New Jersey Devils 2025-26 Season Preview & Predictions

New Jersey Devils 2025-26 Season Preview & Predictions

Welcome back Devils fans. It is your host Ace here on Running with the Devils where we are talking New Jersey Devils hockey all year long. Please hit that subscribe button, smash the like, share with a friend. Thank you very much. And the day is finally here, kids. Our beloved New Jersey Devils in Raleigh taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in the first game of the 2526 NHL season. And what a long summer it was. The regular season is finally here and it all starts where it all ended last season in that absolutely heart stomping, devastating game five loss after taking a three nothing lead in game five looking to bring the series back to Newark for a game six. And I was already visualizing myself drinking those ice cold beers on Championship Plaza with all of you. I was already there mentally envisioning myself in the beautiful spring weather just drinking those ice cold 24 ounce Bud Lights waiting for game six and the Devils collapsed unfortunately what a devastating end to the season and that’s where it all begins this year but I am here today with the season preview and prediction show for the 2526 New Jersey Devils and we got to start by taking a peek back at last season the 24-25 New Jersey Devils finished 4233 and 7 for 91 points. Finished third in the Metropolitan Division and then obviously lost five to the Kings in the first round. Of note, goals for the Devils had 240 goals, 20th of 32 teams in the league. It’s terrible. Below the halfway mark uh with the roster we had obviously the injuries and stuff, but that should have never been the case. Goals against very promising 220, fifth of 32. So obviously we were confident in keeping the puck out of our net, but we were not great at putting it in the opposition’s net. I expect the goals forward to be much better this season. And the preseason odds for the Devils to win the cup last year, Vegas was very high in the Devils. They were 11 to1 to win the cup. And the total points, the overunder was set at 102.5, meaning the Devils needed 103 points or more to win that bet. If you took the over 102 or less, you’d be a loser on the over bet. And uh yeah, disappointing season overall, but we turned the page. We turned the page from that season. But to take a look at how Vegas is treating the Devils for the upcoming year, the Devils are currently 19 to1 to win the cup. This went up quite a bit. I looked at this yesterday and the Devils were only 14 to1 and now they’re 19 to1. So there’s obviously some action in these future bets, but I think I might have to put a little bit on this. I like 19 to1 odds way better than 14 to1 for those that aren’t familiar with betting. Uh plus $1,900. If you were to bet $100 on the Devils to win the cup, you would win $1,900. Pretty decent odds for the cup. And we look at the point totals. I just mentioned last year was 102.5. This year the Devil’s point total is 100.5. Yesterday this was actually 99.5. So this went up. So obviously there was some money coming in on the Devils to get 100 points and it went up a full point. So now it’s 100.5 needing 101 to win on the over at plus 118 and then under 100.5 is minus 144. Interesting interesting movements in the line in 24 hours or so. Uh but.5 is the Devil’s total for the season. We look at the standings from last year. We look at the Metropolitan standings and our Devils clung on to that third place finish with 91 points and just kind of faded into the playoffs. Great October, November, December for the boys. Everyone knows the holiday break came. The calendar year of 2025 was atrocious to the Devils. They were one of the worst teams in the league during that stretch and backed into the playoffs and it is what it is. 91 points, Hurricanes finishing second in the Metro with 99. And obviously the Washington Capitals just 111 points. Completely insane. They were fueled, I think, by the whole Ovkin goal chase and seemed to overachieve all season. Everyone was expecting them to fall off at some point. They never did. 111 point regular season. What a what a run for the Caps. Uh and we look at the Atlantic. The Leafs won the Atlantic with 108. Lightning came in second 102. And the now back-to-back Cup champ Panthers 98 points. But the Metro was so bad. You look at this here. The Metro was so bad that both wildcard teams came from the Atlantic. The sends with 97 points and the Canadians with 91 points just like the Devils. Wow. No one wanted to take that spot from us really. We just were clinging on for dear life with those 91 points. And something that I think kind of gets forgotten about and everyone knew at the time that these were important. We were kind of neckand-neck with the Jackets for a little bit. And if you look here in March, March 11th at the Rock, we beat the Jackets 5 to3. And then less than a week later on the road, beat them two to one. If you remember, that was a Jake Allen start. Devils taking the lead into the third period and the Jackets at home were just dominating us in the third period. Jake Allen stood on his head to preserve the win. What a phenomenal display of goalending by Jake Allen. Probably one of his best games, if not the best game for him last year. And those were two massive games in that playoff race. Two massive games in that playoff race. If the Jackets had only won one of those two games instead of the Devils beating them both times, if the Jackets only won one of them, if we just split those two games, we would have finished with 89 points and the Jackets would have finished with 91 and they would have been in the playoffs as the third place Metro finisher. Completely wild. So, the Devils essentially, I mean, you could point to a lot of things like this, but essentially made the playoffs by beating the Jackets in both of those games in March. Crucial, crucial games down the stretch, but I thought that was an interesting uh little tidbit there. And then we look at the point production from last season. Jesper Brat leading the way, the Brder 81 games played, 21 goals, 67 assists, 88 points. What can you say about Jesper Brat? Our most consistent offensive weapon for the past few seasons. Jack with 70 points in 62 games. Obviously, we’re hoping to see him on the ice more often this season. The captain, Nico, with 75 games played, 35 goals, 34 assists for 69 points. Love to see the captain putting in that work. Team Omire, 80 games played, 26 goals, 27 assists for 53 points. And then in fifth place, Luke Hughes, despite missing action, 71 games played, seven goals, 37 assists for 44 points. It’s going to be interesting to see what Luke does this year. He’s taking over Power Play One, uh, for now at least. And coming off that fresh contract signing, is Luke going to prove to the world he is worth the money? And I think he will. Stephan Nason in sixth place here with 22 goals, 19 assists for 41 points, and 78 games played. Douggee Hamilton, 64 games played, nine goals, 31 assists, 40 points. The dog, Dawson Mercer, the Iron Man, 82 games played every season so far in his career. What a durable guy. 19 goals, 17 assists, 36 points. We’ll talk about Mercer a little bit later. Andre Palot, 15 goals, 13 assists for 28 points in 77 games played. And then rounding out the top 10, Paulie Paul Carter, 16 goals, six assists for 22 points in 79 games played. Love me some Paul Carter. I think him and Gritsuk are going to tear it up this year. Uh we’ll get to that a little bit later as well. And then we look at special teams. The Devil’s power play just on fire with all the weapons we have. That power play was nasty last year. I expect it to be nasty this year. Third in the league, 28.2% trailing only the Golden Knights who had 28.3%. I mean, wow. A tenth of a percent separated us in the second place. And then the Jets a little bit higher up there on the list, 28.9 with the number one spot. But third in the league power play. I expect the power play to be just powerful, very powerful this season with the units that we have. We’ll talk about that later in the show as well. And then the PK, Devils PK, very solid, second in the league, 82.7% trailing only the Canes 83.6%. Special teams is going to be another strong point for this Devils club. It was last year and to some extent the power play probably masked a little bit of the five on five issues that we had. Devils could not score a ton five on five. The power play kind of carried them to a bunch of victories throughout the year. And hopefully this season they are not as reliant on that power play. Got to score even strength. Got to get five on five goals and hopefully just have a more balanced attack throughout the lineup and continue to rack up wins. But that month of October is brutal. We all know. Okay. So, I’m done with we’re done with last season. We now look ahead to the new season and everyone was waiting for our new Russian imports. The talk of the off season. We’ll get to him a bunch later in the show as well. But coming over from the KHL, drafted by the Devils in 2019, everyone waiting for his debut. News came out that he was going to join the team this year. Lots of people excited about that. Again, more on Gritsuk um momentarily, but we look at some of the faces that departed the team. Guys that were with the team last year that left in free agency in this past offseason summer. Curtis Lazar, Laser signs with the Edmonton Oilers. Wish the best for him. Always liked Laser, but you know that bottom six needed a gut renovation and Lazar is one of the guys that we moved on from. He goes to Edmonton. And Nathan Bastion, another guy that just struggled a bit, wasn’t getting it done in the bottom six. Devils decide to move on from him. He signs with Dallas. Obviously, everyone’s kind of probably favorite Bastion moment will be the would would be the Tommy Cutlets goal celebration at Metife Stadium. I mean, what a moment. What a moment. We’ll never forget uh Nate Bastion for that, but he’s now in Dallas. Brian Dumlan, a late season addition last year. played phenomenal for the Devils on the Blue Line uh in the playoffs. And if we weren’t so deep on D, I think we would have signed Dumalain. But we have an abundance of riches on the blue line. Dumalain played really well in the playoffs and earned a nice contract with the LA Kings. And so Dumalain moves on from the Devils. And Tomas Tatar, another bottom six casualty, signs with Switzerland team and is playing overseas. Good luck to Tuna. We’ll always remember him for that 22 23 season as well. Devils move on from him. And then another one that people may not have been or as familiar with, Isaac Palter. A promising young goalending prospect that I thought was going to be in the mix to eventually crack the NHL lineup at some point in the future. But the Devils decided to move on from him with all the goalies in the organization. Uh Big Mike, uh Yagorov, Nico Daw, Yakob Malik, etc., etc. I think they just thought we have we have a lot of goalies and we will move on from him. He signs in Winnipeg. Isaac Palter, another guy to keep an eye on. Um, you know, as his career progresses, we’ll see if he becomes an NHL regular. And then Justin Dalling, another one of the bottom six kind of just, you know, I thought he played admirably for the Devils. He was never really a liability, but he wasn’t bringing much in terms of offense, and that bottom six really needed it. Justin Dalling signs with the New York Rangers. Oh, but Ding now a Ranger. And those are the guys we just decided not to offer contracts to. And then we get to Fitzy’s first major piece of offseason business. Lots of people seeing what was going to happen with the cap space. It was going to be tight. What’s Fitz going to do? Are we going to be a major player in free agency? And I I honestly from probably mid-season last year, I think my prediction was that the offseason was going to be fairly lackluster because of the cap situation. And I did expect the bottom six to get tweaked a little bit and a Luke Hughes extension, but a lot of people had grand aspirations and were thinking we’re going to go get these flashy top six guys and all these things. And I never thought it was in the cards. But the first piece of business, June 18th, Eric Hall is traded to the Predators for Jeremy Hanzel in a 2025 fourth round pick, freeing up 3.15 mil right there. Nice little cap savings. And a lot of people were like, “Oh, this is the first of things to come.” People were running wild thinking that, you know, maybe Palot was going to get traded, maybe Douge, you know, Fitz is loading up to make some massive move. Um, and Hall was the first piece, but none of those other moves ever came, at least to the extent that many of you were wishing for. But then we get to free agency, and free agency was fairly underwhelming, but I think meaningful. We start off with Jake Allen. Never in a million years did I see this coming. I thought it was going to be Nico Daw with Marky. The reports were that there were going to be a lot of teams in on Jake Allen in free agency. And because there weren’t many other notable goalenders available in free agency, that teams were were reportedly going to offer him $4 to5 million a year for a couple years. And what does he do? He hammers out a deal with Fitz. Super team friendly $1.8 million cap hit times five years. Now, I don’t think he’s going to play all five years, but who knows? Maybe he plays three. Time will tell, but 1.8 million cap hit. super team friendly, leaving tons of meat on the bone. Jake Allen, absolute legend for that deal. Um, can’t say it enough. You don’t see guys often put their money where their mouth, as we obviously saw Conor McDavid do it on a massive scale the other day and giving the Oilers arguably one of the most team friendly contracts in probably pro sports history. And hopefully some guys around the league take note. I think you guys know who I’m talking about. But Jake Allen, complete legend for that deal. Then Fitz gets Connor Brown, the first piece of the new and improved bottom six. Connor Brown coming off back-to-back Cup finals appearances with the Oilers and unfortunately for him losing to the Panthers both times, but he signs a four-year deal for 12 million bucks, average annual value of 3 million. Dennis Chilowski brought back for a year at 775,000. Nice solid veteran defenseman to have. As you all know, you need to have a deep blue line. you need to have a deep everything, but blue line especially with all these injuries and things, you can never be too sure. And Chilowski was a nice insurance piece for a pretty cheap price, 775. So, he’s brought back. And then another what everyone thought was going to be a bottom six piece. Evenny Dadenov one-year million-doll base, but I I do believe there’s tons of uh bonuses and incentives and things. So that it won’t come into play this year, but there are a bunch of thresholds for him to get paid significantly more if he hits them. But Dadenov brought in one year a million dollars. Everyone thought it was going to be for a bottom six role. Turns out he is in fact starting on the top line with the big boys. Daddy with Brder and Jack. Let’s see if he could hold on to the spot. So far it seems like he is, you know, smart enough player to be able to mesh with these guys. I do think if we see any signs of him not being up for the challenge that we will see someone else audition there, but it’s his spot to lose for now. Datenov top line with the big boys. excited to see how that goes. One-year deal for him. And then Cody Glass, there was kind of a little I don’t know if it’s a controversy, but the Devils originally did not qualify him. And then I guess there was reports out that there was a ton of teams interested in him. And then the Devils eventually just gave him the two-year deal for 2.5 a year, $5 million total. Cody Glass coming back and we’ll see how that goes. Um, with the cap going up, as we’ve talked about a million times, these contracts are getting crazier and crazier. And so, for a guy like Glass at 2.5 million, uh, I don’t really feel any sort of way about that. I thought, you know, we’ll see what he could do. Ideally, it would have been great for him to be a 4C, I think, on this club, but because of the lack of center depth, he is going to play 3C, and hopefully he’s up for the challenge, and hopefully he has a breakout year and can help his linemates, but it will be interesting to see. That’s kind of the free agency rundown. Jake Allen on a stunning deal. Connor Brown brought in for some veteran experience. Chelowski brought in for insurance. Datenov brought in going to play on the top line. And Cody Glass, your 3C at the moment. That was Fitz’s free agency. And then either it was either that later that day or the next day, I forget, but Fitz had a press conference where he made the quote that he probably wishes he never did where he said that signing Luke Hughes was his number one priority. And then this was just people ran with it. And obviously the Luke Hughes saga, you know, Fitz said that early July, July 2nd, I think it was or, you know, somewhere around there. And months later, you know, one month goes by, we’re into August, no Luke news. Then we get to September, early September, no Luke news. Then training camp starts and and they’re supposedly hammering it out and it’s going back and forth. There’s new reports every day from this guy and Elliot Freriedman and Pierre Lebron. Everyone’s reporting their own angle on the story. It seemed like the longest soap opera drama of all time. Luke misses training camp most of the preeason at this point. Uh and then they sent in the big guns. Your boy Ace went to a charity event and they’re like, “Go talk to Luke. see if you could uh kind of get the the ball rolling on this thing. So, I here we are. I talked to Luke a little bit and what do you know? Uh it was either the next day or two days later. I think it was two days later. Bang. Luke Hughes signed seven years, $63 million, $9 million average annual value. And you guys are welcome. No, I’m kidding. I obviously had nothing to do with it, but uh it is funny the way that timing worked out. But I think great deal for both sides. There was lots of speculation in the weeks leading up to this. Most reports were saying that both the Devils and Luke Hughes wanted a long-term deal, but they were kind of stuck on the money portion of it. And in the end, 9 million bucks, I think, was a fair number for both sides. Obviously, Luke’s camp initially started negotiations higher than that and Fitz started lower and they settled at the 9 million bucks. I think that’s a great deal for both sides. A lot of people were saying, “Oh, it’s an overpayment, this, that, and the other thing.” But the reality is this is a new cap era guys. This is not the old cap. This is the new cap. And you’re going to see wild deals. And you saw it with Capri saw signed for was 17 million a year or whatever it was. With the cap going up and projected to continually go up, guys are going to keep getting more shocking contracts. It’s just going to keep happening. And so Luke for 9 million bucks, I do think at a at the latest one year from now, maybe next season, people say this deal is a is a steal. It’s a great value deal and maybe Luke will end up on the next uh the next time the Athletic or whoever does those reports about greatest value contracts in the league. Maybe Luke will be on there and it’ll probably really infuriate their agent after Jack was on there last time. But you got to stay healthy in my opinion for them to be true value contracts. And I do think the Jack contract is a great value. But in the end, if you miss the playoffs and you’re not available, I mean, how great is the contract? But the Jack contract at $8 million is obviously one of the best in the league. Uh, and I do think we will be talking about the Luke Hughes contract similarly at some point in the very near future. And so I’m thrilled with the deal. I know most of you are. There’s some of you that thought it was an overpayment, but in the end, in this new cap era, I think 9 million bucks for Luke is pretty damn good. And then that started the conversation of, oh man, the Devils are over the cap. How are they going to become cap compliant? And the first move of that was trading my man Curtis McDermad on October 3rd. The Devils traded McDermott to the Senators in exchange for Zack Mchuan and that frees up 1.15 million. Uh and then in conjunction with a couple LTIR moves, Devils got shifty. They become cap compliant. And then this news comes out. No surprise to anyone. Luke Glenn Denning signed. This man came in on a PTO, had a good training camp, played his ass off in the preseason, and he won the job as 4C. Congratulations to Luke Lindenning. I mean, I think he probably, you know, if you had to be honest about it heading into it, he was probably an underdog to make this team because of the stiff competition that he had. And he earned it. He earned it. He got his one-year deal. He’s going to hopefully take a lot of the faceoff pressure off of Nico Heir this year. Um, and we’ll see. But another veteran in the lineup. You guys know I love my vets. I like guys with experience leaders. And I think Glenn Denning is going to add to that. And I’m excited to see what he can do in his role as the fourthline center. We’re going to find out. Hopefully he’s up for the challenge. And hopefully this bottom six just really performs. And now that we’re done with all the offseason business, we get to the team. We get to the 2526 New Jersey Devils and we start on defense. We have the first pairing of Jonah Seanthaler and Douggee Hamilton. A second pairing of Luke Hughes and Brett Peshy. And a third pairing of Brendan Dylan and Shimo Nemitz. Last year the defense was pretty damn good. I think they’re going to be as good or even better this year. Obviously Johnny Kovvich starting the season on LTIR. The timetable for his return is a little cloudy at the moment. I think most people are speculating either January or February. And it will be interesting when he returns. uh twofold. A who comes out of the lineup, if anyone, you would think they want to get Kovich in there, but who knows? I mean, if the defense is looking great, there’s a chance that he doesn’t get back in right away. We’ll see how that all goes. And then furthermore, what is the permanent fix to be cap compliant when he comes off LTI? Money’s going to have to move out somehow. That’ll be a very interesting thing to keep an eye on. But I do love the D. I loved it last year. I still love it. I probably like it even more this year. We have great depth on defense. Um, you know, Edwards and Casey waiting in the wings. I mean, the blue line pieces that we have right now are just absolutely beautiful. And it will be interesting to see at some point if some of these extraneous defenseman are used in a trade to bring in some forward help at some point. Another thing to keep an eye on. But I like I like it. I like the D a lot. And then we get to the forward group. Oh, the forward group is looking, in my opinion, quite a bit better than last season. And again, with that bottom six, the bar was pretty low. But we have a top line of Datenov, Jack Hughes, Jesper Brat. Very excited to see how Daddy plays with Peanut Butter and Jelly. I think we’re going to see Peanut Butter and Jelly pretty much together for as long as they’re both here. I mean, they’re just a dynamic duo. Just amazing offensive talents, elite players, and we’re going to see how how Datenov does in that left wing spot playing with them. And then the second line, Teimo Meyer, Nico Hehishir, and Dawson Mercer. Massive, massive, massive opportunity for Dawson Mercer. He’s a guy that I feel like is slightly polarizing in the fan base. I’ve defended him for years. I like Dawson Mercer. Uh there’s not many guys that you could put out there in every situation and rely on them. And Dawson Mercer is capable of doing it all. You could put him on the power play, put him on the penalty kill, you could have him out there late in games protecting a lead. always brings the energy, always brings the intensity. I’m a Dawson Mercer guy, and I hope he just makes the most of this opportunity because this is a very big opportunity for him uh on the season to start in the top six and get power play time. We’ll get to that shortly, but hopefully a big season for Mercer. And can we see Teemo start just getting hot before March? We all know from March on Teemo just goes on an absolute tear. We got to see Teemo come out of the gate hot. October, November, December. I just want to see Teemo just on fire. Would love to see it. And the captain, Nicoisher. I mean, what can you say about this guy? 200 foot player, does everything. Faceoff Warrior, just there’s nothing more to say about Niko Heir, guys. I mean, this guy is the pulse and the heartbeat of the team. Hopefully is a Selki finalist this season. And with Barov injured, is this the year that Nico finally gets that Selki trophy? That’ll be an interesting one to see. And now we get to the bottom six. Oh, the bottom six. The just absolute pain point of the New Jersey Devils last season. It should not be the case this year. We see a third line of Andre Palot, Cody Glass, and Connor Brown. In the preseason, Brown and Palot seem to be working pretty damn well together. Can that continue in the regular season? Can Connor Brown help get the best version of Andre Palot possible? And I talked about this in a video yesterday, but I like Pot. I think because of his contract at the 6 million bucks, he’s obviously overpaid. And I think that’s the reason why he gets a lot of venom from the fans, or at least a lot of the fans. But he does have value to this club. And I think with the right linemates, we could see a very valuable and impactful Andre Palot on this roster. And hopefully Brown can help him get to that level along with Cody Glass. Cody Glass is a guy that I’m just kind of on the fence about. Uh I want to see him do well. I ideally wanted him to be the 4C. I think a lot of people were kind of on the same page with me at that. Uh Cody Glass as the 4C I would have liked a lot more than 3C. Um but it is what it is. The center depth is not there. And so Cody Glass is a 3C for now. Hopefully he could perform with these two guys. And Conor Brown just a veteran with tons of experience. must have nightmares of the Panthers nightly after going to the cup finals and losing to them in back-to-back years. But he’s going to bring all that experience and leadership to this group and I’m liking the mixture. But that third line, Palot, Glass, and Brown is going to be very interesting. And then we get to the fourth line and this might be one of the at least on paper and from the small preseason sample we got, this might be one of the better and more exciting fourth lines in recent memory for the New Jersey Devils. Paul Carter at left wing, Luke Glendenning at center, and Arsini Gritsuk at right wing. And oh baby, oh baby. If they stay together, this could be one of the best, if not the best fourth line in the national. I think they have that type of capability. Carter and Gritsuk together have looked like magic during the preseason. Both have incredible speed. Carter’s got crazy hands. He brings that intensity a little. That sandpaper, he’ll go smash, guys. Single season hit leader for the Devils in franchise history. It’s only been tracked, I think, for about 20 20 years or so. I forget when they started tracking hits, but Paulie Carter’s got the record from last season. And Gritsuk, speed, vision, insane shot, all the Devils goalies in camp talked about his release. And I think the sky is the limit for this fourth line. We’ll see how long Gritsuk stays there. I know a lot of people are just clamoring for him to get top six minutes, but what I’ve seen with him and Carter, they’re they’re going to really give fourth lines across the league a big problem because it is going to be hard for a lot of fourth lines to skate with these guys. And I think they’re going to expose fourth lines regularly. And if they stay together, I think it’s going to be a whole season of just dominating the opposition’s fourth lines. I’m expecting big years out of Cotter and Gritsuk. Both actually will be looking for new deals after this year. So that’s kind of an interesting motivating factor I think for a lot of guys as well, you know, but going to be a very interesting fourth line for as long as they’re together. Paulie Carter, Gritsuk with Glen Denning in the middle. And then we get to the power play units. Oh man, we talked about that earlier in this video. The power play was phenomenal last season. I expected to be phenomenal again. We look at the first power play unit. Dawson Mercer, Nicoisher, Jesper Brat, Luke Hughes, and Jack Hughes. Fire power. Firepower everywhere. And many people were wondering, is Luke going to be Power Play One quarterback? Is it going to be Douggee? Well, for now, we have our answer. It will be Luke Hughes. And this is lethal. Dawson Mercer, Nico, Jasper Brat, Luke Hughes, and Jack Hughes. I mean, wow. Wow. Good luck to the goalies on the other team during this power play. I expect this power play to be absolutely phenomenal. And that’s just the first unit. Love that first unit. We get to the second unit. Also deadly. Evani Dadenov, Arsini Gritsuk, Andre Palot, Teimo Meyer, and Douggee Hamilton. That is quite a sexy second power play unit if I do say so myself. I mean, wow. Wow. This power play, it’s going to perform. It’s going to perform regularly, and I cannot wait for it. I hope I feel like it could be slightly conspiracy theory stuff, but at some point last year when the Devils power play was redot, it seemed like the referees were very hesitant to call penalties on the other team because they didn’t want to put the Devils on the power play because it was nearly automatic for a stretch. Every time we went on the power play, we were just scoring. I mean, it was completely crazy. When I look at the moves made in this roster overall, it’s hard for me to not be very excited. I’m not going to lie. Uh I try to kind of keep my expectations and hopes down and not get too carried away, especially entering the new season. But how are you not going to be excited for a clean slate? A new season of New Jersey Devils hockey is upon us. And I like the team. I really do. Obviously, I wish we got the top six winger that everyone wanted to play with Jack and Brad, but it was going to be hard to do with the salary cap situation. Maybe one is added at the deadline, but for now, I think a lot of fans of other teams and GMs of other teams are pretty damn jealous of our team overall. This is a very solid team. I do like the veterans added. I always thought for the past few seasons that the group was still a little too young and inexperienced to really make a deep playoff push. But when you add veterans like Connor Brown, Dadenov, Glen Denning, guys that have been on cup contending teams or cup contenderish type teams and winning playoff rounds to add them to your group on and off the ice is invaluable. I think they are going to help tremendously and I think it kind of morphed the team from uh a team that’s kind of in transition to a team that is truly ready to compete now. Now obviously we need to stay healthy. Everything about this season is going to hinge entirely on health. If we stay relatively healthy, I think this team is prime to do some damage. Prime to do some damage. And some predictions. cuz I’m not going to make a ton of them and I’m not going to make any crazy, you know, wild predictions. First prediction, I think Jack Hughes plays 75 games or more and registers 100 plus points. Would love to see it. I think this is going to be Jack’s biggest season thus far. I think he has a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. I think he’s kind of seen some of the nonsense, you know, floating around the interwebs, uh, whether it’s on social media or whatever. And I think he is going to silence a lot of people this season. I think he’s played 75 plus games for Jack and over 100 points. Prediction number one. The next prediction, I don’t think this is much of a prediction, but more of a whatever. The bottom six will consistently produce. Last season, there was no production. The bottom six was a black hole. And on nights where the top six couldn’t get anything going, night night, game over, Devils struggle and get shut out. I think we got shut out eight or nine times last year. Completely disgusting. And a lot of that I have to put on the bottom six. when the top dogs weren’t getting it done. The bottom six did absolutely nothing and it was a travesty. Absolute travesty. The bottom six this year will constantly produce for this team throughout the year and it is going to be a beautiful improvement. Next prediction, my man Dawson Mercer gets back to that 2223 production. Uh in 2223 he had 27 goals, 29 assists for 56 points. I think he finishes with very similar numbers this season. top six minutes power play one opportunity at the moment and I think he gets back to around that level. I’d love to see him get 60 plus points, but he’s going to get back to around where he was in 22 23. And I think that’s kind of the root of a lot of people’s, I guess, frustration or disappointment with him is that so early on in his career, he had that 56-point season during that magical 22 23 season for the Devils. And I think people were just expecting it to always be at that level or more. Keep in mind, Dawson Mercer is only 23 years old. He turns 24 in a few weeks, but a very young player in this league. Still has plenty of developing to do, plenty of lessons to learn, and I think it was just slightly unrealistic expectations for him from a lot of the fans based on that 22 23 season, but I think he gets back there or better this year. We’d love to see 60 plus out of him, but I think he’s definitely going to be good for, you know, 55ish points or so at a minimum. And the more the merrier, but Mercer has a big bounceback year and hopefully silences a lot of the critics. And then we get to the wildcard kind of exciting story of the season. Areni Gritsuk coming over from the KHL. Nearly a point per game guy last season. Tons of people with crazy high hopes and dreams for this kid. There’s been predictions of wild point totals and goal totals. Uh people talking about he’s definitely going to be in the top six and all the, you know, all the wild stuff you’d expect. But I’m trying to again have reasonable expectations for a young guy coming over from Russia in his first season in North America. Assuming he stays in the bottom six for the majority of the year, I think Gritsuk has a solid year. And I’m going to go 23 goals and 22 assists for him for 45 points. I think that’d be a solid rookie campaign for him. Now, should he claw his way into the top six for any duration of time and get more power play time than anticipated? Maybe he does sniff 60. I think it’s very possible. I think the skill is there. It’s just going to be a matter of, you know, is he on that bottom six or does he get into the top six at some point? But I do think 23 goals, 22 assists for 45 points for him. Solid rookie season. And then his kind of running mate for the moment, Paulie Carter. Love Paul Carter. I’ve talked about him just at length several times. Love his game. He’s a definitely a bit of a throwback player to me. I always like those kind of guys. And I think Paul Carter has a career year and I’m going 20 goals for Paulie with 18 assists for 38 points from Paul Carter and some solid hitting and ferociousness brought into that bottom six. Um going to be a great year for Paulie as well. Again, I mentioned before, looking for a new deal after this season. So, that’s always a little bit of an extra motivator. And then we get to Shimo Nemitz, a guy that also has kind of split the fan base at various points last season. I think Nemits primarily was just in his head last year. You know, he’s he was in Udica for a while, then he came up. He was in in the, you know, in the box watching the games, not playing. Then he finally gets his chance, has a pretty big playoff for the Devils, scores that massive double overtime um game-winning goal. And I think that did just absolute wonders for his confidence in his overall game. And I think this year he finally claims a spot as a full-time NHL. And I think he continues to develop into the stud that we all want to see him become. And I think Nemitz fairly quickly into the season will kind of assert himself as that guy and everyone’s going to be like, “Okay, there’s no more worries about Nemitz. He is what we thought and a bright future for him as well.” And he’s going to get a massive payday after this season and I hope it doesn’t lead to him being a casualty because I would love to see Nemits here for the long haul. But that’s another interesting thing to kind of keep an eye on. And then we go to my man in Marky. Oh man, do I love Marky. You guys all know I love Marky. had a great start to the season last year was in the early Vzna candidate conversation. I mean, it was always Hella Buck’s trophy to win, but I think Marky was definitely on the verge of being a nominee had he continued his play, but unfortunately suffered that injury, missed a bunch of time, and you know, he had uh was kind of a little bit of an up and down after he came back. But overall, I think Marky is going to be a man on a mission this year. I think he’s going to be dialed in and I think Marky wins 30 games or more for your New Jersey Devils. I really do. I’m going to be very curious to see how they manage the starts between him and Jake Allen. I’ve talked about, you know, the sports analytics and the sports science where they don’t let these starters play anywhere near as many games as they used to let starters play, but I I would like to see Marky start 54 55 games or so. It might be closer to 50, but I think like 54ish uh would be a good number for him. him and I think he gets the 30 wins. I really do. Marky, a solid season. And uh wow, this has been going on for a while. I’m kind of fatigued here. But in summary, if most of the things I just talked about happen in conjunction with some other things, I’m not going to sit here and make a prediction for every single guy, but uh there’s a lot of kind of question marks for some of the other guys in the lineup and everything, but if most of the things I just mentioned happen, I think it’s gonna be a great season. And I’m going that the Devils will finish 4829 and5 which will be good for 101 points and a second place finish in the Metro. I really was deliberating if I have them winning the division, but I think I just think it’s it’s not their time yet to win the division. And in the end, who cares about winning the division, right? The Panthers didn’t win the division last year. They won what mattered. They won the cup. So, I got the Devils going 48-29 and five, 101 point season. Very solid. Second in the Metro. And in terms of the playoffs, I think this is the year they take that next step, guys. I really do. I think they go to the Eastern Conference Finals or further. Eastern Conference Finals or bust or bust. They must win two rounds this year. They won a first round in 22 23 and have not replicated that success since. I have said a million times, making the playoffs is nothing to celebrate. It should be the kind of norm. It shouldn’t be something to talk about. Back in the back in my day, during the glory days of the Devils, making the playoffs every single year was our birthright. You knew it was going to happen. The only question was, can this team win the cup? We know we’re going to the playoffs. Can we win the cup? And I’m hoping this year can really cement the Devils as a perennial contender. It’s long overdue. I really was duped into believing the 22 23 season was the start of that and unfortunately that was not the case. That may have been a season of somewhat fool’s gold and a lot of people have had all different theories about that but in the end here we are more veteran team little more experience for some of the core guys. We have win now goalies and net in Marky and Jake Allen and I think they take that next step and I think we do get to the Eastern Conference Finals or further and call me crazy and I’ve talked about this before as well. I do think this team is capable of winning the cup. Now, I’m not gonna I’m not picking them to win the cup, and I’m not saying they’re a cup favorite, but back to last year’s kind of motto for me was why not us? Why not us? If they stay healthy, if a bunch of things go their way, I do think they’re capable of beating any team on any given night. And I think they could go on a magical run. I really do. They are capable of winning the cup in my opinion. Now, obviously, I would like the team a lot better again with a top six winger and a 3C, but as it stands right now, this roster is fairly solid in my opinion. And I will like it more if we make some um deadline day moves obviously and bolster the roster a little bit. And who knows, that might be in Fitz’s bag of tricks. If this team is playing well, approaching the deadline, maybe he says, you know what, it’s time for me to put some chips in the middle and really make a push to win now. And I hope he does. If the team is looking like what we expect them to look like, I hope we see some meaningful deadline moves. That’s been my one of my biggest personal criticisms of Fitz along with many of you is the inactive regular seasons. Um does a lot in the off season and I I gave him his props after the 23 24 season where it all just fell apart. He realized that the goalending and defense were atrocious and he he blew it up and rebuilt the whole damn thing. trades for Marky, signs uh Peshi, signs Brendan Dylan, he robs Kovasvich in a trade from Montreal and he revamped the whole thing in one off season and it paid off. You saw you saw the results last year. The defense and goalending was not the main issue. The main issue was scoring goals largely in part to a bottom six that was just abysmal. Completely abysmal. But there it is folks. Uh my season preview predictions. I think it’s going to be a great year for the Devils. I’m super pumped. I would love to see them make the conference finals or obviously go further. Uh if they win the Stanley Cup anytime in the near future, I I don’t even know what I would do. I’d be elated and beside myself. I may not sleep for the first week after they win the cup. I don’t even know. It’d be wild times, but let’s just get off to a good regular season. Uh but I’m super jacked. Opening up in Raleigh. would love to give them a little little shot in the mouth during their home opener in game one and give them a nice loss on their home ice. But let me know what you guys think about anything I said in this video. Give me some of your hot takes or your bold predictions. Whatever you have, throw it out there in the comments. Uh follow your boy on X and Instagram. Um check the link in the description. I’ll have the links for both of those in the description. Follow me on X, follow me on Instagram. I’m trying to get more involved on both of those platforms and doing some different things in different places. So, if you kind of want to see everything that’s going on, follow me on both of those. I have a massive giveaway show coming up. I’m hoping to do it in the next few weeks. Uh, I’m going to be giving away a ton of Devil’s memorabilia, apparel, merchandise, all kinds of stuff spanning the last 20, 30 years from all different eras. Uh, and it should be fun. So, keep your eyes peeled for that. But follow me on X and Instagram. There’s going to be certain items that are exclusive giveaways to those platforms. I haven’t narrowed all the details uh down yet, but uh it’s going to be a live show. There’s going to be a bunch of different ways to win. Some of it will involve like reposting something. Some of it will be trivia. Some will be like, I guess the number thing. Uh some of it will be team history questions. Some will be questions more pertaining to the channel to try to uh reward those that have been watching for a while. But it’s going to be a little bit of everything. And there’s going to be hats, maybe some shirts, signed items, pucks, all kinds of stuff. So, keep your eyes peeled for that. But I’m fired up, guys. Hockey is finally back. It’s been way too long. One of the longer summers I could remember, or at least it felt like that. But I look forward to talking to all of you throughout the season. Uh, if you’re not familiar with the postgame live, after MSG goes off the air with the postgame show, I come on and do a postgame live where I talk about the game with all of you. I pull up a bunch of comments. I react to the comments. Uh, and it’s usually a pretty good time. So, if you’re not familiar with that, check out the live tab of the channel. That will be back for the season. I have some other things in the works as well. There’s always things in the works. I got tons of ideas. Uh, limited time and resources, but I’m trying to bring everything to fruition that I can. I have some some grand plans, though, guys. We’re just we’re just getting started with this thing. Buckle up, baby. Running with the Devils is coming out with a ton of exciting stuff throughout the season. But that’s all I got for you now. Uh, this was a long one. If you’re if you made it this far, I really appreciate it. Uh, thank you guys for watching. Appreciate all the support. This has been really fun. Great community that we’ve all built here together as New Jersey Devils fans. And I’m just hoping for a big season and I am super pumped for the year. And I think a lot of these guys are pumped as well. And they’re looking for a redemption season. That’s all I got for you now, but throw it all out there in the comments. Your predictions, your whatever you got, throw it out there. Anything, everything New Jersey Devils hockey. Thank you all for watching. I love you all. Like, comment, subscribe, and all that jazz. Until next time, friends. Let’s go devil.

The New Jersey Devils will open up their 2025-2026 season tonight in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes.

In this video I give a preview of the upcoming season and make some predictions.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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