RSS Devils Team Notes

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #29: New Jersey Devils at Boston Bruins

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (16-11-1) at Boston Bruins (16-13-0).

The Time: 7:00pm EST

The Broadcast: MSG, Devils Hockey Radio

The Game Preview: I had the preview today.

The Song of the Day: Devils fans are sick of losing, but they’re Used to Bad News. Hopefully, they don’t get more in Boston tonight.

The Rules: If you have been a reader here, you already know the rules. But for the rest, a reminder: please do not swear in the comment section, and keep comments relevant to the hockey game going on. Beyond that, do not attack any other commenters, and do not ask for or pass along illegal streams on this board.

LGD!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ethread-29-new-jersey-devils-at-boston-bruins

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Essentially Lifeless: The New Jersey Devils Organization is Faltering, Part One: The Roster

When I wrote the Devils’ November Month in Review, the Devils were in first place in the Metropolitan Division. They were in second place in the Eastern Conference. Since then, four games to start December, stringing a five-game losing streak along, has slipped the Devils to 10th in the Eastern Conference, now with more games played than most of the conference and without a points percentage (.569) that puts them on pace to make the playoffs.

The Devils have a lot of problems, as exposed on the ice by the recent injury suffered by Jack Hughes at a team dinner. But these failings run from top to bottom. The front office has made missteps and is habitually too slow to respond. Their organizational depth is weak. The coaching staff is not consistently putting the roster they do have in the best position to win. Some coaches have been getting particularly bad results in their area of expertise. If you were to run down every person’s job performance, they might not look their best this season, good standings start aside.

The truth is that the aforementioned Month in Review showed several deep flaws in the roster’s underlying performance. At five-on-five, the Devils ranked 26th in high-danger chance percentage. They ranked 20th in expected goals against. Their power play, despite a then-good process, had the 28th-ranked shooting percentage in the league. Their penalty kill, which started well, fell off a cliff in November with the 30th-ranked expected goals against and shots against rates in the league, saved only by their goaltenders and shorthanded offense by the Devils’ top forwards. In the Part One of this early December Devils alarm bell, we will dive into how the roster’s underperformance and lack of shooting skill has finally come back to bite the team.

Before we get into the deeper issues, including the coaches and some of their decision making and schemes, the actual roster’s performance needs addressing. Here’s a preview: the depth has been atrocious, and only a couple players are carrying their share of the load of late.

Tom Fitzgerald’s Roster is Failing​

General Managers must be good at one thing above all: talent evaluation.

Jared recently went over Fitzgerald’s history of trades. While he has generally made good moves in this arena, he has had some particularly bad strings of moves. Right now, the Zacha for Haula and the subsequent Haula-for-nothing cap dump trades stick out like a sore thumb on this team. Having Cody Glass and Luke Glendening centering the bottom six is killing the team’s ability to run a competitive bottom six. Yes, Glass holds his own on the third line, with the Devils roughly playing even hockey at five-on-five. But Luke Glendening is incapable of being a center at his age in today’s NHL.

In 29 games, Glendening’s fourth lines have been outscored 11-3. For the most part, no combination of wingers have turned this line into something watchable, while several of the players tried on this line do vastly better up the lineup:

• Noesen with Glendening: 42.53 CF%, 1-4 GF-GA, 38.43 xGF%
• Noesen without Glendening: 53.82 CF%, 2-6 GF-GA, 51.97 xGF%
• Cotter with Glendening: 42.09 CF%, 1-8 GF-GA, 38.02 xGF%
• Cotter without Glendening: 44.63 CF%, 7-10 GF-GA, 39.30 xGF%
• Brown with Glendening: 31.43 CF%, 0-2 GF-GA, 30.65 xGF%
• Brown without Glendening: 48.91 CF%, 10-13 GF-GA, 41.45 xGF%

This is the incompatibility of a winger like Paul Cotter with a center like Luke Glendening. In the modern NHL, centers are reputed for their defensive ability but really derive most of their real value by driving offense. It is difficult to drive offense from the center position, and a subpar offensive center can quickly hold his line back. On the other hand, wingers can make lines fall apart with poor defensive play, even if they are offensively gifted. Having Luke Glendening, who can’t play offense, with Paul Cotter, who can’t play defense, is a recipe for disaster. At least with Noesen playing up the lineup, you can look to the team’s 2.63 shooting percentage in those 136 minutes for a reason things aren’t going well. But more on that later…

Erik Haula has 16 points in 28 games this season with a 53.2 faceoff win percentage out of over 300 draws, playing over 16 minutes a night. Pavel Zacha has 21 points in 29 games with a 51.9 faceoff win percentage in over 300 draws, playing over 17 minutes a night. Having either of those guys on the third line over the past several weeks could be the difference between a five-game losing streak like this one and a mildly unpleasant treading stretch. But this team isn’t even treading water.

This is not me saying that I do not think Luke Glendening provides nothing to the team. He is a good penalty killer. But he can, in fact, play that role from a less offensively important position. Shutdown fourth line wingers might not get on the scoresheet often, but they won’t hold their linemates back from scoring in the way Glendening seems to be this season from the center position. He does not get into the dirty areas to score often enough, he is not playing fast enough to get an occasional rush chance, and he is not winning enough on the boards to create chances for teammates.

The problem then really worsens when considering who else Fitzgerald signed this year. Juho Lammikko, who had not been in the NHL since the 2021-22 season, has been redundant. He is an offensively unskilled fourth line shutdown center. Lammikko, like Glendening, has seen the Devils score under 30% of the total goals in his ice time. All season, there has only been one time where Lammikko has looked good: when he is centering Stefan Noesen, without Glendening on the ice. In those limited minutes, the Devils outshot opponents 14-2, but Lammikko has been too unskilled to finish his chances, while not being a playmaker for his wings. Lammikko might have more in the tank as a fourth line center than Glendening, but they cannot be on the ice together. The redundancy worsens their combined defensive skills while gaining no offense in the process.

A GM who is following these trends might see that, while he needs depth scoring, he has unnecessarily doubled up the fourth line penalty killing winger who might be able to play center sometimes role. It might be cutthroat, but one of Glendening or Lammikko should be waived by the New Jersey Devils. But it does not end there.

Ondrej Palat, like Stefan Noesen, has played better hockey than his scoresheet production has indicated. I am not going to rip Palat on a “he can’t play hockey!” kind of tangent. He can, he plays well, but his hands seem to be what we call cooked. Maybe if he made the sort of move he made last night to set up Cody Glass in front of the net for Jack Hughes when the latter center was healthy, he might have a few more assists. But five points in 29 games is unacceptable for a man commanding a $6 million cap hit. At that price range, the Devils need goals:

Since Jack Hughes got hurt, the Devils have scored 25 all-situations goals. Nico Hischier (7) and Timo Meier (6) account for over half. The rest of the team has combined for 12 goals, with nine players being held without a goal in significant minutes.

Remember Dawson Mercer’s hot start to the season? Since going back to the second-line center role, he has one goal and four assists. That is unacceptable, as he is falling back to being the kind of player he was the last couple of seasons. Is he a little unlucky? Sure. Can the Devils take unlucky right now? No. On the wing, Connor Brown returned suddenly from an injury that appeared to be lingering, with the Devils pushing his timeline back until he magically recovered when Jack Hughes sliced his pinky on glass. Since returning, he has one goal and two assists. He had five goals and two assists in the 11 games he played before getting hurt, and he has not shown the same sort of speed with a nose for rush chances since returning.

In early May, I wrote an article titled, “The Curious Case of Paul Cotter: How Sheldon Keefe Can Unlock His Skill in 2025-26.” In this article, I wrote about how lines that featured Paul Cotter seemed to habitually fall apart on defense, while Cotter only managed one singular assist in his final 60 games played last season. Despite being an obviously talented goal scorer, I argued that Keefe needed to figure Cotter out if he wanted to be a productive NHLer. This has not happened. Paul Cotter still makes more extra hits than sound defensive plays. Paul Cotter is still not a passable playmaker. But worst of all: Paul Cotter is not scoring. Last season, Cotter had 16 goals on 12.11 individual expected goals. This season, that has fallen to two goals on 3.63 ixG, marking a decline from 0.7 ixG/60 minutes to 0.61/60 with his decline in conversion rate. As a result, the Devils have been outscored 18-8 (30.77 GF%) with Cotter on the ice at five-on-five this season, down from being outscored 43-27 (38.57 GF%). Cotter and the Devils are doing this with an xGF% of 38.75, down from his on-ice mark of 48.71 last season.

With none of the scoring forwards performing that integral aspect of their jobs, the pressure falls to the offensive defensemen in Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Simon Nemec to pick up the slack. But they have not, either. Dougie Hamilton, like Connor Brown, returned suddenly from an injury that kept him out for a string of games once Jack Hughes got hurt. Since then, he has one point in 11 games. Is Hamilton starting to look better? By my eye, he is starting to get into better scoring areas with the puck, but he is still goalless on 30 shots and 66 attempts in these 11 games. For a guy who was on a 20-goal pace before getting injured, who showed that ability between 2022-23 and when he got hurt the following season, this dry spell has cost the team points in the standings.

Luke Hughes has had a much different output following his brother’s injury this season in comparison to what he did in March and April. After Jack hurt his shoulder against Vegas, Luke had 18 points in 18 games, driving the power play to perfection with 10 power play points. This time around, Luke has six points in 12 games, including just two power play points. Of course, Luke has not been favored on the first power play this season, though that may need to change now that Dougie is pointless on the power play in far more playing time (24:00 to Luke’s 14:51) since Jack’s injury.

And despite claims that Simon Nemec would be better than Luke Hughes on the power play, Nemec is also pointless in 24:18 of power play ice time. Nemec’s three points since Jack’s injury is a massive blow to the team’s offense after the young defenseman had 10 points in the 12 prior games. Is some of this due to the constantly-shuffling pairings? Maybe. But all of these defensemen seeing their production slip after Jack Hughes’s injury is only exacerbating the lack of shooting skill among the forwards.

Who Should Stay, Who Should Go?​

More drastic fan responses might include wanting Fitzgerald to trade a member of the team’s apparent “core,” which includes Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes, and Dougie Hamilton alongside the injured Jack Hughes. Nico Hischier, as the team Captain, might attract more negative attention from some corners of the fanbase. But as mentioned earlier, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier are pretty much the top two players preventing the Devils from having gone 0-12-0 in the 12 games since Jack’s injury.

On the other hand, some may turn their ire to Jesper Bratt, whose shot has been ice cold this season. I get it, and I am frustrated with that, but Bratt is the only player aside from Hsichier to have double-digit points since Hughes’s injury. It’s no accident: Bratt is a far superior passer to just about everyone else on the team. If he were removed from the roster, I genuinely worry that the Devils’ rush offense would go from dry to nonexistent, while the team would have trouble even gaining the offensive zone from the defensive and neutral zones. From HockeyViz, just look at how much Bratt impacts the team’s offense compared to league average shot rates.

And then without:

Rather than trading away the three forward play drivers the team has left (or Arseny Gritsyuk, who is quickly heading in that direction), the front office needs to think hard about the makeup of the rest of the roster. If the Devils want to make an add, they are going to need to move not only big salaries, but unproductive ones. By moving one of Hischier, Meier, or Bratt, Fitzgerald would just be taking an under-skilled lineup and making it even worse.

Teams that go far in the playoffs have great second and third lines. The most unproductive players there, especially at the highest salaries, are the ones who need to either improve or be replaced. Beyond those lines, having just an average fourth line would be a massive improvement for the Devils. Tom Fitzgerald needs to figure it out, because it does not seem that Sheldon Keefe has implemented a system that keeps the Devils dangerous regardless of who is in the lineup. We know that the players Tom Fitzgerald has assembled in the NHL have been too unproductive beyond the big four: diving into that has been the purpose of this Part One. In Part Two, we will talk about the problems among the coaching staff, including their usage decisions (especially regarding Dennis Cholowski, even strength lines, and special teams deployment) and their schemes, which have led to offensive ineptitude and regularly blown defensive coverages, in addition to goaltending that is not meeting the moment. Beyond the coaches, we will talk about the organizational depth left by drafting, trades, and Utica Comets GM Dan MacKinnon, who has not given the Devils many internal options to turn to.

Your Thoughts​

What have you thought about the entirety of the Devils’ NHL roster? Do you think anyone is actually playing better than their production suggests? Do you think anyone will turn it around soon? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...organization-is-faltering-part-one-the-roster

 

[New Jersey Devils]

New Jersey Devils Lose Fifth Straight In 4-1 Loss To Boston Bruins

This one really hurts.

Coming off four consecutive regulation losses, the New Jersey Devils travelled up to Boston to take on a Bruins team that they absolutely needed to beat. It’s true that Boston is off to a better start than most anticipated through the first two months of the season, but this is still a very thin roster. On top of that, Boston’s already thin roster was missing their two best skaters: all-world winger David Pastrnak, and stud blueliner Charlie MacAvoy. I mean, just look at the lineup Boston trotted out this evening:

All lined up. pic.twitter.com/qFTBF7Pfmd

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 6, 2025

That might be one of the worst rosters in the league.

And yet, despite Boston icing such a substandard lineup, they beat the Devils by three goals. It was the third straight game that New Jersey has lost by three goals, and in all five of their losses during this skid, they have lost by multiple goals every night. The Devils are a broken team right now.

Before we go any further, allow me to try and be positive for a bit. While New Jersey lost again, I do believe they were the better team this evening. They generated a lot more offense and controlled possession a lot better tonight than they have over the last few games. Not to mention that the Devils hit multiple posts tonight, and otherwise just missed on several other opportunities. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman had to make some really tough saves this evening, and he made them all. New Jersey deserved more then one goal tonight, and it was only bad luck and good goaltending that conspired to keep the total at one. On another night with some better luck and a different netminder between the pipes, we might be talking about a 4-1 victory instead of a 4-1 loss right now.

But honestly, that’s about it as far as positives for tonight. And even those positives are damning with faint praise. While I do think New Jersey was the better team, they didn’t control play nearly as much as they should have given the current state of the Bruins roster. The fact that it was as close as it was according to the fancy stats is a serious problem. I know the Devils are missing Jack Hughes, but they should still put up a much, much better effort than they did tonight even without Hughes in the lineup.

And as far as the bad luck goes, while it’s true New Jersey hit multiple posts, so did the Bruins. I might argue that Boston was even more unlucky than the Devils tonight. So I don’t really believe that bad luck was as big a factor as Ken Daneyko and Bryce Salvador on the MSG broadcast wanted you to believe. At one point in the dying minutes of this game, Daneyko said something to the effect of “this is just one of those stretches where all the bounces are going against New Jersey”. Here’s the thing: I don’t necessarily disagree that the Devils have been getting awful puck luck over this losing streak. They certainly deserve more goals than they’ve gotten. But that being said, two things can be true at once: The Devils are getting unlucky, but they STILL aren’t playing well enough. It’s not like New Jersey has been performing well only to have bad luck keep them out of the win column. The bad luck certainly has hurt, but their own performances over these last five games have hurt more.

I know this is the second half of a back-to-back, but I still expected this team to come out with a better effort than what we witnessed tonight. When scoring one (1) goal is a notable achievement, you have a serious problem. And that’s the current state of the Devils: Timo Meier scoring late in the first period tonight was a major accomplishment for this club, and that speaks volumes.

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t think this is an issue of players not trying. When I watch the Devils, I see a team that is competing hard. The problem is, every facet of this team is so out of sync right now, they have a hard time doing anything right. They can’t complete passes, they can’t exit their zone on the first, second, or sometimes even third try. They can’t get to the inside and generate offense from the dangerous parts of the ice. They can’t stay structured in their own zone for as long as they should. Everything is off, and I’m not sure who or what exactly to blame. Perhaps the injuries, or the coaching, or the roster construction. I don’t know. All I do know is that this team is floundering when every other team around them seems to be thriving (more on that below).

The Devils lost a game they really, really, really needed to win tonight. They have now lost five straight games, and they have scored one goal in their last three contests. We will see them win again, they obviously won’t go 0-fer the rest of the season. And who knows, maybe they’ll even put together another long win streak like they did earlier this year. But for now, this is a broken team with no answers. Something needs to change.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

The Streak Is Over​

The losing streak rages on, of course. But the goalless streak has finally come to a merciful end. Timo Meier’s goal late in the first period was the first time the Devils scored a goal (that wasn’t called back) since Monday against Columbus. Shutouts happen to the best of teams, but going scoreless over almost nine whole periods is just completely unacceptable stuff. Good for Meier for scoring and finally putting that tired streak to rest.

There has been very little to cheer about around the Devils lately. But Meier is one of the few players who I actually think has been playing decent since Jack Hughes went down. Not great, mind you, but decent. The Devils could still use more out of him, but he’s the least of New Jersey’s problems at the moment.

The Season Of Giving​

Christmas is right around the corner, and the Devils seemed to be in a giving mood tonight. What were they gifting the Bruins, exactly? Turnovers. The kind that led directly to five alarm chances for the Bruins.

The first goal of the game wasn’t technically off a turnover, but it might as well have been. Dennis Cholowski, who is in way over his head at this level, tripped over thin air trying to chase down a dump in, so he couldn’t get to the puck in time. Thankfully his partner, Simon Nemec, could. But Nemec lost a board battle, Mark Kastelic fed Fraser Minten in front, and Minten took a shot right in Cholowski’s face that beat Jake Allen for the opening goal.

On the Bruins’ second goal, Brenden Dillon absolutely gift wrapped a turnover right onto the tape of Elias Lindholm, who found Morgan Geekie on the backdoor for one of the easiest one-timer goals you will ever see.

And while it didn’t end in a goal, Dawson Mercer had one of the worst looking plays of the season, spinning a blind centering pass from near his own blue line that went tape to tape to a streaking Bruin, who got a partial breakaway on Allen. Credit to Allen for making the save, but that was a play worthy of a benching in my eyes by Mercer.

New Jersey is a team that cannot generate any offense for themselves, but seemingly has no issue generating offense for their opponents. Pathetic.

Why This Losing Streak Hurts Even More​

Obviously a five-game losing streak (all in regulation) is damaging enough on it’s own. But what makes it even more painful and alarming is seeing how every other team around New Jersey seemingly has no problem picking up points.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a look at the results of the other Metropolitan Division teams in action today:

The New York Rangers hosted the best team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. New York fought hard and entered the final minutes of regulation down a goal. But a late tally from Artemi Panarin sent the game to overtime. They did lose in OT, but they salvaged a point against the Mighty Avs.

The Columbus Blue Jackets lost a wild one to the Florida Panthers, 7-6. The game went to overtime though, so even in defeat the Jackets picked up a point.

After picking up a regulation win against the vaunted Avalanche on Thursday, the New York Islanders travelled down to Tampa Bay and shut out the Lightning, 2-0.

The Carolina Hurricanes did what actual good teams do tonight: They beat up on a bad team. The Canes doubled up the lowly Predators in Nashville this evening, 6-3.

Yes, every single Metropolitan Division team that played today registered at least one point. Every team except the Devils, that is. There is still plenty of season left of course, but with New Jersey now out of a playoff spot and sinking fast while everyone else around them rises, they desperately need to get back in the win column.

Finally Some Intrigue…But I Am Skeptical​

There has been a significant portion of the fanbase calling for general manager Tom Fitzgerald to either finally make some moves to improve this team, or to be fired. Might we be getting the former soon? This evening, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Devils have officially reached out to the Vancouver Canucks about acquiring Quinn Hughes. This comes on the heels of reporting from The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun that New Jersey has also inquired about Predators forward Steven Stamkos. The Devils have been linked to Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly recently as well.

Now, how much of this can we buy into? I am not sure, but to be honest, I am skeptical. Friedman and LeBrun (and every insider just like them) are more or less professional marionettes. They trade journalistic integrity for access. Precious, precious access. So the SOP usually goes that a GM, agent, or league official will tell an insider to “report” something in an attempt to either get some good headlines or to get an angry mob off their back, or both. We’ve seen this time and time again in this league, so while I would love to believe Fitzgerald is on the verge of acquiring Hughes or O’Reilly or some other reinforcements, I can’t shake the feeling that this is just Fitzgerald getting one of his mouthpieces in the media to leak some info that would take some of the heat off of himself.

And wouldn’t you know it, Friedman also went on to “stress” (his word, not mine) that he does not believe that anything is imminent with the Devils and Quinn Hughes.

So in the end, I don’t believe that Fitzgerald is actually close to trading for any help. I think the plan here was to get a lot of headlines out there akin to “Devils are close to multiple major blockbusters!”, while trying to sneak the fact that nothing is actually going to happen into the larger articles that a lot of people won’t even read. And just like that, Fitzgerald has his good PR that can help quell the torches and pitchforks at his door.

Am I being too cynical about all this? Perhaps. But I also think I’m just being realistic. I’ve seen this song and dance before, and I refuse to buy into anything until I actually see something happen.

Next Time Out​

The Devils next hit the ice on Tuesday when they travel up to Ottawa to battle the Senators. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take​

What did you make of tonight’s game? Are you as disgusted with this performance as I was? What do you want to see change between now and next game? As always, thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...e-fifth-straight-in-4-1-loss-to-boston-bruins

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Here Is What I Would Ask Tom Fitzgerald

The New Jersey Devils are sinking fast. As of this writing, they’ve lost five straight games with no end in sight. Their fifth loss in a row, a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins, was especially embarrassing. You could argue that the Devils were the better team in that game, but it’s not like they dominated. And the fact that they didn’t dominate an already lousy Bruins team that was also missing their only two skaters who move the needle (David Pastrnak and Charlie MacAvoy) was deeply troubling. Yes, New Jersey is missing Jack Hughes, not to mention Brett Pesce, Johnny Kovacevic, and Evgenii Dadonov. Those are important losses, especially Hughes and Pesce. But this team should not be floundering anywhere close to as bad as they are with those players on the shelf.

In an attempt to be positive for a moment, I will say that I don’t believe the process has been as bad as the results would indicate over the last five games. Specifically, the Columbus game on Monday and the Bruins game on Saturday are contests where New Jersey probably deserved a point or two. But they didn’t get the bounces, and they lost both games in regulation. Not to mention the fact that this is still the same team that rattled off an eight-game winning streak earlier this season. They sat atop the entire Eastern Conference amid a sea of injuries, which is a credit to the roster. I refuse to believe that was some wild fluke, the team that is capable of that is still in there somewhere. But of course, the NHL is a “What have you done for me lately?” business, and lately, the Devils are a terrible outfit. There’s still plenty of season left to go, but things need to change in a hurry.

That brings us to general manager Tom Fitzgerald. There are a TON of Devils fans online calling for Fitzgerald’s head recently, or at the very least, calling for Fitz to make a big trade to help his drowning team. Full disclosure, I am not on Team Fire Fitz at the moment. However, I am closer to wanting him gone right now than I ever have been. There are plenty of moves I can point to where Fitzgerald knocked it out of the park. But the misses are starting to pile up, with depth scoring being the biggest red mark against Fitzgerald over the last couple of seasons.

So while I might not be on Team Fire Fitz right now, I would like some answers. Fitzgerald rarely talks to the media in-season (unless it’s a puff piece or he wants to leak something to help fight off the angry mob), but I think this is one of the rare times when the fanbase deserves to hear from the architect.

So let’s do a hypothetical exercise today: Let’s pretend that All About The Jersey landed an exclusive interview with Tom Fitzgerald. Let’s also say there are no restrictions on questions or topics, and we can go as long as we want. I won’t pretend to “answer” for Fitzgerald (though I might speculate a little), but I will at least give a little explanation for why I think each question is important enough to be asked.

Let’s begin.

---

Q: How do you assess the current state of the roster? Do you believe that the issues currently plaguing the team are simply a product of injuries and/or bad luck? Or do you feel as though the roster is fundamentally flawed?

We have to start with the obvious one. While I’m pretty sure Fitzgerald’s answer will be something to the effect of “Yeah no it’s definitely all injuries and bad luck, our roster is great”, the question has to be asked just to get him on record saying it anyway.

Q: A lack of depth scoring was arguably the team’s biggest issue last year, and the problem is rearing it’s ugly head again this season. How do you fix it?

Again, he might just say “wait until everyone gets healthy”. But we need to hear what Fitzgerald thinks about the depth scoring issue.

Q: Do you believe in the current core of this team? Is it good enough to win a Stanley Cup with?

Another question where we all know what he’s going to say, but it should be asked anyway.

Q: How concerned are you with Jack Hughes’ ability to stay healthy?

See previous comment.

Q: The timing on the Jacob Markstrom extension was interesting, as he wasn’t playing well up to that point and there seemed to be no rush to get something done with him. Why did you make the decision to extend him when you did? And does Markstrom’s continued struggles since he signed the extension worry you about his long-term future in New Jersey?

We of course would have to ask about the curious Markstrom extension. I’d love to hear Fitzgerald’s thoughts now that we have more data on Markstrom this season.

Q: You have said in the past that you don’t believe a team should be built midseason, and that it should be built in the offseason. Do you still hold this belief? At what point does that philosophy cross over from patience to laziness and/or fear?

During his time at the controls in New Jersey, Fitzgerald has really only made one major in-season move: trading for Timo Meier at the 2023 trade deadline. Otherwise it’s been a lot of smaller moves to help fill out the depth. I think it’s reasonable to argue that both last season and this season were times when Fitzgerald absolutely should have tried to swing a big trade to help a flawed and injury-depleted roster. He didn’t do it last year, and he hasn’t done it yet this year. I would love to know if he still believes in this philosophy of his, and if he really believes that it’s the right thing to do even in the face of a failing roster.

Q: Many fans and media members around the NHL noted how quiet this past offseason was. Even now, two months into the season, there haven’t been any big moves thus far. Many Devils fans have been calling for major moves, but that of course requires another team to play ball. Have you found that other front offices around the league are more hesitant than usual to make trades? If so, is the rising cap the cause? Or is there something else at play?

In defense of Fitzgerald’s lack of action, we really haven’t seen any big moves since last season’s trade deadline. The speculation is that with the salary cap exploding, teams think they are more capable of holding onto their players, making moves unnecessary. There’s also the fact that there are only a handful of teams that are clear sellers at this point, so there might not be much to buy, which in turn could be causing the sellers to ask for way too much. But this is all just speculation on our part, I want to hear it directly from an NHL GM why there’s no movement around the league. Speaking of which…

Q: We’ve heard reports that the sellers around the league have very high asking prices. I think most Devils fans would understand that it’s not good to overpay, but at a certain point, do you think overpaying becomes a necessary evil? Los Angeles Dodgers executive Andrew Friedman once famously said, “If you’re always rational about every free agent, you will finish third on every free agent”, with the implication being that sometimes one must get a little uncomfortable to become a winner. Do you think that it might be time to take risks and overpay to a certain degree to acquire players that you believe can put this team over the top?

NHL GM’s are notoriously cowardly. They constantly play it safe and mistake fear of taking action with patience. That seems to be changing over the last few years, however. Take a look at the Stanley Cup winners since COVID-19: Tampa Bay Lightning (x2), Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers (x2). Aside from maybe the Avalanche, the other three teams have been some of the boldest in the league in recent years. Yes, there are obviously salary cap shenanigans that played a role in those teams building such deep rosters (especially this past season’s Panthers, who got the most well-timed PED suspension in human history to help them get over the top). Still, boldness and calculated risks have been rewarded time and again since the COVID-19 pandemic. I would love an answer from Fitzgerald on whether he might start overpaying to get what he needs, instead of using high asking prices as an excuse to do nothing.

Q: Along those lines, is there any truth to the reports that you have been trying to acquire Ryan O’Reilly and/or Steven Stamkos from the Nashville Predators? What about the reports that you’ve inquired about acquiring Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.

The obvious follow-up to all this. I’d love to ask Fitzgerald directly about this and make him answer.

Q: How important do you think having a cohesive identity is? Do you think there are certain identities that can work and certain identities that can’t work?

I want to ask this because the Devils put together the single greatest regular season in franchise history in 2022-23 as a team based almost entirely around rush offense and swarm defense. Tempo, tempo, tempo was that team’s identity. Then Fitzgerald went to work trying to add more grit and heaviness to that team over the subsequent years. I want to know if he believes the identity from 2022-23 absolutely cannot win in this league since he’s done everything in his power to get away from that identity since then (though to be fair, he seemed to recognize he overcorrected and added some speed this offseason). I also want to know if he thinks it’s a problem if half his team is built to be a run-and-gun outfit, and half his team is built to grind it out and slow it down, because it feels like that’s how the current forward corps is built. I personally am skeptical that a team like that can win, I feel as though it’s best to have the entire roster commit to one method or the other. So I want to ask him if he disagrees.

Q: What is your overall assessment of the organization’s ability to draft and develop players? During your tenure as general manager, you have drafted many players who have turned into solid contributors. But there have also been players that never lived up to their draft pedigree, such as Alexander Holtz and Chase Stillman. Meanwhile the jury is still out on players such as Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. Do you feel as though this is an area in which the organization can be better? If so, what specifically do you feel needs to change?

Fitzgerald’s spotty draft record has been well-documented around these parts. I want to ask him about it directly, get him on the record about whether he thinks it’s a problem or not, and if he does think it’s a problem (I can’t imagine he would say that, though), I want to see if he has a tangible plan for getting better in this area.

Q: The Utica Comets have been one of the worst AHL teams over the last few seasons. What are the issues there? How do you fix the Comets? And how important is it to get the AHL club back in shape?

I genuinely don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I do know that it feels like the Utica Comets’ struggles have had an adverse impact on the big club. When injuries have hit the Devils over the past few seasons, the Comets have largely been unable to provide the kind of organizational depth that New Jersey needs to continue to play well in the absence of NHL regulars. I want specifics on how Fitzgerald (and Comets general manager and Devils AGM Dan MacKinnon) plan to fix the AHL affiliate.

Q: Has ownership given you an internal salary cap to work with?

I don’t think he would actually answer this question. And honestly I don’t think there is an internal cap considering New Jersey is currently spending over the cap if you include the players on LTIR. But I want this question on the record anyway.

Q: Also in regards to ownership, how involved is the Devils’ ownership group in the day-to-day operation of the franchise?

Another area that I don’t necessarily think is an issue, but would love an on-the-record answer to anyway.

Q: Let’s circle back to the salary cap. If/when your team is fully healthy, your roster will be over the cap. What is the plan to make sure that when the roster is back to 100% healthy, you will be cap compliant?

I have to say, as a fan, I don’t think I’d even want him to answer this question. It really does feel like a trade needs to happen just for New Jersey to be able to ice a roster that fits under the cap. And if that’s the case, I’d want Fitzgerald to have as much leverage as possible. But if I’m playing the role of journalist here, this is a question that needs to be asked.

Q: What did you know about Michael McLeod’s status with both the league and with Ontario Police prior to the 2023-24 season? What about Cal Foote?

Let us set aside the morality aspect of re-signing McLeod and signing Foote for a moment. I have my opinion on the morality of it all, but I won’t open that can of worms here. The reason I want to ask this question isn’t about morality, it’s about doing one’s due diligence. The impending arrests of certain members of the 2018 Canadian WJC team was one of the worst-kept secrets in the league. Even fans could piece together which specific players were going to be in serious legal trouble soon. If all of us knew that McLeod was not long for the NHL, then how could Fitzgerald possibly have not known himself? Did he know it would happen and he decided anyway to milk McLeod (and Foote) for as much value as he could before they inevitably got arrested, ironically showing a willingness to take roster-building risks that he normally doesn’t? Or was he truly unaware that there was a strong possibility that they would either be arrested or otherwise removed from the league in the near future? Regardless of the answer, one could argue the Devils’ center depth has never been the same since McLeod left. Granted, I’m of the opinion that there’s a little bit of retconning going on with McLeod in that I don’t think he was nearly as valuable as some Devils fans seem to remember. I certainly don’t think he would be anywhere close to the 3C this team desperately needs, as I think Cody Glass provides a little more value than McLeod did and Glass himself is insufficient as a 3C. But the point is, McLeod’s arrest left the team in a horrible spot. And as a general manager, shouldn’t Fitzgerald have been able to foresee this and do something to protect his team better, whether that was not re-signing McLeod in the first place, or having stronger contingency plans in place for when he was arrested? If he is so short-sighted that he couldn’t see this coming, how can we trust him to be a competent general manager?

Q: Along those lines, what is your stance on signing any of those players now that they have been reinstated by the league?

I’m almost scared to know the answer to this one, but I’d like Fitzgerald on record here.

Q: Over the last calendar year, we’ve seen MLB players and NBA players and coaches suspended and investigated for various forms of match fixing accusations. In the NHL, Shane Pinto of the Ottawa Senators was recently suspended for violations relating to sports betting. Since the legalization of sports betting in the United States, gambling on professional sports has exploded, with leagues and individual teams lining up to partner with sports books everywhere. How concerned are you with the explosion of sports betting in North America, and the seeming correlation that has had with the increase in match fixing incidents? Do you feel as though leagues and teams have conflicts of interest that they should untangle themselves from in this regard? And most importantly to Devils fans, what steps are you taking to ensure that no members of your organization act improperly or illegally in relation to sports betting?

During any given Devils game, we are absolutely bombarded with commercials for sports betting, sponsored segments for sports betting, and various references to sports betting. In every sport, leagues and teams are proudly sponsored by betting markets. And while all this is going on, we have witnessed an uptick in sports betting scandals in all four of the major North American sports leagues. I would love to know Fitzgerald’s thoughts on this, if he’s concerned about his own team getting into trouble with this, and what he thinks about the present and future of the NHL and its partnership with various sports books.

---

There are a million questions that could be asked of general manager Tom Fitzgerald, but these are the most important ones that I can think of. As I stated before, I am not on the side of wanting to fire Fitzgerald…yet. But I’m closer now than I ever have been.

I take a look at some of the best organizations in the league and I see creativity and boldness. It’s not just boldness for the sake of boldness either, it’s calculated risks and a cohesive plan that guides the bold decision-making. Meanwhile I look at Fitzgerald and I see a GM that doesn’t stand out from the crowd at all. I used to think Fitzgerald was one of the best GM’s in the league in two areas: winning trades, and convincing players to sign team-friendly deals. I still think he’s a little above average at winning trades, but he’s starting to lose his touch there. Meanwhile, despite some genuinely incredible contract negotiations on his resume, he’s starting to pile up bad contracts as well. So if he’s coming back to the pack in the only two areas in which he stood out before, what surplus value is he actually providing to the club?

As of now, I still believe in Fitzgerald. But I think he should officially be on notice. Fitzgerald needs to start winning trades and contract negotiations again soon, not to mention drafting better. And if he can’t, then New Jersey might need to find someone who can.

What do you make of Tom Fitzgerald’s recent track record as general manager? How close are you to wanting to make a change? Of the questions I included, which one(s) are the most important ones to you? What questions did I miss that you would like to ask Fitzgerald in a hypothetical interview? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...64017/here-is-what-i-would-ask-tom-fitzgerald

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #30: New Jersey Devils @ Ottawa Senators

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (16-12-1) @ Ottawa Senators (13-11-4)

The Time: 7:00pm ET

The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Radio Network

Last Devils Game​

New Jersey travelled to Boston on Saturday to take on the Bruins. Despite Boston missing their two best players in David Pastrnak and Charlie MacAvoy, they put the Devils down by a 4-1 final score. Timo Meier scored the lone goal for New Jersey, which was notable considering it was the first goal the team had scored in three games.

Last Senators Game​

Ottawa was also in action on Saturday night, falling 2-1 to the St. Louis Blues. Old friend Fabian Zetterlund was the lone goal-scorer for the Sens, while Linus Ullmark made 18 saves on 20 shots.

Offense In Freefall​

The entire team is in freefall really, but the offense has been hit especially hard. Timo Meier’s first period goal on Saturday was the first time New Jersey found the back of the net since last Monday. In their last three games, they’ve been shut out by the Dallas Stars, shut out by the Vegas Golden Knights, and scored once against a really, really bad Bruins roster. It’s true that Jeremy Swayman is a very good goalie, but the Devils had trouble generating much offense regardless of who was in net on Saturday. So even if an average goalie was in net, New Jersey still would’ve had trouble winning.

A season after depth scoring was nowhere to be found and was arguably the single biggest issue the team had, it appeared as though that problem was mostly solved early in the year. But now the depth scoring has dried up again, to the point where we’re getting crazy stats like these:

Fun fact, just checked a few minutes ago:

Nico Hischier (7) and Timo Meier (6) have scored over HALF of the #NJDevils    25 goals in the 12 games they've played since Jack Hughes got hurt.

This roster has failed.

— All About the Jersey (@AATJerseyBlog) December 7, 2025

I want to be positive, I really do. And if I’m trying to be logically positive, I would say that while New Jersey has not played great over their current five-game losing streak, they have not played as poorly as the results would indicate. They’ve been goalie’d, they’ve gotten terrible luck, they’ve been the victims of horrible officiating in spots. All of that is true. And I’m also very confident that this poor run of results will not go on forever. The Devils will win again, I promise you that. But for now, they’re fading fast, and the offense is mostly to blame.

We Talkin’ ‘Bout Practice​

Let’s go over the Devils’ practice yesterday, because it was an interesting sight. We’ll start with the lineup:

With no Hischier, Meier and Bratt on the ice there's not quite enough players to make up a full roster at practice today, so take this one with a grain of salt. #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/2l83lCDMCR

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 8, 2025

According to Stein, Hischier, Meier, and Bratt were all taking maintenance days. Stein explicitly said Hischier will be ready to play tonight, while she later tweeted that head coach Sheldon Keefe had this to say about Meier and Bratt:

Sheldon Keefe says that Meier and Bratt needed maintenance days today, and that they’ll see how they feel throughout today and tomorrow when it comes to their availability. #NJDevils

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 8, 2025

For a team already starved for offense, missing one of Meier or Bratt would be bad enough. But missing BOTH of them? Disastrous. We’ll wait and see what their statuses are as we get closer to gametime, but even if they do play, you have to wonder how effective they’ll be if they’re this banged up.

As for the players who did practice, apparently Keefe saw fit to work on generating offense in the hard areas of the ice:

Sheldon Keefe starts out practice with a very specific drill where he's telling the net-front guys 'This is for you! Traffic, tips, rebounds!"#NJDevils

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 8, 2025

I can certainly appreciate this. The Devils just have not been able to get to the inside in recent games. Everything is either from the perimeter, or a failed attempt to get to the slot or net front. “Traffic, tips, rebounds” sounds like a good thing to work on to me, this team absolutely needs to work harder to get to the dangerous areas of the ice.

Finally, Keefe gave a non-update update on Jack Hughes:

Status quo on Jack Hughes and his progress, nothing to report beyond that.

Jack has been skating for a week or so, #NJDevils HC Sheldon Keefe said. But it’s a finger injury so the skating part is par for the course. He’s not out there with his stick or any pucks. Just skating.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 8, 2025

Not much to read into there I suppose.

Speaking of key injuries though, we did get one little nugget from The Hockey News’ Kristy Flannery:

Obviously, I'm not a coach or a doctor, but #NJDevils Brett Pesce is looking pretty good. He along with the rest of the injured players were getting their reps in.

As a reminder, the last update Keefe provided is that the defenseman is still “weeks” away from returning.

— Kristy Flannery (@InStilettos_NHL) December 8, 2025

Again, who knows how much to read into this. But if Brett Pesce’s return is on the horizon, that would be a gigantic boost to this team. He was having an excellent start to the season before his injury, and beyond his own game, he seems to be the key to bringing out the best in Luke Hughes, who hasn’t been the same since Pesce went down. Obviously it’s not ideal for the Devils’ young, up-and-coming face of the blueline (not to mention a player with a new $9m cap hit) to be reliant on another player to be an impact defenseman. But the reality is that Hughes seems to need Pesce at this point in his career, so we can only hope Pesce returns soon and picks up right where he left off with Hughes.

State Of The Senators​

With 30 points in 28 games played, Ottawa currently sits in 15th place in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres. Losers of five of their last seven contests, the Sens have not exactly been able to build off the momentum from last season’s playoff appearance, the franchise’s first since 2016-17. Needless to say, it’s been a disappointing start to the campaign, even if Ottawa is far from out of it.

So what seems to be plaguing the Senators this season? Well according to Natural Stat Trick, it does not appear to be their ability to drive play at 5-on-5:

Corsi For%: 51.99 (9th in the NHL)

Scoring Chances For%: 53.52 (6th)

High Danger Corsi For%: 52.74 (10th)

Expected Goals For%: 53.60 (5th)

I would not go so far as to call Ottawa a sleeping giant, but I would definitely say they are playing better than their middling record would lead you to believe. Then again, perhaps public models are overrating the Senators a tad:

This chart was from last Monday so it’s possible Ottawa’s position may have shifted a little bit. But as of the beginning of the month, they were deemed to be overrated by public models according to SportLogiq.

So when a team looks better under the hood than they do on the standings page, one of the first things to check for is a low PDO. And sure enough, Ottawa is rocking an all-situations PDO of .982, the 6th-worst mark in the league. Is this due to poor shooting? Actually no, as Ottawa is middle of the pack in terms of shooting percentage this year.

And that brings us to the Senators’ fatal flaw.

Ottawa’s goaltending has been absolutely abysmal this season. In their 28 games played, the Sens are rocking an unfathomable team save percentage of .877%. That’s good for 31st in the league, ahead of only the Edmonton Oilers.

The dispiriting thing is that the acquisition of Linus Ullmark prior to last season was supposed to solve Ottawa’s longstanding goaltending troubles, but instead he’s been a huge part of the problem. The 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner enters tonight’s contest with a mediocre but reasonable 10-7-4 record, but an atrocious .877 save percentage. In fact, he leads the entire league in goals allowed with 64.

The baffling thing is that Ullmark’s numbers don’t look so bad if you dig a little deeper. According to Natural Stat Trick, Ullmark is sporting a Goals Saved Above Expected mark of 0.05. Yes, despite a save percentage of .877, NST has deemed Ullmark to be above average as far as goaltending performance based on difficulty is concerned. This makes very little sense to me considering Ottawa is not an especially leaky defensive team. In fact, some of their rate stats are positively elite, with league-leading Scoring Chances Against per 60 and Expected Goals Against per 60 numbers at 5-on-5.

But Natural Stat Trick is not the be-all, end-all, and wouldn’t you know it, other outlets have Ullmark significantly in the red. According to Moneypuck, Ullmark is currently at -10.3 GSAA. Hockey Reference has him at -11.1. So while NST is kind to Ullmark, other models are not. And considering his save percentage is .877, I tend to side with the metrics that say Ullmark has been one of the worst goaltenders in the league this season.

As far as Ullmark’s tandem-mate, Leevi Merilainen hasn’t been so hot either. In seven games played, Merilainen is 3-4-0 with a .876 save percentage. He’s about breakeven in GSAA according to Natural Stat Trick, but he’s at -3.6 per Moneypuck, and -4.1 per Hockey Reference.

I’m not sure who will start tonight for the Sens, but whoever it is, the Devils better be able to score on them. Enough is enough, if they can’t score on goalies playing this poorly, then there’s no hope for New Jersey’s offense.

Players To Watch And Projected Lineup​

As mentioned, Ottawa’s record might not be so hot, but they have plenty of players that New Jersey needs to be wary of. Leading the way in total points are Drake Batherson and Tim “The Diver” Stutzle with 24 apiece. Jake Sanderson is right on their heels with 23. By the way, be prepared to see a LOT of Sanderson this evening considering he’s logging a whopping 24:56 per game this season (including over 31 minutes on Saturday).

Ottawa’s leader in goals is their fourth-place point-getter this season, Shane Pinto. The Long Island native enters with 12 goals in 27 games. We won’t see him tonight, however, as it was recently announced that he will be out a couple weeks with a lower-body injury.

Elsewhere, Ottawa’s captain and one of the dirtiest players in the league, Brady Tkachuk, is back after missing significant time due to injury earlier this season. In eight games played, Tkachuk has one goal and six assists. When Tkachuk is on the ice, the Devils better be on the lookout due to his skill and his penchant for cheap shots.

As far as the rest of the roster, here’s how the Sens lined up in practice yesterday:

Today's alignment #Sens No Sanderson

Cousins-Stutzle-Zetterlund
Tkachuk-Cozens-Batherson
Amadio-Greig-Giroux
MacDermid-Halliday-Perron

Gilbert-Zub
Kleven-Spence
Matinpalo-Jensen

Ullmark
Merilainen

— Bruce Garrioch (@SunGarrioch) December 7, 2025

Apparently Sanderson was just taking a maintenance day, so expect to see him tonight.

Your Take​

Is tonight the night New Jersey snaps their losing streak? What do you want to see out of the team? Who individually needs to step up in your eyes? Who on the Senators will you be watching the closest tonight? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...-preview-30-new-jersey-devils-ottawa-senators

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #30: New Jersey Devils at Ottawa Senators

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (16-12-1) at Ottawa Senators (13-11-4).

The Time: 7:00pm EST

The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio

The Game Preview: Jackson had the preview today.

The Rules: If you have been a reader here, you already know the rules. But for the rest, a reminder: please do not swear in the comment section, and keep comments relevant to the hockey game going on. Beyond that, do not attack any other commenters, and do not ask for or pass along illegal streams on this board.

LGD!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...hread-30-new-jersey-devils-at-ottawa-senators

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Third Line Lifts New Jersey Devils To 4-3 Win Over Ottawa Senators

You know the drill by now: The New Jersey Devils lack depth scoring. It was a huge issue last season, and it has been a huge issue this season. Especially during the Devils’ five-game losing streak that they took into Ottawa this evening. Well wouldn’t you know it, depth scoring played a massive role tonight, as the third line of Cody Glass, Connor Brown, and Arseny Gritsyuk put together a huge night in New Jersey’s 4-3 win over the Senators.

Tonight was another contest in which the Devils got mostly outplayed. They did have their stretches where they controlled play pretty well, but by and large it was a Senators night. That is, unless New Jersey’s third line was on the ice. Glass, Brown, and Gritsyuk were absolutely incredible this evening. According to Natural Stat Trick, in 8:30 of 5-on-5 play, the Glass line posted a remarkable Expected Goals For% of 95.93. They allowed a grand total of 0.03 xGA in those minutes. They out-attempted Ottawa 10-4, outshot them 7-1, and beat them 5-0 in Scoring Chances and 3-0 in High Danger Corsi. And most importantly, they outscored the Sens 3-0 at 5-on-5 tonight. On the traditional stat sheet, Brown and Gritsyuk each registered three points (a trio of assists for Brown and a goal and two helpers for Gritsyuk). Glass collected two points, including the game-winning goal with 7:36 left in the third period.

Even beyond the stats, this line just looked dangerous all night long. On a team starved for chemistry, this line was connecting on passes and stringing together cycle chances like they’d been playing together for years. Brown showed incredible hockey IQ on multiple takeaways, Gritsyuk showed off an impressive combination of motor and skill, and Glass was the glue that held the line together, contributing a little bit of everything this evening. New Jersey failed in some key areas tonight, but the third line made sure their failings didn’t matter. They were, in my opinion, one of the two biggest factors in the Devils snapping their skid.

The other biggest factor? That would have to be Jacob Markstrom. I can’t believe I’m saying that considering how Markstrom’s night began and considering what Markstrom had to battle through (more on that below), but by the end of the game, Markstrom really stepped up. The first goal he allowed was a power-play marker where he failed to control a shot, let up a juicy rebound, and Drake Batherson knocked it home to open the scoring. After Simon Nemec tied it on a one-time blast off a neat little pass from Brown, Ottawa scored on the power play once again. Late in the first, Tim Stutzle collected a pass in the slot and wired a shot past Markstrom to give the Senators a 2-1 edge.

That was the moment when my heart sank. It was a really bad goal to let up, and I thought there was no way Markstrom would rally. But to his credit, Markstrom really locked it down from there. He held it down long enough for New Jersey to take the lead. Gritsyuk scored thanks to a killer setup off the rush from Brown, then shortly thereafter during 4-on-4 play, Paul Cotter did what Paul Cotter does: score on a gorgeous move on a breakaway chance.

Unfortunately, Markstrom allowed a third goal on the power play (noticing a trend? we’ll discuss that below), though I really cannot blame Markstrom one bit for the final tally he allowed on the night. Brown made his one big mistake of the game by not moving the puck well enough when he had the chance, Brenden Dillon followed that up with a terrible turnover behind the goal line, and Dylan Cozens found Batherson all alone on the backdoor for an easy tap-in goal to tie the game at three.

But that was the only blemish after the bad Stutzle goal for Markstrom. He kept his team in the game as they faded down the stretch. In the second half of the second period and through most of the third, New Jersey was by far the second-best team on the ice. Markstrom was there every time, including making a huge save on Jake Sanderson with about four minutes left. Not to mention holding it down when the Senators pulled Linus Ullmark for the extra attacker. Credit to New Jersey for defending reasonably well during the 6-on-5, but Markstrom was the best Devil on the ice during those stretches. Per NST, Markstrom saved almost a full goal above expected (0.99 to be exact). It didn’t start well, but credit where it’s due: Markstrom saved his best for last and played a huge role in lifting New Jersey to victory.

Aside from the third line and Markstrom, I didn’t think many other Devils had particularly good games. Nico Hischier had his moments, including ringing one off the crossbar on a 2-on-1 with Jesper Bratt. The second line of Bratt, Dawson Mercer, and Ondrej Palat wasn’t bad. Nemec scored his goal, as did Cotter. But that’s about it. There were plenty of other Devils that I thought had pretty poor games this evening, starting with Jonas Siegenthaler, Luke Hughes, and Dillon. The fourth line in general was once again a black hole aside from Cotter’s 4-on-4 marker. It wasn’t a disastrous night for the skaters, but it wasn’t their best effort. Thankfully the third line and Markstrom picked up the slack.

This was a game the Devils really needed to have. It’s early December, which means there’s plenty of time left, but with how bunched up the entire Eastern Conference is, New Jersey really can’t afford to fall behind by that much at this stage of the campaign. They went from top of the conference to out of a playoff spot in about a week and a half, which just shows you how crazy things are this year. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t perfect, but a win is a win. After five regulation losses in a row, New Jersey is back in the win column. And in the end, it was two maligned parts of the team that got them there: depth scoring and goaltending. For one night at least, they silenced the critics.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

Not-So-Special Teams​

The special teams units are starting to become a serious problem.

Last year, the Devils’ special teams carried them to the playoffs when the 5-on-5 performance went in the tank after Christmas. This season, the power play and penalty kill got off to hot starts, but have really cooled off recently. Tonight was perhaps the worst game the special teams have put together, going a brutal 0-for-6 combined. Yes, the Devils allowed goals on all three of their penalty kills, while going 0-for-3 on their own power plays. If the officials saw fit to give the Senators another man-advantage or two, we might be talking about a sixth consecutive loss right now, the penalty kill was that bad. And the Devils’ power play looked decent in spots, but nowhere close to good enough against a team that entered tonight’s game ranked 31st on the penalty kill.

According to the MSG broadcast, through the first nine games of the season, the Devils’ power play was humming along at 30.8%. In that same time, the penalty kill was a stellar 93.5%. But over their last 20 contests entering tonight, New Jersey was at 19.1% and 72.9% on the power play and penalty kill respectively. And those terrible figures somehow each got worse tonight. It didn’t burn them this evening, but New Jersey really needs to figure out their special teams again.

Clearance Sale​

In my opinion, one of biggest under-the-radar issues in tonight’s game was New Jersey’s breathtaking ineptitude in clearing pucks out of their zone. This was most notable on Batherson’s second goal when both Brown and Dillon made huge errors. But it was an issue all night.

Whether it was at even strength, on the penalty kill, or when defending the 6-on-5 at the end of the game, the Devils just could not clear the zone on their first or second try. Everything was a struggle, whether it was from a lack of awareness or effort. I tend to lean more towards diagnosing the problem as a lack of awareness and crispness, because for all the Devils’ issues right now, I don’t believe a lack of effort is one of them. But whatever the problem is, New Jersey needs to figure this one out too. Ottawa got so many second, third, and fourth chances this evening as a direct result of the Devils failing to clear the zone.

Under Siege​

Jacob Markstrom’s performance was even more impressive when you take into account that he apparently had a target on his back tonight. Senators attackers never missed an opportunity to barrel into Markstrom all night long, at one point even throwing Cotter into Markstrom in one of the cheapest sequences of the night (admittedly I forget which Senator threw Cotter into Markstrom, please remind me in the comments).

It got so bad that Ken Daneyko and Bryce Salvador even started to lose their cool in the broadcast booth. Yes they are Devils homers, but their emotion was noteworthy, especially Salvador who is a little more level-headed than Daneyko. Markstrom had many words for the officials on what he was dealing with, especially in the second period when it seemed like Ottawa was crashing into him every 30 seconds.

The lobbying finally worked when Brady Tkachuk almost killed Markstrom as he crashed the net. I’m sorry, but the only reason we’re not talking about that play more is because Markstrom thankfully got out of the way in time. If he didn’t, that could have been seriously bad, as Tkachuk just showed absolutely no regard for the Devils goaltender, careening into the net at full speed. It was a shockingly dirty play that, again, didn’t seem that dirty because he missed Markstrom. And some people wonder why I call Tkachuk one of the dirtiest players in the league.

Major credit to Markstrom for battling through that adversity. Let’s hope he takes an extra long ice bath tonight.

Metro Madness​

In case you need a reminder on why the Devils need to start racking up wins again in a hurry:

One of those nights in the Metro, with 7 points separating 1st from 8th:

CAR, NYI, PHI, NJD won
PIT got one point from shootout loss (ANA)
CBJ lost in regulation (CAR)
WSH and NYR were idle.

PHI and PIT each have 35 pts in 28 games, but PHI is 5-0 in shootouts, PIT 0-5. pic.twitter.com/6J3BdN4YcW

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 10, 2025

Nobody in the Metropolitan Division ever seems to go a game without nabbing at least one point. It’s incredibly frustrating to say the least. Theoretically, we should start to see some teams fade away as the season goes on. But we’re already two months into the campaign and it hasn’t happened yet, so I’m done banking on it happening. If teams fall off, then great. If not, then the Devils need to take care of their own business and start winning consistently again.

The W In White Stands For “Wins”​

As the Devils get by without their full compliment of defensemen for the time being, Colton White and Dennis Cholowski have been rotating in the sixth spot on the blueline. White got the call tonight, and I thought he played about as well as you could reasonably expect from him.

I for one would love to see a lot more White and a lot less Cholowski, and I’m not the only one:

BY THE WAY

For everyone keeping track:

Colton White in lineup: 7-2-1
Dennis Cholowski in lineup: 5-7-1

— All About the Jersey (@AATJerseyBlog) December 10, 2025

I did not post those tweets, but I wholeheartedly agree with them. My two cents? Please throw Cholowski in the scratch suite and barricade the door.

Next Time Out​

New Jersey returns home on Thursday to battle the Tampa Bay Lightning. Puck drop from the Prudential Center is slated for 7:00pm.

Your Take​

What did you make of tonight’s game? How happy are you that the losing streak is over? How impressed were you with the third line? What about Markstrom? What do you expect on Thursday? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...jersey-devils-to-4-3-win-over-ottawa-senators

 

[New Jersey Devils]

The Devils Should Target Ryan O’Reilly Before They Target Steven Stamkos

The trade winds are starting to blow in the NHL, and with the New Jersey Devils recent skid, cries have started coming out from all corners of the internet and the Devils fanbase for GM Tom Fitzgerald to do something before these recent struggles derails the season.

Elliotte Friedman reported Saturday that Fitzgerald is indeed looking around and gauging what the market looks like. Not only have the Devils been linked to Quinn Hughes, but they’ve also been linked to Ryan O’Reilly and Steven Stamkos of the Nashville Predators.

I don’t really have much more else to add about the Quinn Hughes situation, as I’ve said my piece on that matter last week. Fitzgerald wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t checking in on the availability of one of the best defensemen in the NHL….never mind the fact he’s also the brother of two players already on the Devils. The Devils having interest in Quinn Hughes isn’t some manufactured thing that is just being thrown out there willy nilly for clicks. It’s a very real possibility that it could happen, so of course Fitzgerald is going to check in there.

With that said, I haven’t said much about the Ryan O’Reilly and/or Steven Stamkos situation, aside from what I wrote about those players last season. But I think if it came down to one or the other, the choice is clear.

The Devils should prioritize O’Reilly over Stamkos.

The Lack of Center Depth Has Hurt This Team​

The Devils went into the season with a plan of having Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Cody Glass as their Top 3 centers, with Luke Glendening apparently winning the 4C job over Juho Lammikko after impressing in training camp on a PTO.

After free agency came and went, I figured that the Devils plan was to make Dawson Mercer the 3C and have Cody Glass be the 4C, but apparently I was wrong.

All of this was always a questionable plan at best.

Say what you will about Jack Hughes’s injury history, and say that you will about how fluky this year’s injury was with Hughes getting injured at a team dinner of all settings. Considering Hughes’s history, it would not have been unreasonable for Fitzgerald to come up with a better alternative than “just shift Mercer to center” in case Hughes missed time again. And sure enough, Hughes missed time again. It might be the flukiest of fluky flukes to ever fluke, but its still a failure from an organizational level to properly prepare for this potential scenario that had a realistic chance of happening.

Add in the fact that the Devils nearly let Cody Glass walk away in free agency before they thought better of it when it was apparent he would be scooped up quickly if he hit the open market. Add in the fact that Glass has his own injury history since coming to the Devils. Add in that Nico Hischier bears the brunt of playing in all situations and playing the toughest minutes of anyone on the roster. And add in the fact that the Devils plan for 4C was taking a flier on the winner of a training camp competition between a player who had been out of the NHL for a few seasons and a PTO signing.

Not a great plan.

This might be a bit of a simplistic take on my part, but its not a coincidence or an accident that when the Devils have looked their best this season, it has been when their centers were healthy and available. The top lines worked and all showed cohesion. It’s also not a coincidence or accident that Mercer himself has looked the best he’s looked when playing on Nico Hischier’s wing rather than centering his own line.

No, there’s no replacing a player like Jack Hughes when he misses time, but you give yourself a better shot of treading water when you have an NHL caliber option who can slide into that spot. Adding a player like O’Reilly would make a huge difference for this group. And what about when you get Hughes back? All of a sudden you have an embarrassment of riches at a critically important position. Where Ryan O’Reilly is an overqualified 3C and Cody Glass is an overqualified 4C.

Go back and look at the center depth on the most recent Stanley Cup champions. Where the Panthers had Anton Lundell as their 3C throughout their run. Where the Golden Knights had some combination of Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, and William Karlsson down the middle. Where the Lightning won their Cups with Yanni Gourde as their 3C, but they were also deep enough to move Anthony Cirelli or Brayden Point there when needed. Where until this season, the Avs weren’t the same after losing Nazem Kadri. I’d keep going on and on but you understand the point I’m trying to make.

You need to be deep down the middle if you want to be taken seriously as a championship contender. You need to be deep down the middle if you want to maximize the wingers you’ve brought in. The Devils are not.

Adding Another Quality Two-Way Center Can Take Some Pressure Off of Hischier’s Plate​

I’m not suggesting that Ryan O’Reilly is the same two-way player he was when he won a Selke trophy in St. Louis. He turns 35 years old later this season and while he’s still effective, he is approaching the 1200 game milestone.

That said, with 21 points in 28 games, he’s still more than capable of chipping in offensively. He’s more than capable of playing in all situations and holding his own.

I’m also not suggesting that Nico Hischier isn’t capable of handling everything that he handles in his on-ice role. But wouldn’t Hischier potentially be more valuable to the Devils if the team had another alternative who could take some of those defensive obligations off of his plate? Jack Hughes is better defensively than he gets credit for, but nobody is going to confuse him for Patrice Bergeron in terms of being a Selke-caliber defensive forward. Cody Glass doesn’t contribute much on the penalty kill (he’s only played 2:58 there this year). Luke Glendening does play on the kill, but he’s a fairly limited player at this stage of his career. Anything you get from him offensively is a bonus.

Adding a player like O’Reilly and leaning on him to play those minutes should have a positive impact on the Devils penalty kill, which ranks 17th in the league as of this writing. And it should give the Devils another option at 5v5 as well.

Stamkos Can Still Score the Occasional Goal, But He Doesn’t Do Much Else Positive Anymore​

Steven Stamkos was already on the decline when he left the Tampa Bay Lightning, and things haven’t looked better through his first season plus as a member of the Nashville Predators. He’s not really a center anymore, despite Predators coach Andrew Brunette shifting him between center and wing in an attempt to give them a spark. He doesn’t drive play anymore, he’s not shooting as much as he has in the past, he’s no longer an elite level skater, he’s not much of a defensive forward, and he no longer has elite level players alongside him like he did in Tampa.

Yes, Stamkos could potentially chip in a little bit offensively on the power play. And yes, he might look better playing with better players than Luke Evangelista on his line. I would guess that the Devils envision him playing alongside Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt and burying the feeds that he used to get from elite level playmakers like Nikita Kucherov.

But the Devils don’t really need another overpaid player who barely does anything at 5v5. They already have one of those in Ondrej Palat, and Stamkos’s contract is even worse.

Final Thoughts​

The 2025-26 Devils need stability down the middle more than they need a scoring winger. They needed this before Jack Hughes got hurt and that need is only exasperated the more we see they don’t have an answer at such a critically important position. And even if one believed the opposite was true, the last thing the Devils need is a soon-to-be 36-year-old Stamkos, who is under contract for $8M AAV for two more seasons after this one. I don’t even know how the Devils would make that contract fit given their current cap situation, but I know I want no part of that.

On the flip side, O’Reilly is under contract for $4.5M AAV for one more season after this one, which is more than reasonable for a middle six center. I get that with him being a year younger than Stamkos, he’s not exactly a spring chicken either, but I think its clear that O’Reilly has more left in the tank than Stamkos, and its not nearly as onerous a commitment either.

Obviously, this is all dependant on asking price, and there might wind up being other options that make themselves available as the season rolls along. But it certainly sounds like the Predators are open for business, and with how tight the NHL standings are, the teams that separate themselves from the pack are likely going to be the ones who are proactive fixing their issues with their rosters rather than being reactive and waiting until the deadline for prices to go down.

What gives me pause is sitting by and doing nothing isn’t going to do anything to fix the issue. Not only is it not acceptable for this team and where they are on their timeline, I think we’ve seen enough mediocre to bad hockey to know that its not going to magically fix itself. I pointed out when I broke down every trade Fitzgerald has made that only once did he go out early in the season and make a trade to address a glaring hole. It was a bad one. It was acquiring Jon Gillies.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...yan-oreilly-before-they-target-steven-stamkos

 

[New Jersey Devils]

What Will the New Jersey Devils Do For Simon Nemec’s Next Contract?

Simon Nemec certainly picked the right season to seemingly start breaking out didn’t he?

Of all the free agents the Devils have coming up at the end of the 2025-26 season, Nemec is probably the most interesting one to look at. You can argue Arseny Gritsyuk might be more important, but I think Nemec presents a more interesting case just because of the team’s defense situation. The only Devils defenders set to hit free agency according to PuckPedia are Nemec himself and the two players that have been called up due to injury, both of whom are inconsequential to the team’s long-term plans. This means the Devils still have Nemec and their other regular six defenders under contract for next season.

Now injuries certainly are a part of the NHL, and they definitely have been for the Devils this season, but let’s go with a crazy hypothetical for a second. What if…the Devils defense were to be completely healthy to start next season? The only defender who would be on a contract set to expire after next season is Brenden Dillon who is a lefty; the Devils clog is going to be on the right side where they have Dougie Hamilton (two seasons left), Johnny Kovacevic (four seasons) and Brett Pesce (four seasons) who under no circumstances should be traded. Those three combine for a cap hit of $18.5 million each season, with Hamilton representing just under half of that number. Affording Nemec won’t be the problem; the criticism will be if all four right handed defenders are on the roster next season, how much are they paying one of them to sit in the press box?

So there are some conflicting factors regarding how much Nemec might earn. In his favor, he’s having his best pro season to date at just 21 going on 22. Against him is the fact the Devils already have three other high paid RHD all under contract for at least two more seasons. What needs to be kept in mind is that the Devils aren’t exactly well stocked on the right side for the long term; most of the team’s better D prospects are lefties aside from Seamus Casey. The Devils’ right side isn’t exactly young, and young, talented prospects like Nemec aren’t easy to come by. However, there’s a chance the Devils could try to move on from one of their righties to do right by them and make sure they all have consistent playing time.

Speaking of which, we can’t forget as well that there are some people who think that Nemec’s next contract might be another team’s problem. With the fact that Hamilton is exiting his prime (and honestly hasn’t looked all that great in his own end this season), and Nemec seems to finally be finding his game this year, I don’t see him being dealt. Sure it would take for Tom Fitzgerald to get; that’s how most NHL trades work. But moving Nemec could potentially hurt the right side for the Devils for years to comes, especially if it’s in a deal for a player who you could allegedly get just for cap space in two summers.

I think we wind up seeing Nemec sign a bridge deal this summer. I don’t think he’s moved, but with Hamilton still have two more seasons and Tom Fitzgerald maybe being gun shy from how his most recent long-term contract for a defender is turning out, a bridge deal just lines up better. As per the numbers, I think that’s anyone’s guess. With the cap shooting up as much as it is, I’m not sure that even past comparable contracts are a good way to try and gauge what a player might get this upcoming summer. I do however believe he signs a new two year deal and then cashes in on a big, long-term deal once Hamilton’s current deal ends.

Nemec should be a big part of the future for the New Jersey Devils; his play is starting to reflect that and his contract eventually will as well.

What are your thoughts regarding what the Devils should do when Simon Nemec comes up for a new contract; do you see a bridge deal as the way they go? Would you rather the team sign him to a long-term deal? If they do, do you see the Devils moving on from another right handed defender? Leave any and all comments down below and thanks as always for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...rsey-devils-do-for-simon-nemecs-next-contract

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Markstrom Chased in Laugher vs. Lightning

The alarm bells that started ringing when Jack Hughes cut his finger at a team dinner about a month ago are absolutely screaming now.

With Hughes still out – a rumored best-case scenario is a Christmas return – the Devils announced Thursday that they’d lost leading goal scorer Timo Meier.

For how long? Who knows? Meier wasn’t injured but has taken a leave of absence “due to a family matter.”

But perhaps more concerning than the loss of another key player is goalie Jacob Markstrom’s continued poor play.

Markstrom, as he has been in most of his 15 starts this season, was abysmally bad Thursday night. He allowed three goals on just seven shots in under 8 minutes before getting yanked in the Devils’ 8-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Prudential Center.

While Markstrom didn’t take the loss – Jake Allen came on in relief and allowed five more – he gave the Devils no chance to win. The big Swede, who was supposed to be the answer in net the Devils have been looking for since Cory Schneider’s hips disintegrated, now has an .875 save percentage and a 3.66 goals against average.

He’s allowed three or more goals in 10 of his last 11 starts, and in 13 of 16 games played this season.

On Thursday, he gave up goals to Nick Paul and Darren Raddysh 51 seconds apart before the game was even four minutes old. Paul scored off a Dougie Hamilton turnover at the blue line and Raddysh ripped a 55-footer past Markstrom.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he wiped out any momentum the Devils might have enjoyed thanks to Luke Hughes’ second goal of the season at 7:00, by allowing Pontus Holmberg to score less than a minute later. The crowd was still cheering the announcement of Hughes’ goal when Holmberg rolled a weak backhander through Markstrom’s five hole to silence the crowd.

Keeping the ball rollin' https://t.co/17BRkltt84 pic.twitter.com/JGFudzQJLX

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) December 12, 2025

That was all Sheldon Keefe needed to see. Keefe pulled Markstrom for Allen, who probably would have been content to remain on the bench the way the Devils were playing.

A Jake Guentzel goal at the 15 minute mark pretty much ended any chance the Devils had of coming back in this one. With no Hughes and no Meier a three-goal lead might as well have been 10.

The only bright spot Thursday night, and it wasn’t much of one, was Jesper Bratt scoring his first goal since Nov. 5 – a stretch of 16 games.

Jesp what he needed. #NJDevils | @Mikes_Amazing pic.twitter.com/XfN0bnWSrf

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 12, 2025

The Devils, who added goals by Angus Crookshank and Paul Cotter, were never able to get closer than three goals.

Crookshank’s goal was his first goal and point as a Devil.

Up Next​

The Devils, who have lost five straight at Prudential Center, host the Anaheim Ducks at 12:30 pm, Saturday afternoon. Anaheim, which beat the Devils 4-1 back on Nov. 2 in Anaheim lost to the Islanders 5-2 on Thursday. They’re in second in the Pacific Division behind Vegas.

Your Thoughts​

What did everyone else think? This one was rough. Markstrom has been horrible. Is he playing hurt? Did they rush him back early? It’s hard to tell. He wasn’t good in his one game before getting hurt. He’s not even serviceable at this point. To allow three or more in 13 of 16. … And it isn’t just the goals allowed. It’s when he allows them. On the first or second shot. Right after the Devils score. In the first and last minutes of periods. They’re all killers when there’s so little margin for error with Hughes and Meier out,

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/devils-game-recaps/64200/markstrom-chased-in-laugher-vs-lightning

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils in the Details – 12/12/25: Team Meeting Edition

Here are your links for today:

Devils Links​

Another brutal outing for Jacob Markstrom on Thursday night. He got pulled after giving up three goals to the Lightning on seven shots, and the Devils went on to lose by an 8-4 score. [Devils NHL]

FWIW:

Jesper Bratt shared that the #NJDevils had a team meeting after tonight’s game and called it a “vocal” and “honest conversation.”

Said the details will remain in the room.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 12, 2025

"We can’t just flush this. We got our ass kicked today. We were outworked, outcompeted, outclassed in lots of ways. This is one not to push past. There's some real lessons in this one." – #NJDevils HC Sheldon Keefe after the 8-4 loss to Tampa.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 12, 2025

All the best to Timo and his family:

#NEWS: Timo Meier has taken a personal leave of absence from the team as he tends to a family health matter.

The entire organization supports Timo and his family and appreciates everyone respecting their privacy at this time.https://t.co/0qpBXTFDHp

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 11, 2025

Some intel here on a Quinn Hughes trade and the business the Devils are trying to do: “On the Devils: they are legitimately trying to get business done, but to add, they have to subtract. If the team they are trading with isn’t willing to take back salary, they must find other options — which they are trying to do.” [Sportsnet]

Who are the most successful undrafted Devils in franchise history? [New Jersey Hockey Now]

Hockey Links​

Which teams could be in on the Quinn Hughes sweepstakes? [Daily Faceoff]

Welcome back, Charlie McAvoy:

Charlie McAvoy is BACK in the lineup less than a month after breaking his jaw. https://t.co/VsMQtH6nmJ pic.twitter.com/BY3AROHrEO

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 12, 2025

Which GMs have had the worst long stint with their teams? “But now and then, for a variety of reasons, a team sticks with a guy well past the point that results would dictate. Those are the guys we’re interested in today, as we count down the 10 worst GMs to get at least five years with the same team.” [The Athletic ($)]

An impressive run:

HISTORY FOR BRANDON BUSSI! pic.twitter.com/d8OrFo4pwl

— NHL (@NHL) December 12, 2025

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

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...-in-the-details-12-12-25-team-meeting-edition

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Well Wishes to Timo Meier — and Devils Injury News

Yesterday morning, the New Jersey Devils announced that Timo Meier had to step away from the team for a personal leave of absence to attend to a family health matter. Given the nature of the leave, of course, we do not know exactly why Timo Meier has had to step away from the team. But while the team will miss Timo on the ice, I think it is very important to keep him in our thoughts.

On the ice, Timo Meier is a model of hard work and grit. Off the ice, Timo always seems to have a positive attitude in his public appearances as one of the most apparently affable members of the New Jersey Devils. Both on the ice and off of it, Timo is a model for everyone to follow. But hockey is just one thing, and family is another. I hope that, regardless of what is going on, Timo spends as much time with his family as he needs to.

So, again, please remember to keep Timo and his family in your thoughts. When he does come back to the team, I hope that the crowd at the Rock gives him a big hand.

(Unexpected) Devils Injury News — Arseny Gritsyuk Out​

This morning, Devils writers noted that three Devils — Arseny Gritsyuk, Cody Glass, and Stefan Noesen — were missing from practice. While Cody Glass and Stefan Noesen have dealt with injuries over the last few months, and a maintenance day was not too out of the ordinary for players in their situations, Gritsyuk had not yet missed a game this season.

Unfortunately, that’s about to change. Team writers reported that Sheldon Keefe told the media that Gritsyuk has recently been battling through a lingering issue and is out for the weekend back-to-back. Per the Devils’ website on NHL.com:

“(Gritsyuk is) going to need some time,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He was dealing with it in the game yesterday and it hasn’t gotten better.”

The young winger has 16 points in 31 games in a largely third-line role with second-unit power play usage, but he clearly has another gear to his game that he can reach. Gritsyuk has been marked as one of the best players in the entire NHL at tilting the ice, with the Devils enjoying some of the best shot rates in the league at five-on-five during his minutes, regardless of his linemates. How does he do this? Between impeccable forechecking reads, great skating, and silky hands, Gritsyuk is a complete forward.

Hopefully, Gritsyuk is only out for the weekend. The Devils can hardly afford to sustain more injuries (or losses), and he figures to be an integral part of the solution to this team’s issues. For now, though, the healthy Devils need to pick themselves and their teammates up.

Your Thoughts​

What do you think of Gritsyuk’s injury? Do you think it’s related to his minor ankle injury earlier this season? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/devils-news/64250/well-wishes-to-timo-meier-and-devils-injury-news

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #32: New Jersey Devils vs. Anaheim Ducks

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (17-13-1) at Anaheim Ducks (19-11-1)

The Time: 12:30pm EST

The Broadcast: MSG, Devils Hockey Radio

The Game Preview: Matt had the preview today.

The Song of the Day: California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & The Papas captures the mood at the moment.

The Rules: If you have been a reader here, you already know the rules. But for the rest, a reminder: please do not swear in the comment section, and keep comments relevant to the hockey game going on. Beyond that, do not attack any other commenters, and do not ask for or pass along illegal streams on this board.

LGD!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ethread-32-new-jersey-devils-vs-anaheim-ducks

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #32: Anaheim Ducks @ New Jersey Devils

Jesper Bratt gets plenty of good looks, but it would be nice to see him shoot on plays like this. | Photo by Rich Graessle/NHL via Getty Images

• The Matchup: Anaheim Ducks (19-11-1) @ New Jersey Devils (17-13-1)
• The Time: 12:30pm EST
• The Broadcast: MSG, Devils Hockey Radio

Last Devils Game​

In case you missed it, or wisely chose to do something else with your night, the Devils lost 8-4 against Tampa Bay on Thursday night. In the latest episode of Markstrom doing Markstrom things, he let up 2 goals less than 1 minute apart, less than 4 minutes into the game. Exactly what you need from your “starter.” Luke “I am on pace for 5 goals this season” Hughes gave the fans some hope by scoring his 2nd goal of the season at the 7:00 min mark. However, Markstrom wasn’t having any of that, and let up his 3rd goal against 56 seconds later (his 3rd GA on 7 shots). Surprisingly (yes, I’m being serious here) Keefe had seen enough and actually pulled Markstrom for Jake Allen at this point. Allen was not about to be outdone by the starter. In showing that he too can be the number one goalie for the Devils, he went on to let up 5 goals on 28 shots.

On the “bright side”, Jesper “it’s ok to shoot” Bratt scored his 1st goal since 11/6. Another way to look at it is that he also scored his 2nd goal since 10/22. Do with this information what you will. Paul Cotter, Stefan Noesen, and Cody Glass got on the board. Maybe they finally realized they have to do something. Maybe not. Angus Crookshank scored his 1st goal of the season. So we have that going for us. Which is nice. The Devils also let up 2 power play goals, oh wait. That’s not actually good news. The Devils did score a power play goal (Bratt), which would be good, if it wasn’t cancelled out by the 2 goals against by Tampa on their PP.

Last Ducks Game​

On Thursday, the Ducks lost to the Islanders by a score of 5-2. The Islanders scored 3 unanswered goals in the 1st period, including 2 power plays goals in a row by Anders Lee. Anaheim scored once in the 2nd and once in the 3rd period to make it 3-2 at one point. However, NY scored 2 more goals later in the 3rd period to win the game 5-2. The game was their first loss after winning their previous 3 games in a row.

One bit of information that I found interesting is that Ville Husso started in goal on Thursday for the Ducks. That is not particularly interesting on its own. What IS interesting (at least to me), is that he has now started the last (checks notes…) 8 games in a row for the Ducks. In 2025, that’s something that is pretty crazy to see. I’m going to guess he starts today against the Devils, but we shall see.

Injuries, Roster for Tonight, Yada, Yada, Yada.​

The latest victim of the injury bug this season is now Arseny Gritsyuk. Per Sheldon Keefe yesterday after practice, Gritsyuk will miss both games this weekend.

Gritsyuk out for both games this weekend for #NJDevils, it’s an injury he had before the game last night and tried to play through.

Glass and Noesen, who also missed today’s practice, will be good to go tomorrow. https://t.co/G9VylTuAf4

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 12, 2025

The other 2 remaining question marks for today are probably “will Timo be back?” and “who will start in net?” My response is pretty much, “does it matter at this point?” Realistically, I don’t expect Timo to be back today or this weekend.

Trust me, I’m as tired of saying it as you are of reading it. But Markstrom is awful (73rd in the league in GAA-3.66, 70th with a SV% of .875). Allen did not inspire confidence last night either. However at least he’s had more good games than bad this season and his stats (33rd in GAA 2.70 and 35th SV% .903) don’t resemble someone that belongs in the ECHL at this point (hint – it’s Markstom. I’m talking about Markstrom).

Grimace’s Prediction and 2025-2026 Record Tracker​

The Devils are going to lose today. Kreider will score a goal on the PP. Sincerely, Grimace.

Grimace’s 2025-2026 Season Prediction record currently stands at 9-8-0.

Your Take​

What else is there to say about this team at this point? I only wish Fitz could play today against Anaheim. Maybe then Jacob Trouba could throw one of his big hits on Fitz and put him out for the season. Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below and thanks for reading!

In a shameless bit of non hockey related self promotion (approved by Chris – thanks Chris), I wanted to plug my brand new podcast on here, if any of you are interested in listening. We have a light hearted, fun discussion about any movies, music or video games mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. Please feel free to listen to us on any of the formats below and any feedback is welcome (positive and negative). Also, please follow us and subscribe, even if you think we stink.

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Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...me-preview-32-anaheim-ducks-new-jersey-devils

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Five Things I Liked in the Devils’ 4-1 Win Over Anaheim

Yesterday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils took on the Anaheim Ducks. Things started about how you would expect. The Devils, as the east coast host in this early afternoon matchup, had the jump on the Ducks. But then, something very predictable happened: Troy Terry snuck behind Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes and cherrypicked a breakaway goal in the second half of the first period. At the time, the Ducks only had a few shots on goal. After the Devils had given up eight to the Tampa Bay Lightning, I started to worry that I was about to witness an impending collapse. Now without Simon Nemec, who was hurt in practice, I also wondered if the team was just becoming too fractured.

Given the circumstances of the weekend, a bad loss would have been devastating. The Devils were out of a playoff spot, and they lost out on the trade market, but they could still have a good enough weekend for the season by winning on the ice. So, here are five things I liked in yesterday’s game:

Number One: Juho Lammikko and the Third Line​

The Devils’ jump came from someone I have not enjoyed watching much all season: Juho Lammikko. Lammikko, who has not seemed to be moving very quickly on the ice in his 15 games, went from the far blueline all the way behind the Ducks’ net to set up Stefan Noesen for a game-tying goal, just minutes after Terry scored. Per NHL EDGE, this burst of speed from Lammikko was clocked at 22.53 miles per hour, breaking his previous career high of 22.52 MPH set in the 2021-22 season. This did not get him onto the top-10 Devils leaderboard this season (Paul Cotter had the 10th-fastest burst at 22.58 MPH), but it is certainly among the top few bursts of speed actually leading to a goal, both for the Devils and in the NHL this season.

Beyond that first goal, Juho Lammikko played a solid all-around game. His line later scored another goal (from Paul Cotter), and they controlled the scoring chance battle throughout the game. Lammikko was right in the mix in the slot when the teams battled for the puck that got knocked down from Colton White’s point shot, and now the Devils have a glimmer of hope that they could have a functional third line despite using Dawson Mercer as a winger again.

For chipping at that puck, Lammikko had his second point of the night, finally breaking through after 15 scoreless appearances. But here’s the simplicity of this line working at its best: Lammikko and Cotter should use their considerable speed, while Noesen and Lammikko should make goalies’ lives difficult around the net. That double screen made fighting that puck almost impossible for Dostal, who was unable to track how quickly it went from being knocked down in the slot to being on Paul Cotter’s stick right on his glove side.

There was one moment in the late first where Paul Cotter used his speed to gain the zone, had Noesen as an option in front of the net, and decided to skate the puck around the net and all the way to the blueline instead. While Cotter shows how dangerous of a skater he can be, and his goal-scoring ways seem to be coming back, he is still struggling to be a playmaker. Even if he didn’t make a direct pass to Noesen, as Lammikko did, a shot on goal for a rebound is perfectly fine for someone of Noesen’s skillset. When this line simplifies their offense, it feeds into their abilities, so I would like to see Cotter follow their lead and make more of the simple plays. Shoot low and hard from afar, get rebounds, and get traffic in front.

Number Two: Netfront Defense​

One thing the Devils have struggled with all season is their defense around the net. For a team with Brenden Dillon, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Dougie Hamilton in the lineup, though, this really should not be such a problem. Their usual starters have the size to make an impact in the dirty areas, and it has been surprising to see a Brad Shaw-coached defense lose their heads as often as this group has. But yesterday, it seemed like they made a point to change the approach. Especially in the first two periods, you could see that the Devils were doing a better job than usual of boxing out the low slot and around the crease, with the Ducks only getting six high-danger scoring chances in the first two periods to the Devils’ 18 chances.

Did the Devils give up a lot of shots in the third period? Yes. But even then, most of Anaheim’s chances were forced to the outside, and everyone — including forwards — made a point of getting to the net when the Devils were in danger. Just look at Ondrej Palat crash down on this chance here, when Anaheim first pulled Dostal with over four minutes to play:

Is Troy Terry a guy who should have been open that long? Probably not, no. But Palat, who has used his speed a lot on the forecheck, reminded everyone what it could look like if he used his full intensity in the defensive zone. And making that type of play while not driving Terry into Allen or running his own goalie was just a cherry on top for Palat, as Terry would have almost certainly scored if Palat broke for the net just a half-second later.

Number Three: Cody Glass Continues to Shoot​

In the late second period, Ondrej Palat also set up the crucial insurance goal. The Devils had been dominating the game by that point, and the one-goal lead at that time was not even reflective of how much better they were creating offense than Anaheim. After a long flip from Jonas Siegenthaler, Ondrej Palat chased the bouncing puck towards the goal line, sealing Owen Zellweger from the puck long enough for the Devils to keep possession. Connor Brown came in to assist, and Colton White chipped the puck back down to Palat. Palat waited for Radko Gudas to (foolishly) go down onto the ice to block a low pass to an already-covered Connor Brown, leaving a wide-open lane to the slot for Cody Glass. Glass drifted down, trailing Brown, and ripped a shot to the glove side, going against the grain of the pass, and that goal allowed the Devils to into protect mode.

Glass now has six goals and eight points in 21 games this season, which is great production for someone playing just 12:51 per game with very limited power play usage. Playing at a 23-goal, 31-point pace per 82 games, Glass is giving his lines a real finishing option, and it’s not an accident. He is doing a better job of getting to the dangerous scoring areas, and his shot is quick enough to beat goalies. This season, Glass is averaging 9.18 shots per 60 minutes at five-on-five, and his previous career high was 7.57 per 60 with Nashville in 2023-24. Hockey is a game that rewards the properly aggressive, and Cody Glass suddenly looks like a legitimate goal scorer.

Number Four: No Penalties in the Third​

The New Jersey Devils have not necessarily been their most disciplined of late, with even guys like Nico Hischier taking more penalties than usual. Yesterday, they only took two stick penalties, with their final penalty kill coming from an unforced too many men where nobody was even trying to get back to the bench in the latter half of the second period. But the penalty kill was perfect, and even Colton White finally got 1:34 of penalty killing usage in the game. What happened in that time? Anaheim had zero shot attempts. Maybe he should get more run there.

That aside, it would have been extremely disappointing if the Devils let Anaheim get back into the game by taking penalties in the final frame. By avoiding such a pitfall, and playing more disciplined defense, they let Jake Allen do his job and mostly just challenged the Ducks to beat Allen from distance. It can be rather tiring to defend penalty after penalty, and getting out of yesterday’s game in a simpler manner should have kept them fresh for today’s game against the Canucks. We’ll see, but they did a good job of not dragging out the affair against the Ducks.

Number Five: Effort From All​

Over the past month, the Devils have looked like they are only getting effort from some of the team far too often. Maybe the closed-door meeting on Thursday really made a difference, because all 18 skaters and Jake Allen looked locked in. The top three lines did a good job of controlling play, especially in the first two frames, though I put a grain of salt on the full-game possession and expected stats with how much the team sat back in the third. The fourth line could have been better, but I think Parent and Crookshank have brought great elements to that line with their speed and willingness to take anyone on around the net and boards.

Most of all, it’s great that the team did not fold. They practically stopped playing once Markstrom gave up his third goal against on Thursday, but they came right back when Troy Terry cherry picked his goal in the first period. It was like they took it personally. Between that goal and Glass’s insurance goal, the Devils were playing with an obvious purpose. Losing was unacceptable, and it looked like they considered winning mandatory. When the effort is there, it shows.

The Highlights​

Enjoy the full highlights from the win.

Your Thoughts​

What did you think of the win yesterday? Were you surprised by their effort after the early goal against? Were you able to watch? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...gs-i-liked-in-the-devils-3-1-win-over-anaheim

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Injuries And Inaction; Two Things Can Be True At Once

There has been a lot of Tom Fitzgerald discourse lately, and rightfully so. Between the New Jersey Devils’ slide down the standings, the general inaction from the front office in addressing this slide, and perhaps most importantly, the blockbuster Quinn Hughes trade to the Minnesota Wild over the weekend, the fanbase has been given a lot of ammo to fire at their general manager in recent times. Criticism of Fitzgerald has been going on for years of course, but it really does seem to have reached a crescendo over the past month or so. Even I, a certified Fitz defender for a long time, find myself rapidly losing hope that Fitzgerald is the man that can guide the Devils back to the promised land.

At this point, many of you are probably sick of talking about Fitzgerald, just like many of you were probably sick of speculating about trading for Quinn Hughes until Saturday (we’ll still have to do that down the road, but unless Hughes pulls a Rantanen, discussion on Hughes’ future can subside until the summer). But I do feel as though it’s important to discuss how, in my opinion, one part of the Devils’ failings this season is absolutely not Fitzgerald’s fault, while another part absolutely is. I don’t want to just complain about Fitzgerald and the front office without trying to be rational and fair about it. So let’s talk about injuries and inaction, the two defining traits of the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils.

Impossible to Overcome​

According to NHL Injury Viz, through December 12, the New Jersey Devils have the third-highest CHIP (Cap Hit of Injured Players) in the league this season. If you’re not familiar with CHIP, it’s basically a way of measuring the impact of injuries a team faces by looking at the cap hits of players lost. After all, raw injury totals don’t exactly tell the whole story because losing someone like Marc McLaughlin is not as impactful as losing someone like Jack Hughes. It’s not a perfect science, as lots of players have bloated AAV’s that they don’t come close to living up to, and plenty of young studs on ELC’s or cheap bridge deals produce at well beyond their cap hit. But it’s a decent method of measuring how impacted by injuries a team is.

All that being said, we do have at least one source that backs up what all our eye tests are telling us: the Devils have been decimated by injuries this season. Comparing New Jersey’s Opening Day lineup (which itself was not at full strength) to the Devils’ lineup from one of their games over the weekend tells the story:

This is the Devils opening night lineup

A red line means the player is currently out. A yellow line means the player was injured at some point

Considering it’s early December this is insane.. pic.twitter.com/JO7ly0vnST

— Devils Red Alert (@DevilsRedAlert) December 13, 2025

I’m sorry, but you cannot blame Tom Fitzgerald for that.

A season ago, a lack of forward depth proved to be a fatal flaw of this team, which you definitely could blame on Fitzgerald. To his credit, he went out and made what I thought were solid depth additions in the offseason. Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov were, on paper, the infusion of speed and skill the Devils sorely needed. Convincing Arseni Gritsyuk to finally make the jump to North America has helped this team immensely. Retaining Cody Glass on a reasonable contract was a shrewd piece of business (even if it took a last-minute pivot to get it done). Yes, the Devils still badly needed a true 3C, but considering how reluctant teams have been since the offseason to make trades, I can’t blame Fitzgerald too much for this.

The problem is that everything Fitzgerald has touched has turned into an IR designation. Every single one of those players I just mentioned either spent time on the shelf earlier this season, or is currently out. Not to mention injuries/absences from irreplaceable players like Jack Hughes and Timo Meier. Heck, perhaps we have to include Brett Pesce and Johnny Kovacevic in that irreplaceable category considering how their usual partners, Luke Hughes and Jonas Siegenthaler respectively, have seen their games take big steps back without them (which might be a story for another day). Fitzgerald could have done a better job building depth, but at full strength, this team should be good enough. Add a 3C and a scoring winger at the deadline, and you should have a legit Stanley Cup contender, particularly in a wide open Eastern Conference.

In the end, I have a hard time pinning all the Devils’ struggles this season on Fitzgerald. The injuries this team has suffered would be hilarious if they weren’t so infuriating. The mantras of “injuries aren’t an excuse” and “next man up” are ingrained in every sports fan’s brain, I understand that. But come on, injuries of this magnitude actually are a reasonable excuse. You can’t win games, let alone championships, when half your starting lineup (including most of the top of your roster) is missing significant time. And that’s not Fitzgerald’s fault.

…But The Injury Excuse Only Goes So Far​

However, for as bad as things are in New Jersey, you might have noticed that they were only third in CHIP according to NHL Injury Viz. There are two places where things are worse: Vegas and Florida. Yes, the two most recent Stanley Cup Champions have suffered through an absurd amount of injuries themselves. So for as bad as the Devils’ injuries are, the raft of man games lost has not put them in true outlier territory as of yet.

In fact, injuries appear to be up around the league this season. Back in November, James Mirtle of The Athletic touched on this in the publication’s NHL newsletter, including referencing the very site we used here today as the source for CHIP. Injuries in the NHL are up a lot this season, and while it would be logical to blame the condensed schedule brought about by the Olympic break in Feburary, Mirtle points out that we have not seen a similar spike in injuries in previous Olympic years. The unsatisfying conclusion that Mirtle and NHL Injury Viz come to is that it’s just plain old bad luck that is causing so many injuries across the NHL.

It’s true that the Devils are still near the very top of the league in injuries. But the fact that they aren’t at the very top, coupled with the fact that just about every other team out there is enduring an abnormal amount of injuries, should tell us that the injury excuse only goes so far.

I do want to be fair about this though and point out that it’s not like Vegas and Florida are killing it despite the injuries. Yes, Vegas is currently atop the Pacific Division, but that’s mostly due to an NHL-leading nine loser points. Their 16-6-9 record means they’ve only won one more game than they’ve lost, which is about as middling as you can get. Meanwhile in Florida, the Panthers enter the week out of a playoff spot with a 16-13-2 record. It’s actually kind of funny to think that both the Golden Knights and Panthers are exactly the same with 16 wins in 31 games, more or less on pace with New Jersey’s 18 wins in 33 contests.

The difference, of course, is that those teams have pelts on the wall. The Panthers are back-to-back champs and have won 11 of their last 12 postseason series. The one series they didn’t win in that stretch? That would be the Stanley Cup Final to, you guessed it, the Vegas Golden Knights in June of 2023. So while this season might be disappointing thus far for those teams, they can at least cry themselves to sleep every night while checking out their reflections in their shiny Stanley Cup rings.

But that’s actually a great segue into the part of the Devils’ struggles that you can blame on Fitzgerald. You know what a major factor was in building Stanley Cup winners in Vegas and Florida? Bold roster construction. The same could be said about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s back-to-back Cup winners coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Heck, even the Colorado Avalanche, winners in 2021-22, exhibited incredibly savvy roster-building maneuvers even if they weren’t quite as creative as the other Cup winners this decade.

Because I have an obsession with steel-manning the other side of an argument in an effort to be fair, I should point out that a LOT of luck was involved there too, as it is with every champion in every sport. I am convinced that the Panthers do not win a second Cup if they didn’t get the perfect combo of a long-term injury to Matt Tkachuk and a PED suspension to Aaron Ekblad that helped wipe a ton of cap hit off their books. That allowed them to acquire Brad Marchand and Seth Jones and team them up with Tkachuk and Ekblad, who returned right as the playoffs began, effectively allowing Florida to ice a lineup about $15m above the salary cap. Vegas and Tampa Bay had similar situations where they were able to turn bad injury luck (wink wink) during the regular season into good injury luck (even harder wink wink) when the postseason began. Yes there was obviously salary cap circumvention going on there, but for as fake as we all think the cap is, those maneuvers are impossible to pull off without at least some semblance of actual injuries taking place.

But in addition to that, the Cup winners since the pandemic have absolutely shown a willingness to be bold that Fitzgerald (and frankly, most GM’s) hasn’t. Tampa Bay trading for Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. Colorado trading for Nazem Kadri. Vegas manipulating the cap in a million different ways and trading for/signing a superstar every year of their existence. Florida trading two core pieces in Mackenzie Weegar and Johnathan Huberdeau for Tkachuk. There are many, many more bold moves by those clubs I could mention, but they are so numerous that I’d rather not bog down this section forever. But that’s the point: These front offices have no issue cutting against the grain, while Fitzgerald seems stuck in conventional hockey thinking.

Losing The Quinn Hughes Auction​

As mentioned, Quinn Hughes is now a member of the Minnesota Wild (and has now scored more goals with his new team than Luke Glendening and Juho Lammikko have with the Devils combined). Bill Guerin has seemingly decided that enough is enough, pushing all his chips into the middle, and not just with the Hughes trade. Back in 2021, he decided to take his medicine and buy out both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, whose dead cap hits were absolutely enormous for a couple seasons. But Guerin apparently thought that desperate times called for desperate measures, so he took the bold step to say goodbye to a pair of franchise staples. Then this past offseason, he signed star winger Kirill Kaprizov to the biggest contract in NHL history. You could absolutely argue that this wasn’t him being bold, it was him being stupid and overpaying. I would argue that it was, in fact, bold though. Guerin took bold action with Kaprizov and got his man regardless of the cost. And finally, he traded a bevy of young players and a premium pick to bring an elite defenseman to his team. Guerin might not have built a Stanley Cup champion yet, but in my opinion, he’s running circles around Fitzgerald as far as GM skill goes.

It’s true that New Jersey just didn’t have the assets to compete with what the Wild sent Vancouver, but that’s also part of the problem. While issues with drafting and developing aren’t the focus of today’s piece, it is obviously a huge part of a general manager’s job. Fitzgerald did not set his organization up to acquire a player of Quinn Hughes’ caliber, which might not be indicative of an unwillingness to take bold action, but it’s indicative of another problem.

But at the same time, I can’t help but feel that Fitzgerald still could have made this work. Sure the Devils didn’t have the center that the Canucks coveted (and no, they absolutely should not trade Nico Hischier under any circumstances), but they still could have offered an enticing package. Between Simon Nemec, Anton Silayev, Seamus Casey, and Ethan Edwards, New Jersey has an armada of young blue chip defense prospects that I think Vancouver would’ve been interested in. At forward, basically anyone not named Hischier, Hughes, Bratt, and Meier should’ve been on the table. Yes, that includes Dawson Mercer and Arseni Gritsyuk. That also includes a prospect like Lenni Hämeenaho. Multiple first round picks should have also been on the table. I understand there is still a good chance Hughes signs in New Jersey in two seasons anyway to play with his brothers. But at that point, he will be two years older, is going to have a MUCH higher cap hit, and at that point you’ve wasted another two seasons of the current core’s Cup window. Quinn Hughes is a player you move heaven and earth to acquire. Guerin understood that. Fitzgerald somehow didn’t.

Then there’s the issue of Fitzgerald handing out no-movement clauses like candy:

Tom Fitzgerald’s biggest flaw was on display in his failed pursuit of Quinn Hughes — and I have the numbers to back it up.

Sportsnet reported yesterday that the #NJDevils couldn’t clear the space needed for a Quinn trade because the clauses that Fitzgerald handed out “prevented…

— Ryan Novozinsky (@ryannovoNHL) December 14, 2025

As you can see from Novozinsky’s tweet (and in his article if you have an NJ.com subscription), Fitzgerald is like Santa Clause Claus when it comes time to sign a contract. To be fair, I don’t know if I’d categorize this as Fitzgerald not being bold enough, but I sure would categorize it as a massive issue on his part. If the Devils could not acquire Hughes in part because Fitzgerald just really needed to give some form of no-movement clauses to players like Johnny Kovacevic and Ondrej Palat, then that is a catastrophic failure and maybe even grounds for job termination. I don’t understand why he feels the need to continue doing this, but regardless of his reasons, it’s come back to haunt him in a big way. Maybe if Fitzgerald was a little more bold in negotiations, he could have convinced these middle-tier players to sign without significant no-move protections. But hey, what do I know?

Final Thoughts​

Whether you agree or disagree with any of the points I’ve made today, I want you to know that I’m trying my very best to be fair here. The vultures are circling around Fitzgerald, with his job security seemingly in the balance more than ever before. I wanted to take a look at a couple of major reasons why this team is struggling lately, and why I think it’s unfair to blame Fitzgerald for one of them, but completely fair to blame him for the other.

In my opinion, the biggest flaw Fitzgerald has as a general manager right now is his unwillingness to think outside the box and/or take bold action. Risk-taking has been rewarded time and again since the pandemic, though as mentioned, it also takes a fair bit of luck. Fitzgerald really, REALLY needs to start going against the crowd and make some moves that most wouldn’t. That of course does not mean he should make moves just for the sake of making moves, they need to be transactions that he truly believes will help the team. And he also really needs to avoid overcorrecting and doing things like, for example, trading three first round picks and Simon Nemec for Steven Stamkos. But I really don’t think it’s too much to ask for Fitzgerald to be smart about this.

At the end of the day, I am willing to give Fitzgerald more time. He’s made some genuinely great moves in his time running the show here, and as I said earlier, I do think he had a strong offseason. But the clock is ticking. To Tom Fitzgerald, I would say please be bolder. And to Devils ownership, I would say please bring someone in who is willing to be bold and creative if Fitzgerald can’t cut it.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...s-and-inaction-two-things-can-be-true-at-once

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils in the Details – 12/15/25: Some Noise Edition

Here are your links for today:

Devils Links​

Plenty of Quinn Hughes-adjacent news to digest:

Breaking: Quinn Hughes has been traded to the Minnesota Wild, sources told @emilymkaplan.

The Canucks will receive Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick. pic.twitter.com/QOX71ni8qd

— ESPN (@espn) December 13, 2025

The Canucks have known for a while Hughes wasn’t going to extend. Van believed their leverage was highest in Dec-Jan. NJD were given a chance. Other teams in east had a chance. A week ago Guerin engaged and closed the deal.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) December 13, 2025

Brisson said he spoke to teams interested in acquiring Hughes.

“The one thing I made certain about, under no circumstances could we guarantee a contract extension with anyone.”

— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) December 13, 2025

It’s not ideal!

Tom Fitzgerald’s biggest flaw was on display in his failed pursuit of Quinn Hughes — and I have the numbers to back it up.

Sportsnet reported yesterday that the #NJDevils couldn’t clear the space needed for a Quinn trade because the clauses that Fitzgerald handed out “prevented…

— Ryan Novozinsky (@ryannovoNHL) December 14, 2025

“Some noise around Tom Fitzgerald last couple days”:

And the #NJDevils, who posted a much, much needed win over Anaheim by playing hard and as a group:

— Despite the W and the prospect of an actual win streak today vs. VAN, hearing some noise around Tom Fitzgerald last couple days. No duh, you might say, team is flailing and they…

— Arthur Staple (@StapeNHL) December 14, 2025

In a Canucks-Devils game with a little less juice on Sunday, Luke Hughes scored for New Jersey but Vancouver held on to claim a 2-1 win. [Devils NHL]

On Saturday, the Devils snapped the home losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Ducks. [Devils NHL]

“Jacob Markstrom’s season has been an unmitigated disaster. There is no other way to put it. The 35-year-old has struggled mightily from the word go, seemingly unable to find any sort of rhythm between the pipes. Consistency wouldn’t be the right word because he is consistent. Consistently bad.” [Infernal Access ($)]

“General manager Tom Fitzgerald has done some good things in his tenure, but from multiple missed draft picks to offseason moves (or lack thereof), the Devils have gone from what should be a perennial contender to a fringe playoff team. As such, Fitzgerald should be feeling the heat. The team’s struggles on the ice are not a result of just one or two recent failures, and he hasn’t shown an ability to fix them.” [Devils on the Rush]

This isn’t fun:

NHL injury summary through 12 December

— NHLInjuryViz (@nhlinjuryviz.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T15:22:47.041Z

Hockey Links​

“The hockey world is still buzzing after the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks made one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade in the NHL. Guerin, the Wild’s president of hockey operations and general manager, will never be accused of lacking confidence.” [The Athletic ($)]

A trade:

BIG TRADE

The @penguins have traded Tristan Jarry and Sam Poulin to the @EdmontonOilers for Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a 2029 second-round pick!

Powered by @SAP pic.twitter.com/PxbaMbWdOa

— NHL (@NHL) December 12, 2025

“After a tough start to the 2025-26 season, Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos is starting to bounce back.” [The Hockey News]

“The NHL is about to get more colorful. The league’s board of governors is eager to have more games in which both home and road teams wear solid-colored jerseys, a trend that has captured the attention of fans and broadcasters this season.” [ESPN]

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

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ls-in-the-details-12-15-25-some-noise-edition

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils Hold Canucks to 15 Shots, But Lose 2-1 as Offense Cannot Solve Demko

Sometimes, goalies win the games.

Per Natural Stat Trick, Jacob Markstrom only faced 1.49 expected goals, while Thatcher Demko faced 2.75. Markstrom allowed two, and Demko allowed one. Breaking it down even further, Jacob Markstrom made three saves on four high-danger shots, only facing two medium-danger shots. The goal by Buium, off of Brenden Dillon’s skate, was counted as a low-danger shot. Demko, by comparison, stopped all five high-danger shots on goal by the Devils, while he stopped seven of eight medium-danger shots. Also from Natural Stat Trick, this is the heat map from the game. Look at how weak the Vancouver offense was at even generating shots:

You cannot make it up, and you cannot make excuses for it. The goaltender is paid to do exactly one thing: stop the puck from going into the net. Jake Allen held up his end of the bargain yesterday, stopping 30 of 31. Markstrom finally had another game where he allowed fewer than three goals, but he did so on an afternoon where he only faced 15 shots. Out of 16 starts, this was just the second time Markstrom allowed under three goals, and he still managed to lower his season save percentage.

Issue One: Rebound Control — Does Rogalski Teach It?​

Let’s take a look at the firs t goal, allowed by Markstrom at the end of the first minute of the game. This goal, scored by Jake DeBrusk, came after Conor Garland called a slashing penalty on Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton came down hard on his stick, yes, but Garland simply raised one arm, stopped playing the puck, and then dropped his stick entirely when he thought the officials were not going to call a penalty. The Devils had touched it two or three times before the arm even went up. I get it when the officials miss a dangerous hitting penalty, like boarding, but rewarding what could have easily been called an embellishment to start the game was rather annoying. That aside, here is the goal against:

I will say that the defensive coverage from Brenden Dillon needs to be a lot better here. Despite being right in the passing lane, Garland is able to beat Dillon easily to set DeBrusk up at the net. DeBrusk turns to the net, bouncing one shot right off of Markstrom and back to himself. But while Thatcher Demko dealt with similar chances on the other end, staying sealed to the post, Markstrom gave up his entire glove side after the initial shot, sliding his left skate ENTIRELY away from the post.

This is not a washed-up, no reaction time type of misplay. This is a Jacob Markstrom currently has zero positioning skills as a goaltender kind of misplay. Look below at where Markstrom starts this goal against, and where he ends up.

Credit: MSG Networks

Just like it was deflating for Markstrom to give up three poor goals to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, his first period performance clearly zapped the Devils from even engaging in offensive play until they went on the power play at the end of the period. With a chance to beat up on the worst team in the league, Markstrom could not even stay glued to his post, with Luke Hughes already at the side of the net, ready if DeBrusk tried to take it to his stick side. So, as Markstrom unnecessarily flops around, DeBrusk gets an easy net.

Issue Two: Special Teams​

The second goal against for Markstrom falls more into the unfortunate category, but it is still maddening to watch him let what should be non-threatening shot attempts past him. This is not even a shot by Zeev Buium: it’s a centering pass, that was about to miss its mark and go several feet wide of goal and into the corner. Brenden Dillon CANNOT touch this with his stick, as this might be the worst own goal by a New Jersey Devil (yes, including every one by Damon Severson) that I have seen in the last ten years.

I mean, what is Dillon even thinking, sticking his right arm out like that at the puck? There is nobody behind him. If that puck goes to the boards, Dillon could have been first to the puck along the wall, anyway. And even if he wasn’t first to the puck, anything is better than deflecting the puck from wide back at the net in the defensive zone.

This goal against put the Devils to 0-for-2 on the penalty kill at this point of the game, despite Vancouver having just traded Quinn Hughes, who, as I mentioned this morning, had assisted on half of the Canucks’ power play goals and had points on 12 of 20 team goals this season. It would almost be forgivable if the Devils showed any indication that they were capable of scoring on the power play. They had an extended five-on-three chance in the first period, getting just under three minutes of consecutive power play time. Even in the five-on-three, the Canucks were able to get the puck out of their defensive zone multiple times.

Did I mention that the Canucks had the fourth-worst penalty kill in hockey coming into this game? The Devils had some incredibly weak power plays today, and it feels like Sheldon Keefe and Jeremy Colliton should have to answer why Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Stefan Noesen, Dawson Mercer, Dougie Hamilton, and Luke Hughes are not enough personnel to run a threatening top unit. These are power plays. You do not need an Alex Ovechkin to be effective. Are shots getting through to the net? Is there traffic in front? Can they get to rebounds?

For all of the time the Devils waste passing the puck back to each other at the point, and for all the time they waste in transition dropping passes 30, 40, or 50 feet back, they just give opposing goalies as easy of a two minutes as they can dream of. Everyone knows it. Nico Hischier knows it, just like Brenden Dillon knows the penalty kill is a serious problem right now.

Hischier did not let the PP off the hook either:

"And on the flip side, the power play also got to give us one, at least one or two goals tonight and we maybe win the game.”#NJDevils https://t.co/PBrFuWoUri

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) December 14, 2025

Issue Three: Lots of Control at 5v5, Little Finish​

The top line really controlled play for the New Jersey Devils today at even strength. In 13:58 together, the Bratt-Hischier-Mercer line generated 21 shot attempts and nine shots on goal, while only allowing four attempts and two shots on goal against. Hischier, Mercer, and Bratt finished with team-leading expected goals rates at five-on-five, with Nico at 87.22% and Bratt and 88.24%. Together, they generated 12 of the team’s 16 scoring chances at five-on-five.

In a short spell with Glendening on the ice with Bratt and Mercer, before Nico could get on the ice, Bratt let back a great little drop pass to Luke Hughes, creating the only goal for the Devils.

This rip of a shot by Luke Hughes breathed life into the Devils, but all of that control led to nothing else. Including the time they spent with the empty net, that top line generated over 1.3 expected goals alone at even strength, while the rest of the forwards generated 1.45 expected goals in all situations. On a pure hockey level, I did enjoy watching the way Luke Hughes played with them. When Hughes was on the ice with Hischier (9:58 at five-on-five), The Devils controlled shot attempts at a 17-1 rate, with the Devils outshooting Vancouver 7-0. By comparison, when Hischier played with Hamilton (7:42), the Devils only had two shots on goal.

Luke Hughes was great in the offensive zone today, and he had strong defensive numbers at five-on-five as well, with the Canucks only getting two shots on goal against him. Does he still need to be killing penalties with Brenden Dillon, though? Colton White had an excellent minute and a half on the kill against Anaheim, but got exactly zero seconds of usage there today. Of course, the Hughes-Dillon penalty killing pairing was on the ice for both goals against, though I would not blame Luke for either. 99.9% of the individual blame lies on Dillon and Markstrom, there.

Obviously, players like Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt have to start scoring goals again. Nico got off to a hot start in the first several games after Jack Hughes got hurt, but he has not had as much success at getting to the front of the net with Jesper Bratt on his line over the last few games. Beyond them, though, the rest of the team needs more consistency. Cody Glass had a great game yesterday, but had the worst run of play of any Devil today. Stefan Noesen scored yesterday, but took a bad penalty today. Juho Lammikko was on point yesterday, but was playing more reserved today.

Final Thoughts​

I reject the notion that unnecessary penalties killed the Devils today. Their penalty kill and Jacob Markstrom put those two on the board for Vancouver. If Markstrom played a positionally sound game, DeBrusk could have shot that puck five times without scoring. If Brenden Dillon played well on the penalty kill today, the pass to DeBrusk never would have made it there — or he at least could have not scored a goal for Zeev Buium with a one-handed deflection.

Penalties happen. Every game, NHL teams should expect to have to kill two, three, or four penalties. It’s not like Jacob Markstrom faced an onslaught of five or six penalty kills. But what’s making the difference here? Look at how the Devils’ goalies and Thatcher Demko have performed on the penalty kill this season:

• Jake Allen: 4 goals against on 59 shots (.932 SV%)
• Jacob Markstrom: 18 goals against on 77 shots (.766 SV%)
• Thatcher Demko: 9 goals against on 49 shots (.816 SV%)

The only reason our penalty kill looked good for the first month and a half of the season, aside from Brett Pesce’s then-availability, was the fact that Jake Allen was making almost every save asked of him. Once Jacob Markstrom started taking over the net, the penalty kill fell apart. So, is it really because of Pesce? It’s not like Allen has fallen victim to countless PPGAs without him in the lineup. On the other side, Demko has not been outstanding for the Canucks, but he’s not at a critically low, unplayable level like Markstrom.

Tom Fitzgerald needs to do something. He should send Calen Addison, his extra defenseman, down if Simon Nemec is not hurt enough to warrant an IR stint. If Nemec is that hurt, what are they waiting for? It is past time to call Nico Daws up and relegate Jacob Markstrom to the press box for the time being. He has an .874 save percentage in 17 appearances and 16 starts. This is a level of bad that Markstrom has not shown since he became a full-time NHLer in 2015, and continual reps is simply not doing anything for him in terms of getting his game back on track.

The team might not be able to send him down to Utica, but Fitzgerald cannot let him continue to start games. He’s going to have to figure it out in practice and off the ice.

Your Thoughts​

What did you think of the game this afternoon? Were you surprised at all by the loss? Why do you think nobody on this team can finish? Is it time to shut Jacob Markstrom down? How long can this team continue to spiral before something happens? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ts-but-lose-2-1-as-offense-cannot-solve-demko

 

[New Jersey Devils]

New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: Hameenaho Hammers Home Two Goals as Comets Go 1-2 on the Week

The Comets offense came up too short to earn more than one win this week, despite the continued efforts of winger Lenni Hameenaho.

Hameenaho Remains Hot​

The Comets have been playing some of their best hockey of the season these past few weeks, which, if I’m being honest, isn’t really saying much. But still. On Wednesday night, Utica’s defense led the offense with two goals by Dmitry Osiprov and Seamus Casey’s first tally of the season for a 3-2 win over the Syracuse Crunch. On Friday, despite a 22 save effort by Jakub Malek, the Comets would fall 2-1 to the Hartford Wolf Pack. The bright spot on offense, Lenni Hameenaho. (Get used to reading that).

Hameenaho would stay hot on Saturday with this blast off the rush.

Lenni Hameenaho is starting to cook down in the AHL. Rocket of a one-timer for another goal. #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/usSdP0PF0O

— Alex Chauvancy (@AlexC_NJD) December 14, 2025

It would not be enough; however, as the Comets fell to the Springfield Thunderbirds 3-2. Nico Daws earned the loss in this one, stopping 18 of 21. Despite the improved play, Utica remains dead last in the North Division with a 5-14-3-1 record, a full 10 points back from the 6th place Cleveland Monsters. Only the Iowa Wild have scored less goals (47) than the Comets 49 goals on the season. At least, Hameenaho is starting to find some twine.

A Quick Rundown​

Other than Hameenaho, it was a rather boring week for Devils prospects. Chase Cheslock continues to steadily gather points, now 15 in 19 games on the blueline for the University of St. Thomas. Center Samu Salminen has been holding steady at 14 points in 19 games for the University of Denver. Center Dylan Wendt has been stellar for Adirondack of the ECHL with 13 points in 16 games. Center Matyas Melovsky picked up a couple assists on Hameenaho’s goals. Seamus Casey picked up some more points as well, in addition to his goal, and now has 10 points in 16 games on the season.

Lastly, a stick tap for Mikhail Yegorov, who has been holding down the fort in a really bad season for Boston University.

BU finishes with a 348-177-19 record at Boston (Matthews) Arena

Mikhail Yegorov is the final goalie to record a win in the Arena

— BU Hockey Stats (@BUHockeyStats) December 14, 2025

Your Take​

Post your comments below.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/p...s-home-two-goals-as-comets-go-1-2-on-the-week

 

[New Jersey Devils]

A Breakdown of (Mostly) Every Signing Tom Fitzgerald Has Made Since Becoming Devils General Manager

I might be a true sicko. The sickest of the sickos, if you will.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do a breakdown and grade every single trade Tom Fitzgerald has made as Devils general manager after I stole the idea from another blogger on the internet.

After well over 9000 words and a fair amount of research, as well as taking the time to collect my thoughts, I was pleased with how it came out. However, there was one line in that article that has gnawed at me since publishing.

“I’ll probably eventually do a similar article in the summer recapping and grading every free agent signing in the Fitzgerald era, but those moves won’t be included here.”

I don’t really consider myself to be obsessive compulsive, but I also have a tendency to not leave well enough alone. Its just my nature. I say I’m going to do something so I need to do it. I’m probably sick enough where I’ll grade every draft pick as well. It’s who I am, so it is what it is.

Consider this a Part 2 to that article, as I will breakdown and grade (mostly) every signing Tom Fitzgerald has made since becoming the Devils general manager on January 12th, 2020. With a few exceptions.

First, I will not be grading signing players to ELC contracts. The reason for that is that I genuinely believe there is no such thing as a bad ELC contract. We’re talking about players on a minimum salary, which is ultimately team-friendly. But there’s too many instances of a player signing an ELC, playing out his ELC in the organization, and then either signing another deal or being traded, and frankly, I think me saying “this deal is fine” for every ELC is boring. So I will not be doing that.

Second, I will not be grading two-way deals for many of the same reasons. I don’t watch AHL Utica or ECHL Adirondack, so it wouldn’t be right or fair for me to analyze those deals either for players who might ultimately be career minor leaguers. James Tracy is better qualified than me to analyze how the prospects are doing anyways, so I’d recommend reading his weekly article for more information on those specific players. It might sound like a bit of a cop out, but you deserve better analysis than me just stating “its fine”.

Lastly, I’m probably going to hand out ‘incomplete’ grades to some of the most recent signings (with a few exceptions). The reason being is that the season is ongoing and players who are off to a poor start have time to change the narrative and play better. Players off to a good start may go cold and struggle for a bit. And knowing this is the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils, there’s a decent chance some of these players are or were hurt.

Once again, our primary source for this exercise will be PuckPedia.

Corey Crawford, 2 years, $3.9M AAV​

Date: October 9th, 2020

Tom Fitzgerald had the right idea targeting Corey Crawford to pair with Mackenzie Blackwood. Crawford was a part of two Cup-winning teams in Chicago and he consistently played well through his age 35 season.

Unfortunately, Crawford had second thoughts once training camp began and he decided to call it a career, putting Fitzgerald in a precarious position of having his starting goaltender walk out the door before the season began. The Devils struggled to keep the puck out of the net during the 56-game season and Fitzgerald would be right back in the goaltender business the following summer.

If there was any solace, Crawford’s cap hit was wiped from the books once he retired, but when a player you are counting on retires that close to the season, there’s no way it won’t have a negative impact on the team. I think this was a good contract that probably would’ve aged well had Crawford played it out, but its impossible to say without living in some sort of alternate reality. So I’m just going to grade this one as incomplete.

Grade: Incomplete

Dmitry Kulikov, 1 year, $1.15M AAV​

Date: October 22, 2020

I mentioned what Kulikov brought to the table in the previous article, but one year and just over $1M AAV for a solid bottom-pairing defenseman is a deal that I think Fitzgerald should be looking to do every day and twice on Sunday. Good value, no long-term commitment, and the Devils wound up flipping him to a contender at the deadline for a draft pick, which is exactly what the Devils should have been doing with their cap space every year between 2015-2022.

Grade: A

MacKenzie Blackwood, 3 years, $2.8M AAV​

Date: December 23, 2020

I think when Fitzgerald signed this deal, he was hoping that he was getting a steal for a player the Devils were hoping would be their franchise goaltender for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, things didn’t really work out that way.

Blackwood was great through his first two seasons, posting a .916 save percentage over 70 appearances. But after signing this deal and between COVID, injuries, and inconsistencies, his numbers dipped in the first year of that deal and continued to slip in the following years. Blackwood was ultimately traded to the Sharks for a late round draft pick, and has since moved on to Colorado.

I think this is one of those deals where Fitzgerald had the right idea locking up the young franchise goaltender for a few years with the intention of doing a long-term deal once he proved it. The problem is that Mac couldn’t stay on the ice long enough to prove it.

Grade: C

Sami Vatanen, 1 year, $2M AAV​

Date: January 7th, 2021

When I talked about Vatanen previously, I had mentioned how he was traded at the deadline for Janne Kuokkanen, Fredrik Claesson, and the draft pick the Devils used to take Nico Daws.

What I had forgotten in regards to Vatanen was that the Devils brought him back for the 56-game season. And it did not go well.

Vatanen skated in 30 games but struggled to find any offensive touch, registering 2 goals and 4 assists in 30 games. To make matters worse, the Devils were unable to flip him at the trade deadline for anything. I don’t know if this was a situation where Fitzgerald didn’t want to take what was a ‘nothing return’ for a player who had spent most of the last half decade in New Jersey, if the Devils refused to retain salary on his $2M salary, or just how non-existent his market was, but the Devils waived Vatanen on trade deadline day. Dallas wound up claiming him, where he played the final 9 games of his NHL career before continuing his career overseas.

I don’t have an issue with the Devils bringing back a player they were familiar with, but its safe to say Vatanen’s second tour in Jersey wasn’t nearly as good as the first.

Grade: C–

Jesper Bratt, 2 years, $2.75M AAV​

Date: January 10th, 2021

Coming off of his ELC and with 100 points over his first 185 NHL contests, Jesper Bratt was due for a raise. The question would be how much, and what would the deal look like.

The answer wound up being a two-year bridge deal that turned out to be an incredible value in the second season of said deal.

Bratt’s scoring rates per game suggested that he was a player who could potentially break out, and while his point total was down in 2021-22, his scoring rate was actually up since he only appeared in 46 games. It wouldn’t be until the following season where his point totals would explode though, and he’s basically been right around a PPG player over the last four full seasons (317 points in 321 games).

Bratt would go through a few more contract negotiations in this timeframe, but its tough to argue that getting a 73 point player for $2.75M in 2021-22 isn’t incredible value. It’s a shame the rest of the team didn’t do their part that season and ultimately wasted that performance.

Grade: A+

Nathan Bastian, 2 years, $825,000 AAV​

Date: June 15th, 2021

Bastian’s first full NHL season was the 56-game campaign in 2020-21 and he showed some promise as a physical fourth line winger with 3 goals and 7 assists in 41 games. The Devils rewarded him with a two year deal.

One month later, he was selected by the Seattle Kraken in their expansion draft.

Leaving Bastian exposed made sense. The way the rules were set up at the time, you could only protect upwards of 7 forwards, and the Devils prioritized players playing higher in the lineup. Someone eligible at forward had to be exposed, and Bastian fit the criteria. It wound up being ‘no harm, no foul’ anyways as Bastian didn’t really fit in with Seattle. The Kraken waived him early in their inaugural season, the Devils claimed him, and he played the next three and a half seasons in New Jersey before departing as a free agent this past summer.

It’s tough to complain about a multi-year deal though for a fourth line grinder that is under $1M AAV. This is what those players typically cost, and with 17 goals and 14 assists in 103 games in Jersey over the life of that deal, the Devils got their money’s worth.

Grade: A

Jonas Siegenthaler, 2 years, $1.125M AAV​

Date: July 9th, 2021

Having just come over at the trade deadline last season and getting a cup of coffee with the Devils, Siegenthaler needed a new deal.

Siegenthaler stepped in as a top pairing defenseman almost immediately, averaging over 20 minutes a night. He’s been a fixture on the penalty kill and it wouldn’t be long before Fitzgerald would move to extend his contract yet again.

Grade: A+

Michael McLeod, 2 years, $975,000 AAV​

Date: July 15th, 2021

Having played out his ELC, McLeod established himself as an NHL regular in the COVID-shortened season. With just 20 points in 85 career games to this point, he didn’t have the counting stats to justify a long-term commitment, but he showed enough promise that he was worth investing in. The Devils gave him 2 years at $975k, and McLeod rewarded that faith in him by continuing to improve in multiple assets of his game. He became a better two-way center, he was trusted to play on the penalty kill, he developed into one of the top faceoff specialists in the league, and he mixed in a little physicality to boot.

With 46 points over the life of that contract, its tough to argue the Devils once again didn’t get appropriate value for McLeod.

Grade: A

Jonathan Bernier, 2 years, $4.125M AAV​

Date: July 28th, 2021

After what happened with Corey Crawford happened the previous season, the Devils needed to go out and get another veteran goaltender to pair with Mackenzie Blackwood.

This is another one of those signings where the process was sound but the results didn’t pan out.

Bernier had a long track record of consistent play in net. More often than not, he would give his team a chance to win. He had also accepted transitioning into more of a platoon role, so he seemed perfectly suited to be paired with a younger up-and-coming goaltender in Blackwood.

Unfortunately, his body quit on him as a lingering hip injury resurfaced during training camp of that season. Bernier tried to battle through it and wound up appearing in 10 games early in the 2021-22 campaign. He eventually had to have surgery on his hip, ending that season. He didn’t play the following season either, and retired after the 2022-23 campaign.

Ultimately, this is a results business, and the reality is that Fitzgerald was now 0-2 with his big free agent goaltender acquisitions. The good news is that the other big signing Fitzgerald made that same day went a lot better than this one.

Grade: C–

Dougie Hamilton, 7 years, $9M AAV​

Date: July 28th, 2021

The Devils young core was taking shape. They had plenty of cap space with which to go out and make a big move. And with a top pairing RHD with a big shot sitting out there on the market, they pounced, signing Dougie Hamilton to a 7-year deal worth $9M AAV.

Hamilton has mostly been as advertised, bringing offense to the Devils blueline. He even added a new wrinkle to his game earlier this season playing some of the best defensive hockey he’s played since coming to New Jersey, which is probably a credit to the work Brad Shaw has done with him.

Injuries have slowed Hamilton down throughout his time in New Jersey. A puck to the face and subsequent broken jaw. A torn pec. A few lower body injuries. He’s a player who didn’t have much of an injury history prior to New Jersey, but has only appeared in roughly 70% of his games since signing with the Devils. To make matters worse, his offensive production has dried up in Year 5 of said deal, and for a guy who is primarily being paid for what he does on offense, its not good enough.

With two more years remaining on his deal after this one, it remains to be seen whether or not Dougie finishes this deal in New Jersey or if the Devils consider trading him and freeing up that $9M AAV to be used elsewhere. I didn’t think Dougie had a bad contract but his lack of production has given me pause. Sitting here in Year 5 of that deal, it was reasonable to expect a dropoff at some point. If this is who Dougie is going to be now, it’s a major problem because it’ll be much more difficult to find a trade partner and free up that cap space. The Devils had mostly gotten fair value from Hamilton prior to this year, but I’m concerned about his decline as a player.

Grade: B-

Yegor Sharangovich, 2 years, $2M AAV​

Date: August 5th, 2021

Sharangovich debuted for the Devils during the shortened season and more than held his own, with 16 goals and 14 assists over 54 games. This was good for a 10th place finish in the Calder Trophy voting, not to mention a new contract for the pending RFA.

Sharangovich took another step forward the following season with 46 points in 76 games. His shooting cooled off and he only registered 30 points in 75 games the following season before being traded to the Calgary Flames for Tyler Toffoli. But over the span of two years, the Devils got a player who was roughly a .5 PPG player for a $2M AAV. It’s a solid deal.

Grade: B+

Tomas Tatar, 2 years, $4.5M AAV​

Date: August 5th, 2021

The Devils had more cap space to play with and decided to take a shot on a well-traveled veteran with a reputation for putting the puck in the back of the net. With six 20+ goal seasons on his resume, the Devils brought in Tomas Tatar on a two-year deal.

Year 1 of that deal wasn’t very good, as he managed 15 goals and 15 assists over 76 games. He was much better in the second season, as he saw ice time with Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer, tallying 20 goals and 28 assists over the 82 game campaign. Tatar departed in free agency before returning a year later.

This deal looked like a potential disaster in Year 1, but the second year was strong enough to salvage it and make it acceptable.

Grade: B-

Janne Kuokkanen, 2 years, $1.825M AAV​

Date: August 9th, 2021

Kuokkanen needed a new deal after the shortened season, and while the numbers on the surface look fair considering his body of work to that point, his struggles in the 2021-22 campaign effectively marked the end of the road for him as an NHL-caliber player.

With Kuokkanen being under the age of 25, Fitzgerald was able to take advantage of the buyout rules one year into the deal and save more money than he typically would against the cap via a buyout. But when we’re talking about buying out a 23 year old player a year into a deal with where the Devils were as an organization at the time, its a strong indicator of how things weren’t working out with the player that they were that eager to move on.

Grade: D

Jimmy Vesey, 1 year, $800,000 AAV​

Date: October 10th, 2021

The Devils brought Jimmy Vesey to training camp on a PTO and he showed enough to earn a 1-year contract.

Vesey was a fixture on the Devils fourth line that season with 8 goals and 7 assists in 68 games. He signed with that team across the river after the season, playing the next 2.5 seasons there before being traded to Colorado. He’s now with Geneve Servette of the Swiss-A league.

Grade: C

Jack Hughes, 8 years, $8M AAV​

Date: November 30th, 2021

After two subpar seasons to begin the former #1 overall pick’s NHL career, Fitzgerald stunned the hockey world by signing Jack Hughes to a max-term deal for $8M AAV.

A lot of the critiques at the time was about how Jack hadn’t “earned it” and how are you going to sign a player for $8M AAV when he hadn’t “shown it” yet.

Safe to say that Tom Fitzgerald knew what he was doing here.

Jack Hughes’s point production exploded the Year 3 of his career, as he’s been a 1.19 PPG player in his last 268 games. The deal has aged gracefully as one of, if not the, best deals in hockey.

The one ’yeah, but’ with Hughes has been health, as that’s really been the only thing that has slowed Hughes down. And it doesn’t help matters that after a few years of suffering notable hockey injuries, he got injured this year in maybe the dumbest setting imaginable…..a freak accident during a team dinner at an upscale steakhouse in Chicago.

Grade: A

Brendan Smith, 2 years, $1.1M AAV​

Date: July 13th, 2022

The Devils needed to add a depth defenseman to fill out their roster, and in free agency 2022, they went with veteran Brendan Smith.

Smith was what he was as a bottom-pairing defenseman. He brought a little physicality and is your classic “doesn’t make mistakes, but also doesn’t do much to contribute offensively” defenseman. He once was famously cited by Lindy Ruff for appearing in the playoff lineup as a “former Ranger”, which is certainly a choice when you had higher upside players like Luke Hughes available.

Overall, he probably wasn’t as bad as people remember, but he wasn’t all that great either. The Devils were also unable to flip him for anything at the deadline as an expiring contract despite his veteran presence, reputation as a player, and low AAV.

Smith has continued to bounce around the league with stops in Dallas and Columbus since departing New Jersey.

Grade: C

Ondrej Palat, 5 years, $6M AAV​

Date: July 13th, 2022

Of course, the Brendan Smith deal wasn’t the only move Fitzgerald made on that day.

After coming up short in his pursuit of Johnny Gaudreau as a UFA, the Devils announced that they had signed the veteran winger Ondrej Palat to a 5-year deal worth $6M a year.

On the surface, there were aspects of the Palat deal that made sense. Palat brought “rings to the room”. He brought a reputation for being a smart two-way player who is capable of playing with star players from his time in Tampa and helping bring the best out of them. He does all of the little things that don’t show up in a box score that helps a team win.

That’s all well and good, but when you’re being paid $6M AAV, you do have to score as well, and for the most part, Palat’s production declined once he got to New Jersey.

Palat was a consistent 40-50 point per season player from his time in Tampa, but his high water mark as a Devil is 31 points in 2023-24. He scored 15 goals last season when he spent a lot of time playing with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, but also, how many goals were left on the ice because Palat couldn’t finish those opportunities? And don’t get me started on the lack of production this year.

The Devils needed to find a way out of this deal over the summer. They didn’t, and they’re paying for it now. I would imagine with a year to go, this is heading towards a buyout at the end of this season. Maybe Fitzgerald can find a trade partner, but I wouldn’t be lining up to take on a soon-to-be 35-year old Palat for $6M AAV if I were one of the other 31 GMs unless it was worth my while.

Grade: D-

Vitek Vanecek, 3 years, $3.4M AAV​

Date: July 19th, 2022

Having acquired Vanecek at the draft, the Devils needed to give the RFA a new contract. They did just that, giving him three years and lower-end starting goaltender money.

The first year of this deal was just fine, with Vanecek being a big part of the reason why the Devils played as well as they did and made it back to the playoffs. But his play dropped off significantly in Year 2 to the point where the Devils traded him in a salary cap dump deal slash change of scenery trade at the trade deadline in Year 2.

The good news is that at least Fitzgerald was able to fix the mistake of giving Vanecek the third year where it was someone else’s problem. The bad news is that its another goaltending move on a growing list of them that hadn’t panned out.

Grade: C-

Jonas Siegenthaler, 5 years, $3.4M AAV​

Date: July 26th, 2022

A year after inking Siegenthaler to a 2-year deal, the Devils liked what they saw enough from him to lock him up to a 5-year team-friendly deal with a $3.4M AAV.

There have been stretches where Siegenthaler has struggled, including this season. Some of it due to injury, and some of it likely due to the ebbs and flows that come with him playing a shutdown defenseman role. But I think Fitzgerald has gotten good value out of this deal up to this point. Maybe if his struggles continue, the Devils look for a way out of it after this season with two years to go on this deal, but they’d probably wind up spending more money trying to replace what he does as a player.

Grade: A–

Tyce Thompson, 2 years, $762,500 AAV​

Date: August 2nd, 2022

It’s tough to criticize Fitzgerald for a two-year deal at a low AAV for Thompson. I think Fitzgerald was hoping that Thompson would push for an NHL roster spot, but that never happened.

Grade: B

Jesper Bratt, 1 year, $5.45M AAV​

Date: August 3th, 2022

Having broken out for 73 points in a contract season, it appeared the time is/was now for the Devils to try to lock up Bratt to a long-term deal.

Unfortunately, that deal would have to wait another year.

The Devils and Bratt went to arbitration. Or at least, they were about to, as the two sides agreed to this one-year deal at the literal last second to avoid the messy process of arbitration.

We don’t know what we don’t know, so who knows how amenable Bratt’s camp was to a long-term deal at the price point Fitzgerald wanted at the time. Obviously, the preference would’ve been to do the deal then and there and maybe save a little money, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Devils would get good value on yet another bridge deal in the meantime.

Grade: B+

Miles Wood, 1 year, $3.2M AAV​

Date: August 4th, 2022

Having missed almost the entire previous season, I think it was a fair question whether or not the Devils would even tender Wood a contract. They ultimately did though, giving him a 1-year, $3.2M deal that walked him to free agency.

Wood had a typical Miles Wood season in 2022-23. He would show some offensive touch and chip in his 13 goals and 14 assists. He’d play with a ton of speed. He’s play a physical brand of hockey. And he could commit a ton of penalties…..to the point where then coach Lindy Ruff would scratch him in the playoffs as Wood’s offensive zone penalties were backbreakers. For the most part though, I think Wood did what he was more or less expected to do, making the deal fair.

Grade: B-

Damon Severson, 8 years, $6.25M AAV​

Date: June 8th, 2023

While I graded this trade and gave Fitzgerald a good grade for the creativity shown with this deal, I think it would be unfair for me to grade Fitzgerald for this contract itself. Yes, Fitzgerald is the GM who technically signed him to the deal, but at the end of the day, Columbus negotiated this deal with Severson. The Devils involvement here was to get Severson the 8th year on the deal, and I’m not in the business of grading Jarmo Kekalainen signings.

Grade: None

Jesper Bratt, 8 years, $7.85M AAV​

Date: June 15th, 2023

Having played out a few bridge deals, the time was finally right for Fitzgerald and Bratt’s camp to agree to a long-term deal, cementing his spot as a core piece moving forward.

Bratt has continued to elevate his game, setting new career highs in points in the first two seasons of this deal and setting the Devils franchise record for assists in a season. His counting stats have taken a slight dip this season thanks in part to a shooting slump, but he’s also a good week away from being well over a PPG player again.

Grade: A

Erik Haula, 3 years, $3.15M AAV​

Date: June 23rd, 2023

After a really good first season in New Jersey, Fitzgerald signed Haula to a three-year deal to keep him from hitting UFA.

Haula had a solid second season in New Jersey with 16 goals and 19 assists in 76 games. His production took a bit of a hit in Year 2 of that deal, as Haula likely was playing through some ailment that hampered his production.

Fitzgerald wound up trading Haula with one year left on this deal in a salary-dump trade to Nashville.

Grade: C+

Timo Meier, 8 years, $8.8M AAV​

After making the deal to acquire Meier, Fitzgerald needed to find a way to get him signed long-term so this deal wasn’t just an extended rental, and he did just that.

Meier hasn’t quite been “highest paid forward on the team” good, but with 142 points in 200 games as a Devil at the time of this writing, he’s been good. With two 50+ point seasons, he’s been good.

He hasn’t been consistently great, which I think is the hangup here.

I wouldn’t go as far as to call the Meier contract a disaster through two seasons and a quarter of a season. Meier is at least on pace to have his best season as a Devil, and the Devils are going to need it if they’re going to make a run.

Grade: B+

Nathan Bastian, 2 years, $1.35M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2023

A pending RFA (although it should be noted that the Devils non-tendered both him and the next player on this list prior to market opening), Bastian was due for a slight raise. This deal accomplished that.

Bastian went through two injury-plagued seasons after signing this deal. He had his moments, with his performance in the Stadium Series game standing out, but the Devils decided to move on as Bastian his UFA at the completion of this deal.

Grade: C

Michael McLeod, 1 year, $1.4M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2023

Another pending RFA, the Devils re-signed McLeod to a one-year deal.

McLeod was on his way to a career-best season in terms of points, two-way play, and winning faceoffs. But his season (and NHL career, effectively) came to an abrupt end due to his alleged involvement in the Hockey Canada scandal. McLeod and his co-defendants were ultimately found not guilty of all charges.

One could say that Fitzgerald should’ve had an idea that McLeod would’ve been dragged into the Hockey Canada mess and he should’ve planned accordingly. I think its tough to say what Fitzgerald should have known. In terms of that, the deal itself is questionable. In terms of hockey value on the ice, it was more than reasonable. I’m grading off of what McLeod did on the ice in that particular season before it came to an end, so my grade will be more favorable as a result.

Grade: B

Tomas Nosek, 1 year, $1M AAV​

Date: July 19th, 2023

After the initial wave of free agency passed, the Devils added some depth by signing the veteran Czech center to a one year deal.

I think this was a decent idea by Fitzgerald given Nosek’s track record. Unfortunately, a foot injury early in the season really hampered his production and lingered all year, making Nosek a mostly ineffective player.

Grade: D+

Kevin Bahl, 2 years, $1.05M AAV​

Date: July 31st, 2023

Having established himself as an NHL regular in the latter half of the 2022-23 season, Kevin Bahl was due a new contract. He got a two-year deal at a hair over $1M AAV.

Bahl was good in his first full NHL season, playing all 82 games. The Devils traded him to Calgary as part of the Jacob Markstrom trade and he’s played in a top pairing role and been extended since.

Grade: A-

Kurtis MacDermid, 3 years, $1.15M AAV​

Date: May 17th, 2024

Trading for MacDermid was one thing. Signing him to a three year deal is another.

Simply put, there was zero reason to sign MacDermid to a three-year extension six weeks before the market opened. It doesn’t matter that the AAV was low enough to be buriable (something the Devils never actually did while he was on the roster). Good general managers should simply never commit that much term to a 14th forward in the lineup. Never mind one who is only good at punching faces and literally nothing else.

The Devils were able to move off of the final 2 years of MacDermid’s deal when they flipped him for Zach MacEwen, but that doesn’t make the deal or the logic behind it any less egregious.

Grade: F-

Nick DeSimone, 1 year, $775K AAV​

Date: June 24th, 2024

The Devils re-signed Nick DeSimone after he played 11 games for them the previous season as a waiver claim. DeSimone wound up never playing for the Devils NHL team under this contract though, as he was claimed off of waivers by the Utah Hockey Club.

Grade: None

Brett Pesce, 6 years, $5.5M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2024

After letting Damon Severson and Ryan Graves walk out the door the year prior, the Devils struggled defensively the following season. They needed to add some quality defensive defensemen to help insulate their younger defensemen in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.

Enter Brett Pesce.

Pesce, a Tarrytown New York native, was looking for a change of scenery after 9 good seasons in Carolina. The Devils traded away John Marino to open up the cap space to sign Pesce, and its tough to say that Pesce hasn’t been what the Devils wanted.

Pesce has eaten a ton of minutes playing in a top pairing role with Luke Hughes, elevating both of their games in the process. He’s also eaten a lot of pucks, as a puck to the hand has knocked Pesce out of the lineup in Year 2 of that deal. He’s already missed over a month, although hopefully he’ll be back in the not too distant future.

Grade: A-

Brenden Dillon, 3 years, $4M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2024

The Devils doubled down on their defensive investment, inking Dillon to a three-year deal.

Dillon struggled a bit in Year 1 but has looked much better in Year 2. I don’t know how much of that might be health related….Dillon did play all 82 last season, but most players who even do that aren’t 100%. Perhaps some of it is tied with Brad Shaw’s tutelage, as Dougie Hamilton has also looked better defensively this season. Regardless, Dillon has continued to be a physical presence on the Devils blueline, recently playing his 1,000th NHL game.

Grade: B

Stefan Noesen, 3 years, $2.75M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2024

The Devils reunited with Stefan Noesen on a three-year pact and right out of the gates, this deal looked like a steal.

Noesen set career highs in goals and points, scoring 11 power play goals while bringing a physical presence to the bottom six of the lineup.

Unfortunately, a groin injury hampered Noesen in the second half of the season. Noesen opted for rehab instead of surgery initially but ultimately went under the knife sometime over the summer, delaying his start to this season.

Noesen has gotten off to a slow start this year, and he hasn’t had the power play time he had last year to boost his counting stats. I would expect him to heat up at some point but it is something that needs to be noted.

Grade: B–

Tomas Tatar, 1 year, $1.8M AAV​

Date: July 2nd, 2024

After a down year split between Seattle and Colorado, the Devils brought back Tomas Tatar hoping to recapture of of the magic he had with the team in 2022-23. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Tatar’s ice time continued to decline as he struggled to score, but his game isn’t really suited for a 4th line role, so he was stuck in that awkward spot where he’s not scoring enough to be higher in the lineup but doesn’t do enough of the little things further down in the lineup to stay. It wound up being Tatar’s final NHL season for now as the veteran decided to continue his career overseas.

At $1.8M AAV, even for just the one year, it was an overpay for the level of production the Devils got.

Grade: F

Nico Daws, 2 years, $812,500 AAV​

Date: July 30th, 2024

With Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen in place at the NHL level, the Devils chose Nico Daws over Akira Schmid as the organizational #3 netminder, a role he has served in the last season and a quarter.

Daws has looked good in the limited NHL opportunities he has received since then. He seems unlikely to get more opportunities at the NHL level anytime soon though barring injuries or ineffectiveness of one of the players in front of him on the depth chart. More on that in a bit.

Grade: B

Dawson Mercer, 3 years, $4M AAV​

Date: September 20th, 2024

Coming off of his ELC, Mercer was due a new contract. The Devils went with a three year deal to cover his first three seasons of RFA status.

Mercer didn’t have a great first season as he managed 19 goals and 17 assists in the 2024-25 season. He’s gotten off to a hot start this season though.

Mercer has had to slide back to center with the Devils dealing with injuries to Cody Glass and Jack Hughes, and he hasn’t been quite as good centering a line as he’s been playing the wingman with Nico Hischier. He’s also cooled off a bit since the hot start to the season, which I guess is to be expected.

Grade: B+

Johnathan Kovacevic, 5 years, $4M AAV​

Date: March 7th, 2025

This is one of those deals that looks fine on the surface, but the timing of it was questionable at best.

Kovacevic came over to the Devils prior to the 2024-25 season and was expected to be the extra defenseman, but he won a spot in the lineup outright out of training camp. He got off to a great start on a pairing with Jonas Siegenthaler and looked so good, the Devils wanted to sign him to a contract extension. So they did that in the days leading up to the trade deadline.

Extending Kovacevic, both in terms of the timing and the deal itself, raised eyebrows. Putting the salary cap aside for a moment, the Devils already had Hamilton and Pesce signed long-term. They already had the top prospect in Simon Nemec trying to get playing time at the NHL level. They already had another RHD prospect in Seamus Casey who got some NHL time that season. They didn’t sign Kovacevic for $4M to be a healthy scratch, so did this mean they were trying to flip a defenseman? We never really got answers to this question, as the Devils didn’t trade any of their other RHD at the deadline in 2025. They still haven’t traded them to this day.

To make matters worse, Kovacevic suffered a serious lower body injury in the playoff series loss to Carolina. He has yet to make his debut for the Devils this season and likely won’t do so until some time after the New Year, which is a deliberately vague timeline.

Between the injury and Nemec’s growth, its fair to question whether or not the Kovacevic extension was even necessary. I would guess that it was in that the Devils clearly like the player. Kovacevic’s deal was in line with the UFA defenseman market this past summer so its tough to call it an overpay. If anything, Fitzgerald probably saved a couple bucks doing it when they did.

That said, he has yet to play a game under this new deal and we have no idea how Kovacevic will look when he does play. Even when he does return, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will ‘look right’ physically as he works himself back into game shape. I would grade this deal as an ‘incomplete’ for now, but there’s a wide range of potential outcomes depending upon how he looks when he eventually does return.

Grade: Incomplete

Juho Lammikko, 1 year, $800,000 AAV​

Connor Brown, 3 years, $4M AAV​

Dennis Cholowski, 1 year, $775,000 AAV​

Evgenii Dadonov, 1 year, $1M AAV​

Cody Glass, 2 years, $2.5M AAV​

Luke Glendening, 1 year, $775,000 AAV​

I lump all of these deals together because I’m going to grade them all as incomplete, but I did want to talk about each one.

Lammikko returned to the NHL this season after a three-year stint at Zurich SC of the Swiss-A league. He’s mostly served as the extra forward, only playing out of necessity due to the amount of injuries the Devils have had, and hasn’t done much of note in the games he has played in.

Brown was the Devils big UFA signing this past summer. He got off to a nice start before missing 7 games with an injury, but is one of the lone bright spots in the bottom six this season.

The Devils saw something in Dennis Cholowski to bring him back as the 7th defenseman this season. I’m not sure exactly what they see in him.

Dadonov got injured on Opening Night, missed the next 18 games, and returned to the lineup and has since gone back on the shelf with another injury.

Glass has a handful of goals in the early portion of the season, but also missed two separate stretches this season due to injury. He’s back now and has been mostly fine as a bottom six center.

Luke Glendening was in camp on a PTO and impressed enough to earn a contract. He’s been about what you would expect from a player with his track record. A solid fourth line center who kills penalties and wins faceoffs.

I think between the fact that we’re only a third of the way through the season, and most of these players have missed significant time with injuries, it would only be fair to grade them as incomplete. Brown, Glass, and Glendening are trending towards being positive signings, while Lammikko and Cholowski are probably more on the negative side since they haven’t been very good. Dadonov is probably more on the negative side as well although he simply hasn’t played enough to make a definitive statement one way or another. Even so, most of these deals are short-term and if they don’t work out, the Devils will simply move on to the next wave of bargain bin UFA signings next summer.

Grade: Incomplete

Jake Allen, 5 years, $1.8M AAV​

Date: July 1st, 2025

Considering Allen was slated to be the top UFA goaltender in a thin market, I’m still stunned that Fitzgerald convinced him to essentially sign a legacy contract.

Allen has certainly had a few stinkers, but he’s been mostly fine in net for the Devils in Year 1 of said deal. It goes without saying he’s clearly been the better of the two goaltenders, and probably should be playing something closer to 50 percent of the starts as long as Markstrom struggles. But it’s also year 1 of a 5-year deal for a goaltender who is 35 years old.

The best way of looking at this deal is probably similarly to how I looked at it when it was announced. Go year to year and see where your goaltending is. Obviously, you hope that Allen is still effective over the life of that deal, and if he’s not, you should be able to find a way out of it. Some might argue that this early into a multi-year deal that looking for an escape hatch isn’t a great way of looking at a contract but the AAV is low enough where it shouldn’t be an issue.

Grade: B

Luke Hughes, 7 years, $9M AAV​

Date: October 1st, 2025

Coming off of his ELC, the Devils signed the youngest Hughes brother to a 7-year deal worth $9M AAV. They’re paying him to be a top-pairing defenseman, and due to circumstances, he has certainly played as a top-pairing defenseman this season, averaging over 23 minutes a night.

Luke’s production hasn’t quite taken that next step like older brother Quinn’s had in his age 22 season. Luke’s point totals are roughly on pace to match what he did the previous two seasons, while Quinn starting improving year to year to the point where he’s a perennial Norris trophy contender. Luke isn’t quite at that level yet. But he has also been asked to do a lot for this Devils team, including playing off-hand for a stretch when both Hamilton and Pesce were out.

There are two areas where I’d like to see Luke improve for him to take that next step. First, I do think his shot needs improvement. It’s not a heavy shot. Too many of these shot attempts are being blocked in front and anything that is getting through is an easy save for the goaltender, which suggests to me that he’s telestrating his shot too much and making it too easy on the opposition. I’d like to see a few more wrinkles added in this area in future years for him to truly become elite.

Secondly, Luke does need to improve his decision making with the puck. I acknowledge that when the puck is on your stick as much as it is with him, and you play as many minutes a night as he is, turnovers come with the territory. Hughes ranks 6th among NHL defensemen in giveaways as of this writing. It’s a delicate balance because you don’t want to take offensive creativity out of his game but you do need to be smarter with the puck, especially when the team has struggled to keep the puck out of the net as much as they have.

If you asked me today if Luke is playing like a $9M AAV defenseman, I’d say no. But I do think he’s on track to get there and it would be silly to say that a 22-year old defenseman who has yet to cross the 200 NHL game threshold is what he is always going to be moving forward. If four years from now, Luke hasn’t improved any more than he has and this is what he is, I think that would be a disappointment given his pedigree and bloodlines. Even so, we’re still talking about a top-pairing defenseman playing tough minutes and contributing 45-50 points a season, which isn’t nothing. Maybe he’s not a $9M AAV defenseman, but its closer to $7M AAV in that case. Considering how much the cap is going up, and considering the player itself, I think the deal is still worth the gamble.

Grade: B

Jacob Markstrom, 2 years, $6M AAV​

Date: October 31st, 2025

Most of the deals that Fitzgerald has signed in the last few months are still at the point where its too soon to judge. I think there are two exceptions to that. One of them being the Luke Hughes deal I just wrote about.

The other being Jacob Markstrom.

Markstrom was slated to hit UFA after this upcoming season, but the Devils simply decided that they had to have him going forward. Never mind the fact that he’s going to be 36 years old when the new deal starts. Never mind the fact that Markstrom already missed time this season due to injury. Never mind the fact that Markstrom had yet to actually play well this season when he put pen to paper on the contract.

The timing of the Markstrom contract talks never made any sense. This was a correct first-guess on my part and I know most of you felt the same way.

There was zero reason for the Devils to sign Markstrom when they did, other than “we know there’s going to be nothing on the market next summer and this option is better than those options”. That may or may not be true, but the fact that Markstrom has looked as bad as he has in the early portion of the season just underscores the fact that they didn’t need to do this now. The Devils goaltending duo for the foreseeable future is going to be Markstrom and Allen, and while this deal does set up for Mikhail Yegorov to eventually take over down the road, there are other ways the Devils could’ve bridged that gap that didn’t involve haphazardly giving Markstrom $6M AAV.

I’m not saying that Tom Fitzgerald should be fired for giving Markstrom this deal. But I am going to say that this has the potential to end very poorly for him if Markstrom doesn’t improve. In fairness, Markstrom has had some games this season where he has looked good, but those have been few and far between. If Markstrom doesn’t show that he’s at least playable on a consistent basis, this is the type of self-inflicted mistake that can and should cost the GM who gave him that deal his job. This is a “fireable offense” type of signing that, and I can not stress this enough, DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN WHEN IT DID.

The good news is that there is time for the narrative to change. But Markstrom needs to show it. If he doesn’t, it’s on the GM as much as it’s on the player because this is his guy and to extend him when they did was totally unnecessary.

Grade: F–

Final Thoughts​

I think if one were to look at each signing on an individual basis and not really consider the context of how it fits in the salary cap, one could conclude there’s probably been more good than bad in the Fitzgerald regime.

There have been some excellent values, with Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Jonas Siegenthaler coming to mind. The Devils have also, in general, done a good job of correctly identifying which young players are worth investing in going forward and which ones weren’t. There’s been a couple minor whiffs along the way, but nothing that really made a huge impact going forward.

The problem is that this is a salary cap league, and when Fitzgerald has swung big and missed, it’s been bad.

There have been a lot of signings as the Devils have pushed forward from ‘rebuilding’ to ‘win now’ mode. Fitzgerald has made use of the ample cap space he inherited, but what has he actually done with it? The Devils have a couple playoff appearances to show for it, but I wouldn’t say they’re close to competing for a championship right now, let alone winning one. They’re capped out, but they’re stuck in the mushy middle of the standings with no obvious path to improvement. This is a problem created by Fitzgerald.

The Devils have a few problematic contracts on their books as we speak. Palat is on the books for one more season after this one at $6M AAV. Hamilton has two years to go at $9M AAV. We have no idea what Kovacevic will even look like once he finally returns, and he has four more years at $4M AAV remaining after this season. The Devils also threw away future flexibility by giving their starting goaltender who can’t make a save $6M AAV for two more seasons. This last point speaks to a larger issue he’s had where fixing the goaltending has become a perennial theme, as he inherited this issue on Day 1 of his run and it’s arguably still one today. Considering the Devils have ALSO invested draft capital into the goaltending position almost every year of the last decade, it’s inexcusable. Where are the results?

Now, the cap situation isn’t THAT dire where it should prevent them from figuring out what the next contracts for guys like Simon Nemec and Arseny Gritsyuk are, but it does make one question how are you fixing the obvious holes the roster still has. Where are you finding another center, or a scoring winger? You probably aren’t unless you’re getting creative.

Elliotte Friedman alluded to “several no-trade or modified no-trade clauses” being the holdup for the Devils getting business done, and it’s certainly plausible that that cost them an opportunity to land Quinn Hughes this past week. Fitzgerald has been generous with handing out no-trade protection in free agency. He’s also far from the only general manager who is pretty liberal when it comes to handing out no-trade protection. But when we’re getting to the point where its preventing the Devils from getting business done, it’s an issue. It’s also an issue that the Devils haven’t really gotten any sweetheart deals by UFAs (with the possible exception of Jake Allen). They’ve mostly paid market value for the players they have.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that the Devils still have to become salary cap compliant at some point later this season once everyone is healthy…..pause to laugh at the idea that they’ll ever all be healthy at the same time. But they are planning on getting Jack Hughes, Brett Pesce, Simon Nemec, Johnathan Kovacevic, Arseni Gritsyuk, Evgenii Dadonov, and Zack MacEwen back at some point later this season. Unless the plan is to live in LTIR all season, there’s not a lot of flexibility to do much of anything right now.

Of course, it shouldn’t actually be this difficult to move out bad money. It’s not difficult to pull up PuckPedia and see which teams have space, which ones do not, and figure out where a deal can be made. This is a league where general managers find a way out of problematic contracts all the time, and to quote “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, “Everyone’s got a price”. It would require Fitzgerald to be more ruthless and cutthroat than he has been as the GM of this team, but the idea that it can’t be done is simply a fallacy.

When you’re paying players upwards of $4M a year or more and you’re giving them significant term though, you need to be right on those deals. If you’re wrong, its much harder to find a way out via a trade. At the end of the day, there’s probably more good than bad with Fitzgerald’s history, but the bad has been egregiously bad, it’s impacting the team in a significant manner right now, and is going to continue having an impact on the current team for quite some time until they do something to address it.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...as-made-since-becoming-devils-general-manager