache himself Gardner Minshew and the man behind Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda. That’s actually really eclectic company to hold.
This fanbase has been through a lot this season, and it’s about to get even worse with the eventual trade of Taylor Hall. Things are going to get really divided on social media about how the Devils messed up his value and how they feel about the return. This is something nice to come before all that.
Understand this, we may not have the most fans in the league, but these algorithms prove we’re making a splash despite missing the playoffs. This team isn’t the best in the league obviously, but we would put out fans up as some of the most passionate.
It’s like looking at advanced stats. The amount of passion per fan is higher than a lot of the fanbases around the league. We’ll have to ask Micah Blake McCurdy how that translates to a season-long strategy.