The New Jersey Devils had Monday, September 29th circled on the calendar as a day to cut their training camp rosters significantly. There are two reasons why this date is significant. The first is the split-squad preseason games on Sunday. The Devils had to have two full game rosters, as they had two games going on at 3 p.m. One was home, and the other was in Quebec City against the Ottawa Senators.
With that game in their rearview mirror, the Devils can focus on setting lineups that are closer to what they plan on putting out there on opening night and can prioritize roster battles. So, the Devils sent 16 players to Utica. The Utica Comets training camp begins on Monday.
The list of players going to Utica includes (if he passes through waivers) captain Ryan Schmelzer, promising center prospect Matyas Melovsky, and goalie prospect Jakub Malek. Here is the full list of players going down to Utica.
The full list of #NJDevils cuts today: https://t.co/EGGtj6YYCA pic.twitter.com/rP40S4ML7J
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) September 29, 2025
New Jersey Devils make roster cuts to slim down training camp
There are going to be many more cuts, as the Devils still have close to twice as many roster players as they do regular season roster spots. With 45 players currently in training camp, and the hope that Luke Hughes joins them soon, the Devils still need to cut at least 23 players before getting to the 23 player roster limit.
Notably, anyone with even a remote chance to make the roster remains in training camp. This includes all three PTOs (Kevin Rooney, Luke Glendening, and Georgi Romanov) and goalie Nico Daws.
There are some roster battles still happening. Arseny Gritsyuk is pretty securely going to make the NHL roster, which takes one spot away. However, with the injury to Stefan Noesen, there's another open spot for the likes of Juho Lammikko, Brian Halonen, Thomas Bordeleau, and Angus Crookshank.
One player who surprisingly is still in camp is Xavier Parent. The winger did not make the jump many hoped he would last season in Utica, but he has clear talent and could be an NHLer one day. We'll see where he lands in the lineup, but it's good that Sheldon Keefe and company want to give him a deeper look.