The New Jersey Devils came into this season with lofty goals. After failing to make the playoffs in 2024, GM Tom Fitzgerald went on a crusade to fix the roster. He made quite a few moves, trading away John Marino, Alex Holtz, Akira Schmid, and Kevin Bahl in the offseason. He solidified the net with the Jacob Markstrom trade, and he added toughness in the form of Paul Cotter, Stefan Noesen, Brenden Dillon, and Johnathan Kovacevic.
It worked for a while, as the Devils were one of the best teams through Christmas. It looked like Tom Fitzgerald finally put together a team that could win. Then, the winning stopped.
January was bad. February was worse, but they were saved by the 4 Nations Face-Off break. March has been terrible, as the reality of finishing the season without Jack Hughes, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Dougie Hamilton has sunk in. This is a team limping to the finish, and if their not careful, their season will end officially on April 16th.
One lofty preseason goal is now officially out of their hands. After Monday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks in brutal fashion, the most points the Devils could accumulate in the standings is 101 points. Right now, the Washington Capitals have 102 points.
So, for those who aren't math whizes, the Devils have 10 games remaining. If they won every single game and the Capitals lost every single game, the Devils still wouldn't catch up to the Capitals in points. Therefore, the Metropolitan Division is officially out of reach.
Being out of contention for the Metropolitan Division before the start of April is a huge disappointment.
Nobody expected the Devils to win the Metropolitan Division for about three months now. That devastating January put them way too far behind Washington. They started the month of February 10 points behind the Caps. This is already an insurmountable lead for most teams. At the beginning of January, the Devils were one point behind the Capitals. That's a devastating loss of standings positioning in one month, especially since the injuries weren't as extreme.
It's not going to surprise anyone today that the Devils are out of the Metropolitan Division race, but it would surprise fans if we had this conversation in September.