The New Jersey Devils are facing a make-or-break season for many reasons. They NEED to make the playoffs. With Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier entering their primes, and with the latter needing a new contract soon, it’s time to take advantage of their two former number-one overall picks. Tom Fitzgerald didn’t make everyone happy with his moves as GM, but if he made the right moves, the Devils should be one of the better teams in the league.
If they are not, we wouldn’t be surprised to see significant changes made. That said, the NHL team isn’t the only place where players are feeling the pressure.
The Devils have prospects all over the world. Just in the 2025 NHL Draft, the Devils selected three Americans, two players from Sweden, one from Czechia, and one from Canada. Under Tom Fitzgerald, the Devils also drafted players from Finland, Russia, Belarus, and Austria.
Taking a diverse group of players is usually a winning formula, but it hasn’t worked out for the Devils. There are plenty of players where it’s still “too early to tell,” but there are quite a few players that the Devils already pulled the plug on. Alexander Holtz is in Vegas along with Akira Schmid, while Shakir Mukhamadullin is now playing for San Jose. Former first-round pick Chase Stillman was traded twice within a few months, with nobody seemingly too eager to give him a shot.
There are a few players facing the same fate this season. Who might be feeling the pressure in 2025-26?
Seamus Casey
2025-26 Team: Utica Comets
This one might seem like a surprise, as Seamus Casey played a playoff game last season as a 21-year-old right-handed defenseman. Yet, this really feels like the year for Casey to prove he deserves to be in the NHL. The former University of Michigan standout had 18 points in his first AHL season, and he had eight points in 14 NHL games. This is his first pro season, so there are going to be some growing pains.
The Devils should give Casey time to progress. Players like him take time to understand the defensive side of the game, but there are too many needs in New Jersey and the impactful forwards are fewer and further between. With Arseniy Gritsyuk and Lenni Hameenaho signing this offseason, there isn’t another sure-thing forward prospect out there for New Jersey.
Casey is facing a logjam on defense, and he has to stand out to force an issue. If the Devils want him to work in New Jersey, he needs an opportunity. To get said opportunity, he has to force their hand. He will have a chance in training camp to prove it with Johnny Kovacevic out, but he will be in direct competition with former second-overall pick Simon Nemec.
Tyler Brennan
2025-26 Team: Adirondack Thunder
Admittedly, the rest of this list is a much different situation than Seamus Casey. Casey appears to be on an NHL track. It’s just whether he makes it with the Devils or does it for another franchise that becomes the question. For a player like Tyler Brennan, what was once a promising career in net hasn’t gotten away from the ECHL.
Brennan started to show positive signs of growth in 2021 when he was with the Prince George Cougars of the WHL. He was just under a .900 save percentage in a league known for low save percentages.
Brennan signed a professional contract after his 2022-23 season. Since then, the Devils have played him exclusively with the Adirondack Thunder, their ECHL affiliate. He actually got a chance to practice with the Devils after Jacob Markstrom got hurt, but he didn’t dress for a game.
Despite that, Brennan was quite bad last season. He had an .878 save percentage in 29 games. It’s not even like the workload would impact him. He played move games in the WHL. Brennan might be looking at one bad season, but if that becomes two, the Devils will likely take a chance on someone else in their pipeline.
Josh Filmon
2025-26 Team: Utica Comets
Josh Filmon looked like one of the early draft gems by Tom Fitzgerald. The Devils drafted him in the sixth round, 166th overall, in the 2022 NHL Draft. That very next season, he scored 47 goals and had 75 points in 64 games for the Swift Current Broncos. Only three players in the entire league had more goals than him that season, and one of them was Connor Bedard.
The rise in Filmon’s offense was hard to explain, and what has happened since might be even hard. That very next season, Filmon’s scoring fell from 47 goals to 27 goals. His offensive numbers plummeted across the board, and his star wasn’t shining quite as bright.
Now, Filmon is looking at his future after playing most of last season with the Adirondack Thunder. He was brought to the Devils on an entry-level contract. Most should expect him to get his shot in the AHL this year to see if his drop in offensive numbers can be reversed. The Comets were a mess for most of last year, so one shouldn’t take that situation too seriously.
However, Filmon is already working from the bottom up as a sixth-round draft pick. He has to show something this season. He did score 20 goals in the ECHL, but he had zero in 12 AHL games.
Samu Salminen
2024-25 Team: University of Denver Pioneers
This one is pretty loaded because the Devils have a decision to make on Samu Salminen, and it’s also a HUGE year for the player. Salminen has seen his development go through a number of different routes, coming over to the U.S. from Finland to play college hockey. The former third-round pick was then forced to change from his original target, the University of Denver, and he went to UConn for two seasons. However, that even got delayed because of visa issues.
Salminen finally made it to his original destination, transferring to Denver prior to last season. After two mediocre seasons for the Huskies, Salminen was pretty decent for Denver. He was great at killing penalties, and he helped them make the Frozen Four, finishing with 28 points in 44 games.
This season, Salminen is expected to be a fixture in Denver’s top six, a team looking to make it back to the Frozen Four and add another National Championship to their trophy case. Salminen needs to take another step forward for them to get there. He also needs to show some type of NHL-level progression. He almost seems like he got stuck in a time machine and is the same player that he was in 2022.
The Devils need centers, and he’s as good as they have. He could skyrocket up the prospect pool, with a ceiling that’s in their top ten. He’s 6’3 with scoring upside and a great defensive mind. We just haven’t seen it yet, and his rights are expiring for the Devils. Everyone has a decision to make after this season.
Topias Vilen
2025-26 Team: Utica Comets
Topias Vilen was a defenseman many were once really excited about. To be fair to him, he hasn’t shown anything that says he couldn’t be an NHL defenseman. He hasn’t, however, shown anything that makes him considered one, either.
Vilen was a fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. At the time, he showed really good upside playing for Finland at the U18s. He scaled as a really good defensive defenseman if everything turned out the way it was supposed to.
As of now, we haven’t seen it. We will stress again that the Utica Comets were a complete mess last season. Vilen is going into his fourth season with Utica (he only played one playoff game in his first season, though). He should be a veteran on this team, and he should get a shot in the NHL when a left-handed defenseman gets injured.
He still has time to grow, but he has to show there’s an NHL defenseman in there somewhere. If he doesn’t, the Devils might not re-sign him after the season.