The New Jersey Devils finished their preseason with a 4-3 loss in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers. It was mostly the Devils’ B-team, so the loss didn’t amount to much. In fact, nobody is really worried about the Devils’ 3-2-2 preseason record. Most of their games were split squads or worse, and the two times they put their NHL roster out there, they won.
The Devils learned a lot from this preseason. Arseny Gritsyuk played all six games, the only player signed to an NHL contract to do that. He showed that he’s an NHL player. They had at least 10 players vying for NHL spots in the bottom six. Even as we write this on Sunday morning, there could be some surprises in the roster.
There are also some injuries that will impact the lineup. Seamus Casey looked really good in the preseason, but he suffered something that will keep him out for some time. Juho Lammikko was the front runner to take the 4C spot when Dawson Mercer played most of the time at wing, but he’s now on the shelf, too.
This is going to impact who makes the final roster, as both had chances to take the last few spots on the roster.
After the Devils put Brian Halonen, Thomas Bordeleau, Angus Crookshank, and newly-aquired Zack MacEwen on waivers, it gave an idea of who might make the final roster. With that in mind, let's take our stab at the forward lines.
Evgenii Dadonov - Jack Hughes - Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier - Nico Hischier - Dawson Mercer
Ondrej Palat - Cody Glass - Connor Brown
Paul Cotter - Luke Glendening - Arseny Gritsyuk
The big news here would be Luke Glendening, who is still on a professional tryout contract, makes the team and plays on the fourth line. He was also given six games to showcase himself, more than Kevin Rooney who was the team’s other PTO. Rooney might still make the team, but we’d imagine they’d try to start him in the AHL.
After Gritsyuk’s big preseason, nobody is surprised by the rest of the roster. Lammikko might make the roster on IR, but we actually think the Devils go with this unit without an extra for now. Stefan Noesen is also on this roster, but he will likely start the season on injured reserve. We believe one of them will be the "extra" forward to make for easy maneuverability and optimal salary cap use.
Now for the defense:
Luke Hughes - Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler - Dougie Hamilton
Brenden Dillon - Simon Nemec
Dennis Cholowski
With the Casey injury, this was pretty set in stone. Simon Nemec had his moments during the preseason, but the aggregate was really good. Brenden Dillon looks really good after his offseason neck surgery. Luke Hughes is back and better than ever after signing his seven-year deal on October 1st.
Pesce is currently dealing with an injury, but all signs point to it being a small deal. Dennis Cholowski is going to be the extra, but we imagine the Devils want to get Casey and possibly even Ethan Edwards into the rotation if there are further injuries.
As for the goalies:
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
Nico Daws
At least for now, we think it makes sense to keep Nico Daws on the roster. He would likely get claimed on waivers despite his poor preseason performance, so this could act as a stall tactic for the Devils. Either, they can work on a trade or slip him through waivers later in October or November.