Likelihood Current New Jersey Devils Players Make Final Roster
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils made another round of cuts on Tuesday afternoon. Prospects Jack Dugan, Michael Vukojevic, Joseph Gambardella, Tyler Wotherspoon, Robbie Russo, and Jeremy Groleau, along with PTO turned AHL signing Zach Senyshyn, were all cut from the training camp roster and sent to the AHL. That leaves the Devils with 37 players on the roster. The Devils need to get down to 23.
The Devils are pretty set on defense and in net. Unless Jonathan Bernier is somehow miraculously healthy or someone outside Kevin Bahl and Nikita Okhotyuk impresses, we pretty much know the starting lineups from the blue line out. As for the forwards, that’s not clear at all. There are plenty of locks, but it’s becoming more and more apparent who’s standing out in training camp and the preseason.
With that said, This list will focus on the forwards only. There are 20 left on the roster. Let’s see where everyone stands with two preseason games left. Let’s start with the locks. These are players that are making the roster no matter what. Literally, these are 100%.
100%: Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Eric Haula, Miles Wood, Ondrej Palat, Yegor Sharangovich
There are eight players that are in the Devils’ starting lineup. Nothing can stop them from making it this far. Barring an injury, everyone will be in the Devils’ lineup on October 14th. Miles Wood might be the only slight surprise here, but he’s going to be in this lineup somewhere. They have high hopes for what he brings to the table. The team sorely missed him in the lineup last year.