4 New Jersey Devils Who Desperately Need Stanley Cup Championship
The New Jersey Devils are famously one of the youngest teams in the league. Their stars are all in the 20-24-year-old age range. Jack Hughes is 21 years old. Nico Hischier is the eldest statesman of the young group, with six years of experience under his belt. He started as a teenager, so he’s still so young. 12 lineup regulars are 25 years of age or younger.
However, the Devils did a good job of adding some veterans. This offseason, Tom Fitzgerald signed Ondrej Palat. He was just in three-straight Stanley Cup Finals, winning two rings. He doesn’t need another Stanley Cup. We’re sure he’d like one, but that’s not what were talking about here.
We are looking into the players who have the desire to prove something, and the only way to do that is with a Cup ring. Hughes and Hischier have years to win Stanley Cups. The veterans on this team might be looking at their best chance.
Some veterans want to extinguish past demons. Others have been with this team so long, and they finally want to see the fruits of their labor. Also, there are the players that multiple teams gave up on, but now he has a chance to prove them wrong with a team that’s more than happy to have him.
4 Devils Who Need Lord Stanley’s Cup: 1. Dougie Hamilton
Dougie Hamilton made the playoffs with three different teams prior to signing with the Devils. He left the Carolina Hurricanes, where he made the playoffs for three straight seasons, to jump onto the blueline of an upstart team. It was a risk because there was no guarantee the Devils were going to hit. Look at last season. Look at teams like Detroit or Vancouver or Ottawa. They could get there, but they might not.
The Devils hit in a huge way. They are the second seed in the Metropolitan Division, and they are playing the rival New York Rangers in the first round. Hamilton is the team’s top defenseman, and he could prove that the Bruins, Flames, and especially the Hurricanes were wrong to give up on him. He’s an incredibly important member of this team, and he can go a long way with a ring on his finger.
4 Devils Who Need Lord Stanley’s Cup: 2. Tomas Tatar
It’s known how things have gone in the playoffs for Tomas Tatar. With the Vegas Golden Knights, he was never a regular member of the lineup during their original run to the Stanley Cup Final. He played two games in the Final against the Washington Capitals but only recorded one point. That was baffling since the Knights sent three draft picks, including a first rounder in the NHL Draft, to get Tatar.
Then, it was even more devastating to see what happened to him in Montreal. During the playoffs in 2021, Tatar’s Montreal Canadiens made an improbable run to the Final, facing the Tampa Bay Lightning. All season, Tatar was on Montreal’s first line, putting up 61 points in 68 games. He might have broken 70 if the season wasn’t shortened. Then, he was benched after only five games. It was a constant question of the coaching staff, but Tatar never got to play in the Final. He was benched after the series with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This season, the Devils will rally around Tatar. This is a much different environment than the Canadiens. The Devils look up to Tatar, and the coaching staff wouldn’t ruffle those kinds of feathers in this moment.
Tatar deserves this feat. He’s been through a lot, and he signed with the Devils to build on the youth. He bounced back in a major way this season, and if the Devils win the Cup, he might get it right after Hischier lifts it.
4 Devils Who Need Lord Stanley’s Cup: 3. Damon Severson
The New Jersey Devils drafted Damon Severson with the 60th overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. The Devils were coming off a Stanley Cup Final appearance. While they lost Zach Parise in the offseason, this was a team with a ton of hope for the future. Martin Brodeur was still hoping to grab one more moment. Severson was hoping to break into the lineup of a constant contender.
Severson made the roster for the first time in 2014. He was a fan favorite, being one of the few recent Lou Lamoriello picks that actually worked out.
Since his arrival, Severson has played in four total playoff games. He didn’t even get a full series in 2018 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He still doesn’t have a playoff point. Now, he’s looking at what is likely his final games in a Devils uniform.
Yeah, that’s the elephant in the room here. Severson is in the last year of a six-year deal that was signed two general managers ago. With Hamilton and John Marino signed for years and Simon Nemec just about NHL-ready, there’s no room for Severson next year. He will sign somewhere else, but it would be great for him to lift the Cup just once with his Devils brethren.
4 Devils Who Need Lord Stanley’s Cup: 4. Lindy Ruff
This isn’t talked about enough. It’s likely because most national analysts give the Devils no shot to actually win the Stanely Cup, but Lindy Ruff would go down in history if he were to win the Cup. Right now, the oldest coach to win their first Cup is John Muckler, who won the Cup with the Edmonton Oilers in 1990. At the time, he was 56 years and 41 days old.
Lindy Ruff is seven years old than Muckler. He would be by far the oldest coach to win his first Cup. Ruff has been close before. His most famous painful moment came with the Buffalo Sabres in 1999. Dominik Hasek helped carry the Sabres to the Final against the Dallas Stars. Game 6 at Marine Midland Arena was all the way in Triple OT.
That’s where Brett Hull scored in one of the most controversial goals of all time. The rebound comes to Hull’s stick, and he puts it past Hasek. Only one problem; his foot was in the crease. At the time, it was illegal to put a skate in the crease at the time of a goal. The goal should have been overturned, but there was no replay at the time.
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After such a devastating finish, the Sabres never came as close to the Cup again. Ruff hasn’t either. He had some good teams in the mid-2000s in Buffalo, and there was some hope when he was in Dallas, but he just never had the right chemistry. There’s something special about this Devils team, so this might be Ruff’s best chance to win it all since 2006. He only has so many more shots at this, and he could retire this offseason for all we know. It would be nice if he could go out on top.