News Devils Team Notes

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils in the Details – 8/15/25: Floor and Ceiling Edition

Here are your links for today:

Devils Links​

“The Devils added some new pieces to the mix but getting more from the guys they already had could improve their floor and ceiling.” A look at three players who the Devils need more from: [Infernal Access ($)]

“The Devils’ expectations should be to move from playoff to championship contender. However, barring an unforeseen breakout performance, they’re running the risk of being a three-seed or wild card, who could bow out in one of the first two rounds of the playoffs.” [New Jersey Hockey Now]

On what’s ahead for Nathan Légaré: “Everybody wants to make the New Jersey Devils, but at the same time, I think you have to be realistic. It is not the end of the world if you go back to Utica. You work hard, and you never know what can happen.” [The Hockey News]

Hockey Links​

“The question we’re asking is, if they decided to drop the puck on a new NHL season tomorrow, how would the teams stack up? Basically, it’s a regular ol’ power ranking like you’ll find all season long on Sportsnet.ca, but dropped when most players are still swinging sticks on the golf course.” An offseason power ranking: [Sportsnet]

Does a quickly rising cap mean less parity? “It’s going to take time for the new CBA to affect roster construction and, by extension, team quality. Likely three or four years. We saw this offseason how much teams scrambled to lock up their existing talent and how weak an already-thin free agent class was as a result.” [The Athletic ($)]

“The widows of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau used the occasion of what would have been Johnny’s 32nd birthday to formally launch a foundation to honor the late hockey players.” [USA Today]

Congrats to a couple old friends:

Ink for life Champs for life

Tomáš Nosek and Vitek Vaněček are doing their @StanleyCup celebrations right!

: @NHLcz pic.twitter.com/3ZuHIQeven

— NHLPA (@NHLPA) August 14, 2025

Feel free to discuss these and any other hockey-related stories in the comments below.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...the-details-8-15-25-floor-and-ceiling-edition

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Can Ondrej Palat Bounce Back for the New Jersey Devils?

Since signing with the team in the 2022 offseason, Ondrej Palat has found himself maligned by much of the New Jersey Devils fanbase because of the disparity between his salary and on-ice production. Palat’s 34 goals and 48 assists in 197 regular season games for the Devils puts him at an average of 34 points per 82 games played, down from an average of 55 points per full season in Tampa Bay. That would be steady enough production for a third-line winger with good defensive play, but Palat is coming into his fourth year of a five-year deal worth an average of $6,000,000 per season. His contract has been slightly front-loaded, meaning that he is only making $4.95 million per season at this point of the deal.

As a Devil, Palat has failed to even match his career-low in points as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, which was 34 points in 64 games in his age-27 season in 2018-19. His 31 points in 71 games in 2023-24 remains his high-point in a Devils uniform, excluding playoff performance. With the amount of consternation directed towards the Devils’ cap situation and the frustration fans have with how long it has taken to sign Luke Hughes (training camp is but a month from today for veterans), this level of production is widely considered unacceptable. But, in the interest of being charitable to Palat, I have to ask: with only two years left on his deal, is it possible that Ondrej Palat has a bounce-back season with the New Jersey Devils?

The Mixed Underlyings​

We know that the production has been poor from Palat in New Jersey. That isn’t really even debatable, even giving him consideration for his lack of power play time. Rated on a per-60 minute basis, Palat’s even strength scoring rate has declined each season in New Jersey. Meanwhile, his on-ice shot rates took a massive step back in the 2024-25 season, leading to Palat having a net-negative on-ice goal rate for a second year in a row.

Digging in further, though, HockeyViz shows a largely negative picture for Palat’s with-or-without-yous. Most concerningly, Palat was largely incapable of creating offense without Jack Hughes or Jesper Bratt. Beyond that, Dougie Hamilton, Brenden Dillon, and Luke Hughes found their expected goals against spike when on the ice with Palat, while seeing no improvement in offensive rates.

Palat’s impacts look similar on Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM charts. Palat being on the ice leads to a large-scale increase in shots and chances against, indicating some level of dysfunction for Palat within Sheldon Keefe’s system. His impact on goals scored by the Devils is not incredibly negative, but the defensive woes are enough to give any fan pause about the idea of continuing to use Palat in any top six role, while making it seem unlikely that he will bounce back at age 34.

However, not all data on Palat is negative. Corey Sznajder’s All Three Zones paints a picture of Palat that indicates he could be an offensive contributor if he finds himself on the right line in the right situations. Palat is particularly proficient at creating rebounds, deflecting shots, and working the puck back to the point for shots on goal. However, he does not get many of his passes into dangerous scoring areas, nor does he receive passes around the slot for high-danger chances. Palat is more of a rush-and-cycle forward, who doesn’t really get in very quick on forechecks, but can be well-positioned to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

Still, All Three Zones’s data has some very negative showings on the defensive side. Palat simply has the puck far too often in the defensive zone, which leads to many failed exits off of defensive zone puck retrievals (turnovers), though he still gets the puck out of the zone a lot more than an average forward because of his sheer volume of puck touches in that zone.

What to Do with Palat​

To that end, Palat may be best suited on a line with a center who is very defensively responsible and does not need a winger to handle those kinds of plays. This may be why Palat had strong expected numbers on a line with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier in the playoffs. However, I think a more appropriate role for him would be on a line with Cody Glass, on the third or fourth line. Glass is very strong defensively but struggles to create consistent offense. In a bottom six role, Palat can also focus more on getting to the net and trying to deflect point shots (like he did below on a Cody Glass shot).

Beyond an even strength role change, Palat also showed a lot of promise as a penalty killing forward over the last year. This is somewhere else he could find himself playing many minutes with Glass. In 28 minutes on the penalty kill in 2024-25, Palat scored a goal and did not see a single goal against. In his Devils career, Palat has been on the ice for two shorthanded goals and three power play goals against in a bit over 74 penalty killing minutes. So why has Palat, who twice played over 100 shorthanded minutes for Tampa Bay, not been given a larger special teams role here? Given where he is in his career, the Devils need to maximize the situations where Palat excels the most. If anything, it could give him a boost of confidence in his all-around game.

While fans have been disappointed with Palat’s on-ice production, I have to imagine that Palat, a highly-respected professional, is probably himself disappointed with his play with the Devils. He has shown flashes of the playoff performer he was brought in to be, and if Corey Perry showed me anything in the recent Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s not to count any player out due to aging. Smart players have a way of getting back to a high level of play, even when they cannot accomplish things the same way they did when they were in their 20s. So, will Palat bounce back? I’m not sure. His defensive metrics do not look fantastic, but he was a part of a dominant top playoff line with Hischier and Meier. Had Jack Hughes not been out for the season by that point, I think that playoff series would have looked a lot different, and Palat would have been able to continue showing why he was brought in by Fitzgerald in the first place.

I am also cautiously optimistic about Palat’s ability to chip in bottom six production. He had a solid rate of chances at five-on-five over the last season, and he converted at a career-high 15.6% of shots. With four of those goals coming from deflection chances, Palat fell just one short of his career-high in deflection goals, set in 2019-20. Perhaps if Palat also finds himself on the right wing, on a line with Cotter and Glass, he could also see an increase in wrist shot conversion (Palat historically finds himself a better shooter on his off-wing, per HockeyViz). There are certainly ways to put Palat in a position to contribute, but it is on Sheldon Keefe to identify them and be consistent with keeping Palat in those roles.

Your Thoughts​

What have you thought of Ondrej Palat in a Devils uniform? With his place on the roster all but guaranteed at this point, what are your hopes and expectations for him? Do you think he can bounce back? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...j-palat-bounce-back-for-the-new-jersey-devils

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils in the Details – 8/18/25: Another Step Edition

Here are your links for today:

Devils Links​

Can Jack Hughes remain healthy? Who replaces injured defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic to begin the season? Are there any players expected to make their NHL debut and remain with the team all season out of training camp? Three questions for the Devils heading into the season: [NHL.com]

Assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon: “To put it succinctly, it’s time to take another step. I think those are the expectations from ownership on down, expectations of ourselves and the players in that room. We were a little bit derailed by some injuries last season but got into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and, I thought, played pretty competitive hockey against the Carolina Hurricanes (in a five-game series loss in the Eastern Conference First Round).” [NHL.com]

“The Devils’ lack of a true breakout player hurt them in 2024-25. Their season probably could have looked a bit different if Mercer looked closer to his 2022-23 self or Nemec hadn’t struggled through an injury. It’ll need to be different this coming season, and if it is, they should improve on the 91 points they totaled last year.” [Devils on the Rush]

A deep-dive into the organization’s prospects pool: [Devils’ Advocates]

Hockey Links​

A look at who has scored the most hat tricks for each NHL franchise:

A look around the league assessing each team’s defensive depth chart: [TSN]

The Hockey Diversity Alliance turns five years old: “The HDA’s first successful youth hockey program was in the greater Toronto area in 2022: free hockey clinics for children between 6 and 15 years old from diverse communities. The HDA has run clinics for the past three years. Its early pilot programs had around 220 young athletes. (Akim) Aliu estimates that the HDA has 1,500 young players involved in its programs ‘playing hockey completely free of cost,’” with programs running 22 to 26 weeks.” [ESPN]

Feel free to discuss these and any other hockey-related stories in the comments below.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...s-in-the-details-8-18-25-another-step-edition

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Current Devils Taking Aim At Franchise Records

We all know the names. Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer, Daneyko, Driver, MacLean…these are the legends etched in New Jersey Devils history books. The golden age of the franchise, circa 1994-2003, saw a lot of players put up numbers that I think most Devils fans assumed would not be approached for a long, long time. And this has turned out to be true, as the top of the leaderboards in some major categories have remained the same for eons.

But that golden age was a long time ago, and a new era of Devils are starting to approach those ancient records.

At the risk of spoiling my own article, there aren’t really any major franchise records that are in danger of falling during the 2025-26 season. But we could still see some significant movement near the top of those leaderboards, and it’s worth pointing out just how close some players are to reaching the mountaintop. So as we gear up for another season of New Jersey Devils hockey, let’s take a step back and see who is poised to challenge for some history in 2025-26.

Career Goals​

Patrik Elias holds the record in this category (get used to seeing some variation of that sentence in this piece). His 408 goals is far and away the franchise record, 61 clear of John MacLean’s 347.

But in third on that list? Believe it or not, it could be Nico Hischier very soon.

The current Devils captain is already 7th on the franchise list with 171 goals. Ahead of him are Kirk Muller in 6th (185), Zach Parise in 5th (194), and then a tie for 3rd/4th between Travis Zajac and Bobby Holik (202 apiece). A quick trip to the calculator tells us that Hischier is 31 goals away from making it a three-way tie for 3rd, and 32 away from sole possession of 3rd. He just notched a career-high 35 goals in 2024-25, and he has another 30-goal campaign (31 in 2022-23) under his belt, so climbing to third place is well within reach for Hischier this season.

The other two players that could enter the top-10 in this category are Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. The closer of the two is Bratt at 150, but Hughes isn’t far behind at 141. After Hischier in 7th, the rest of the top 10 is Pat Verbeek (170), Petr Sykora (166), and Aaron Broten (162). If Hughes can put together a fully healthy season, both him and Bratt should easily enter the top-10. Parise’s 194 is almost certainly out of reach for both, but they should be able to “overtake” Hischier’s current mark of 171, and maybe even get to Kirk Muller’s 185. Even if they don’t quite get there, by the time the season is over the Devils should have 30% of the franchise’s top-10 goal scorers on the current roster.

Career Goals, Defensemen​

Ok so what about goals scored among defensemen in franchise history? That record belongs to Scott Niedermayer, whose 112 is head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. In fact, Niedermayer is the only defenseman in franchise history to crack the century mark in goals (19 ahead of Scott Stevens’ 93).

But much like the first category we looked at, there is a current Devil in 7th place here too: Dougie Hamilton. Yes, Hamilton’s 45 goals with the Devils is already good enough to place him in the top-10, ahead of Brian Rafalski (44), Rob Ramage (41), and Barry Beck (37).

One clarification before I move on: Ramage and Beck never actually played in New Jersey, as they only suited up for the franchise during the Colorado Rockies days. I know a lot of outlets (including the Devils themselves) like to forget the Kansas City/Colorado days ever happened, but I’m including them here. To me, franchise records are just that: franchise records. We all know those weren’t great days for the franchise, but those numbers still count. So Ramage and Beck (and part of Broten’s goal total in the first category for that matter) are getting their due here.

Anyway, Hamilton is currently 7th on the list. And with a healthy 2025-26, he could move up a few more spots. Niedermayer and Stevens are out of reach at the top. So too is Bruce Driver in 3rd (83). But after Driver, there’s a big dropoff to 4th place, where we see Damon Severson (yes, really) with 58 goals. Beyond that is Joe Cirella in 5th (50), and Andy Greene in 6th (49). I’ll put it this way: If Hamilton doesn’t pass Greene and Cirella this year, we’ll all be supremely disappointed. Assuming nothing catastrophic happens and Hamilton passes those two, he will enter the franchise’s top-5. Overtaking Severson is possible, but it will take good injury luck and a return to shooting form for Hamilton, who had a down year in this regard.

Career Points​

This is another category where we could see all of Hischier, Hughes, and Bratt enter the top-10. Bratt is already there actually, sitting in 9th at 447 points. He’s just ahead of Stevens’ 430. The rest of the top-8 is Elias (1,025), an enormous chasm, MacLean (701), Zajac (550), Muller (520), Scott Gomez (484), Niedermayer (476), Holik (472), and Broten (469).

Bratt has been a point machine over the past four seasons, scoring 73 in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, 83 in 2023-24, and 88 last season. Let’s say he gets to 80 in 2025-26. That would place him just ahead of Muller and into 4th on the franchise list. Meanwhile, Hischier is at 422 career points. He’s been good for around 70 points the past couple seasons, so if we pencil him in for that again, he would overtake Gomez.

Hughes is the biggest wildcard, being more capable of skyrocketing up this list than Bratt or Hischier, but also more prone to injury than both of them. If Hughes can stay healthy in 2025-26, I really don’t think 100 points is out of the question. If he can get there, his current career total of 351 points would shoot all the way up to 451. This would be good enough to crack the top-10 list as it’s currently constructed, but if we assume Hischier also makes the list this season at the total we “projected” for him, that would raise the bar for entry. In that case, Hughes would need to reach Broten’s total of 469, meaning he’d need to explode for 118 points. I do think Hughes is talented enough to reach that plateau, especially as he enters his prime. But obviously that’s a tall order.

Goaltender Wins​

Here’s the odd duality of having Martin Brodeur as part of the franchise: Every conceivable goaltending record is automatically out of reach, but the battle for the rest of the leaderboard is absolutely thriving.

Brodeur’s 688 wins with the Devils is silly. It’s not really even a record anymore, as calling it a record would imply that it’s an attainable goal. It is not an attainable goal, it is a painting in a museum, safely secured behind velvet rope and bullet-proof glass, there to be admired from afar and never, ever approached. However, the rest of the top-10 is shockingly attainable. All the way down in second place is Chris Terreri with his 118 wins. From there, we see the likes of Cory Schneider (115), Chico Resch (67), Mackenzie Blackwood (65), Keith Kinkaid (64), Sean Burke (62), Alain Chevrier (53), Vitek Vanecek (50), and Craig Billington (43).

Read that list again. I don’t know about you, but it is utterly baffling to me that players like Blackwood, Kinkaid, and Vanecek rank so highly. But again, that’s what happens when the crease is occupied by a single goalie for two decades. That also means since Brodeur left, New Jersey’s goaltending situation has been a mess. Though to be fair, the first few seasons of the post-Brodeur Devils enjoyed some genuinely elite goaltending thanks to Schneider.

In any case, even though he’s only been here for one season, Jacob Markstrom has a great chance to break into the top-10 this season. He registered 26 wins in 2024-25, and if he reaches that total again, he will surpass Vanecek for 8th all-time. If he can get to 30 wins, he would also pass Chevrier, and if he somehow manages to get to 40 wins, then all of a sudden he is 5th in franchise history in goaltender wins.

I don’t think Jake Allen will get into the top-10 this season, though he does have an outside chance. He posted 13 wins in 2024-25, and when combined with his six victories in New Jersey after coming over at the 2024 trade deadline, he enters this season with 19 wins as a Devil. If we assume Markstrom cracks the list, that would mean Allen has to overtake Vanecek’s 50 wins. I don’t think Allen is reaching 31 wins in 2025-26, but I suppose if Markstrom gets hurt and Allen has a good year, it’s doable.

Shutouts​

Again, Brodeur’s record here is unattainable. He has 124 shutouts, and next on the list is Schneider with 17. This is another category where even one good season can shake things up. Case in point, both Markstrom and Allen are already tied for 7th all-time in franchise history with four shutouts each. The New Jersey Devils goaltending record list is hilarious.

Neither Markstrom or Allen are catching Schneider for 2nd place, but there is still room for them to move up. Directly in front of them are Kinkaid and Terreri with seven shutouts, and just above them are Blackwood and Johan Hedberg tied for 3rd all-time with eight clean sheets. Markstrom and Allen can absolutely move into third place this season, which is sort of remarkable by itself.

The Rookie Scoring Records​

We could also call this the “Arseni Gritsyuk” section, considering he’s the only rookie poised to make a big impact with the Devils this season. Instead of career records that long-term Devils are marching toward, let’s take a quick look at some rookie marks that Gritsyuk could chase in his first season in North America.

First, the rookie points record. That one belongs to Scott Gomez during the 1999-2000 season when he registered an impressive 70 points. I don’t think this one is all that realistic for Gritsyuk, even though he’s a seasoned vet of professional hockey at this point. To reach 70, Gritsyuk would almost certainly need to fight his way into the top six and stay there all season, AND get a ton of power play time. The former is doable, but the latter probably is not considering that even someone like Timo Meier can’t get PP1 time on this team. Consider this a long shot.

The franchise goalscoring record for a rookie, however, is more attainable. The overall franchise record is Paul Gardner’s 30 in 1976-77 for the Rockies. In fact, the top four rookie goal-scoring seasons happened prior to the franchise’s move to the Garden State, with Wilf Paiement (26 goals in 1974-75 for the Scouts), Paul Gagne (25 goals in 1980-81 for the Rockies), and Barry Beck (22 goals in 1977-78 for the Rockies) rounding out the top four. If you’re going by this number (which I personally would), the record is much more daunting. It’s still possible, especially considering Gritsyuk is widely regarded as being a really good shooter, but it’ll be tough. If you’re just going by the New Jersey part of franchise history, however, then all of a sudden Gritsyuk is in great shape. Back in 1982-83, Jeff Larmer potted 21 goals in the franchise’s first season in New Jersey. I think Gritsyuk has a great shot at getting to 21 goals to tie the record, and 22-plus to break the record. This one should be well within reach, though again, that would require ignoring the existence of the Rockies and Scouts.

Finally, the record for assists by a rookie in a single season is again Gomez in 99-00, with 51 helpers. We’ll make this quick: I don’t think Gritsyuk is sniffing this. By all accounts, he’s more of a scorer than a playmaker, so 51 assists is not happening.

Final Thoughts and Your Take​

As I mentioned at the top, we won’t be seeing any big time franchise records set this season. But players like Hischier, Hughes, Bratt, and Hamilton are nearing the top in some major categories. Add in Gritsyuk in rookie categories, and we could see a lot of movement among Devils leaderboards. I think players like these are appreciated for what they are right now, but pretty soon, we’ll have to start thinking about their place in franchise history as a whole. It’s entirely possible that 10 or more years from now, we look back on this era of Devils hockey, regardless of whether this core wins a Cup, and we say to ourselves that we were watching some of the greatest players to ever wear the black and red.

What do you make of the chase for some of these records? Even though none of the overall records are in jeopardy, are you at all interested in these players climbing the leaderboards? How far up do you think we will see them climb? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...urrent-devils-taking-aim-at-franchise-records