The New Jersey Devils have been playing around with contention for years, but they’ve never come close to hitting their expectations. Whether it was injuries, goaltending issues, or a lack of clutch scoring, there’s always an excuse as to why such a talented roster fails to make it even remotely close to where they should.
To be fair, the Devils have lost two playoff series to the Carolina Hurricanes that they were expected to lose. In 2023, the Hurricanes and Devils both had insane seasons, but New Jersey came off a brutal seven-game series with the New York Rangers, and the Hurricanes had five days off after handling the Washington Capitals. Last season, the Devils lost half their lineup and puttered down the stretch into the playoffs.
This season, the excuses have to go out the window. They fixed the secondary scoring after signing Arseny Gritsyuk, Evgenii Dadonov, and Connor Brown this offseason. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier are as good a top four as anyone can expect. The defense should be stacked once Luke Hughes signs and Johnny Kovacevic returns. The goalie duo is set in stone. Everything is finally in place.
While everything is in place for the Devils, things are falling apart across the Eastern Conference. The Florida Panthers just announced that Aleksander Barkov is going to be out for the season with a knee injury. That does more than open up the door for Nico Hischier to win the Selke Trophy; it opens the entire Eastern Conference. The Panthers are now spending most of this season without Barkov and star winger Matthew Tkachuk.
The Eastern Conference might be ripe for the taking this season, and the New Jersey Devils should take advantage
The Toronto Maple Leafs are now playing with a “Core Three” after Mitch Marner made the move to Las Vegas, and they are dealing with issues on the back end. Their defense has question marks, and their goaltending can only hope it comes in as well as last season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are already dealing with an Andrei Vasilevskiy injury, and things haven’t been the same since they went to back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. They are still supremely talented, but the depth has taken a hit with all their big contracts.
Ottawa and Montreal should get better, but they are still a year or two away from truly contending, and the Canadiens might actually need to figure out what they are before taking that next step. Buffalo and Boston are in weird spots, and we don’t see them contending anytime soon.
The Metropolitan is not very good this season. At least on paper. The Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Columbus Blue Jackets could be somewhere between bad and just alright. (We are not high on the Blue Jackets like other analysts.) The New York Rangers are a house of cards that could fall apart with one untimely injury (which might have already happened with J.T. Miller). The Hurricanes will be good again, but that’s just two good teams in the division (if you consider the Devils a good team).
When looking at this situation, the Devils have to understand what’s at stake. If Fitzgerald can get this team to the Stanley Cup Final, it saves his job for years. It proves something about this core that many have questioned. It makes this 10-year rebuild actually worth it. It would extinguish so many demons for head coach Sheldon Keefe.
It’s right here in front of them. All the Devils have to do is reach out and take it.