New Jersey Devils: CBA Through 2025-26 Is Great News

The New Jersey Devils benefit greatly from the new CBA extension.

The New Jersey Devils have to be one of the teams that are the most thrilled that the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League players association have agreed on an extension to the current collective bargaining agreement. They are agreed to be collectively bargained through the 2025-26 season which is great news for a lot of the younger teams that have a long way to go in their development.

The goal is for there to never be a lockout during the developmental years of their young players like Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. It was bad enough that they are having to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 right at the beginning of their careers. They aren’t going to play hockey for a while but it should be back soon enough.

The NHL last had a lockout in the 2012-2013 season and they only played a 48 game schedule as a result. That was a tough year, especially for the Devils who missed out on the playoffs after winning the Eastern Conference the year before because of one bad streak in the short season. Things weren’t the same for them after that year.

This team needs to continue to grow their game and add young players. That makes the upcoming years as valuable for the organization as ever. They are going to continue to get younger as they have a lot of great draft capital coming up so those guys are going to need development just as much as the guys who are currently there. If you threw a lockout in the middle of that development, that would be no good for those young players.

This deal eliminates that from happening. They are going to return to play (COVID-19 willing) on August 1st and finish the Stanley Cup playoffs in two hub cities. Then, the hope is that they are able to have a normal 82 game schedule next season, no matter when that begins. This news is great for all hockey fans but New Jersey Devils fans should be especially excited.