New Jersey Devils team preview: Can they prove to be a serious contender?

For the most part, it appears Tom Fitzgerald is content to run it back with the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils.

With the exception maybe of Erik Haula, who played three years with the Devils, and defenceman Brian Dumoulin, most of the departures were on the margin. But so were the additions. Whether that is because of a relatively weak market, high asking prices for available players or pure belief in this group of players remains to be seen, but Fitzgerald definitely prioritized depth over impact players.

He also re-upped with most of his free agents. More on that later.

It’s not completely unreasonable to have enough faith in your team to allow it a second go, especially since the Devils made the playoffs. It’s worth noting, though, that they did so with just 91 points — five fewer than the post-season-missing Flames — in a year where the Metropolitan Division was relatively week and won just one game when they arrived on the big stage.

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This is (mostly) the same squad that powered its way to a 16-9-2 record through the first two months of a season, in a league where strong starts weigh heavily come April. The Devils are also the same squad that hovered around .500 hockey for the remainder of the year, and finished 20th in the league in scoring.

Alas, it is a new season, even if many of the players are the same.

Next up in our 32 teams in 32 days series, we’ll head to the Garden State.

Newcomer to watch: Connor Brown

After spending the past two seasons going deep in the playoffs with the Edmonton Oilers, falling just short of the Stanley Cup both times, Connor Brown signed a four-year, $12-million contract with the Devils. He faltered in his first season in Alberta, but seemed to find his stride in his second, scoring 13 goals and registering 17 assists while playing in all 82 games, and added nine points (five goals, four assists) in the post-season. He will more than likely find a home on the bottom six and has proven to be a serviceable depth forward when put in the right circumstances, which could be paramount for the oft-injured Devils.

Perhaps more importantly are the intangibles that he can bring, like playoff experience. In the past two springs alone, he’s wracked up 39 playoff games. Perhaps he can impart some words of wisdom to a squad that has yet make its mark in the post-season.

Under-the-radar player to watch: Dawson Mercer

Nobody wants Dawson Mercer to have a bounce-back season more than Dawson Mercer. The centre had a good rookie year and a great sophomore year, where he hit 27 goals and 56 points in 82 games. But in the two seasons since, he’s failed to replicate that production, and has just 33 and 36 points in his following two seasons, respectively. With a top-heavy lineup that features Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier, it’s not necessary for him to lead the offence each night, but he should be relied upon to provide some secondary scoring that, frankly, New Jersey could use. The Devils have shown belief in the 2020 first-round pick, entrusting him with his highest career ice time (17:53 per game). With a strong camp and pre-season, he might crack the top six. Even if he doesn’t, he figures to be a better-than-average third-line centre.

Another reason to pay attention to Mercer? He’s got an Iron Man streak going — at 328 games, he’s not missed a regular-season contest since starting his NHL career.

Top prospect: Anton Silayev

Devils fans shouldn’t expect to see the 2024 10th-overall pick in North America this season, but he will get more than adequate development before he hops the pond next spring. Anton Silayev will play the 2025-26 season in the KHL for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, with whom he is under contract until May. He played there last season as well, registering two goals and 12 points in 63 regular-season games, averaging 17:25 per night. Though there will undoubtably be a learning curve when he makes the jump to North America, there is a precedent for success with this development route. Philadelphia’s Matvei Michkov developed in the KHL and was nominated for Calder Trophy, Montreal’s Ivan Demidov is already an early contender for the same award and — perhaps a more extreme example — Kirill Kaprizov is on the precipice of a record-breaking contract extension.

He’ll get reps in the KHL — meaningful ones — with the hope that by the time he joins the team, he’ll slot in seamlessly with the other talented youngsters on the blue-line.

Three burning questions

1. Can Sheldon Keefe build a consistent contender?

In his first year as the Devils head coach, Sheldon Keefe led the team to a post-season berth, which should be considered a success. Of course, the coach probably would have liked to see his team pull off a deeper run, but playing meaningful hockey in April is big for a squad that doesn’t have much playoff experience outside of one series win. This was just the second post-season appearance in the Bratt-Hischier-Hughes era, and each of that core trio has at least six seasons of NHL experience under their belts — they certainly have the talent to contend, but so far that perennial-playoff-team status has eluded them. Much has been said about Keefe’s time in Toronto, but he led that Maple Leafs squad to the post-season in every year he was behind the bench. Can he build that again in New Jersey?

2. Can they stay healthy?

The Devils’ early playoff exit last season was as much about who was off the ice as who was on. The team got hit with a myriad of injuries down the stretch and into the post-season and in fact, just two players appeared in all 82 regular-season games. They survived without both Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton — both of whom sustained season-ending injuries in March — and weathered an extended absence from No. 1 netminder Jacob Markstrom to make the playoffs. But injuries to Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon in Game 1 and Jonathan Kovacevic in Game 3 effectively killed their chances of advancing, bowing out to the Carolina Hurricanes by a disappointing four games to one. Injuries are unpredictable by nature, this much is certain, but if star players keep getting hit with the injury bug, the Devils could face some trouble.

3. What could a Luke Hughes contract holdout mean for his season?

Perhaps one of the biggest — if not the biggest — questions heading into the season is the state of the younger Hughes’ contract. The restricted free agent has yet to sign a contract extension even though talks remain ongoing, and it appears a resolution will not come before training camp. Per NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky, Hughes prefers to sign a five-year deal that would lead him to unrestricted free agency at the same time as his older brother, whereas the Devils would prefer locking him up to a bridge or long-term deal. Someone will eventually give, because it’s exceedingly unlikely he signs anywhere else, but it’s worth remembering that extended absence from training camp tends to bode fairly poorly for the player.

Take William Nylander, who missed 28 games while awaiting a new contract in 2018-19 and saw his offensive numbers tumble that year. Or Jeremy Swayman last year, who missed nearly the entirety of the pre-season during contract negotiations and posted his worst save percentage of his career (.892). Factor in that Hughes underwent off-season shoulder surgery — making a proper pre-season even more crucial — and the pressure is heating up for the two sides to make an agreement.