Evaluating the New Jersey Devils 2024-25 Season and Previewing the Road Ahead

Published: Thursday, May 29, 2025

by Ryan Nelke

As the NHL nears a second straight Panthers-Oilers final, another year is already in the books for the New Jersey Devils.  The Devils fell victim to the rival Hurricanes in five games in the first round of the playoffs, capping off a rollercoaster of a season.

A New Jersey team that was a preseason cup favorite got out of the gates pretty hot, but after the Christmas break, everything unraveled.  The team started to struggle, and then the injuries followed.  Jacob Markström and Nico Hischier went down around the same time, and as soon as they got back, Jack Hughes suffered a season ending injury.

By the time the Devils limped into the playoffs, they were extremely short-handed.  They were already without their franchise centerpiece in Hughes, and dealing with a banged up defensive core that dealt with even more injuries throughout their series versus Carolina.

Aside from Game 3 where the Devils appeased their fans with a 3-2 double overtime winner from young defenseman Šimon Nemec, there was not much to write home about.  New Jersey was dominated in Games 1, 2, and 4, and then blew a 3-0 lead in Game 5, losing 5-4 in double overtime.

In the end, losing to Carolina was not as crushing this time around as Devils faithful more or less expected this outcome with how banged up the squad was.  The tougher pill to swallow was seeing the potential this team had this year, and the collapse that ensued due to lackluster play, but more so the injury bug.

With the season officially over now though, all focus is on the 2025-26 season and what the offseason will bring.  Speaking of the offseason, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald has already made it clear that there will be changes made.

“I like our group. My job is to continue to better the group,” said Fitzgerald. “We’ve got a lot of decisions to make on certain players. Whether we bring guys back, trade players, we won’t be coming back as the same group. I can tell you that, because it wasn’t good enough.”

There are certainly high expectations on Fitzgerald to right the ship, as this franchise in a period right now where they have the potential to bring the Stanley Cup back to the Garden State.  After a failed trade deadline where it seemed like the white flag was waived, Fitzgerald must make up for it if he wants to stick around.

When pinpointing the changes needed to be made on this NJ roster, one glaring issue is the lack of depth scoring.  Outside of Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier, the Devils could not seem to produce much else offensively.

Dawson Mercer’s decline continued, scoring only 19 goals this season, while guys like Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula were also invisible most of the year.  Palat continues to be a liability on the Devils payroll, eating up $6M a year while being a sub-30 point producer, while Erik Haula finished with 21 points and underwent a 28-game point drought during the regular season.

Stefan Noesen and Paul Cotter seemed like they would be able to provide depth scoring early on after both getting off to fast starts, but they fizzled out down the stretch.  However, it is hard to be critical of Noesen considering his 22 goals and 41 points were both career-highs.

This goes without mentioning how ineffective the Devils fourth line was, consisting of Tomáš Tatar, Nathan Bastian, and Justin Dowling.  When they hopped on the ice, it was a big success if they just did not concede a goal.

With that in mind, getting this Devils team back to cup favorites will require some tweaking in their forwards group, as another premier scorer in addition to some depth scoring is much-needed.  The big ticket names out there this offseason include John Tavares, Brock Boeser, and Matt Duchene, along with plenty of depth scoring assets to help fill out the bottom six.

When considering big moves New Jersey can make, none are bigger than the rumors surrounding the Canucks superstar captain, Quinn Hughes.  Back in April, the Canucks President of Hockey Operations, Jim Rutherford, gave insight to the real possibility of the three brothers teaming up.

“Quinn has said before he wants to play with his brothers,” said Rutherford.  “That would be partly out of our control. In our control if we brought his brothers here.”

Obviously, there is no chance that the Devils brass would ever give up Jack and Luke Hughes, as the only way this trio pairs up is if Quinn makes the trip from Vancouver to Newark.  This move is even more of a possibility when looking at the current state of the Canucks, and how the team collapsed this past season.

So while acquiring Quinn with him still having two years left on his contract is unlikely, one would hope that the NJ front office will do everything in their power to bring him over as soon as possible, as adding a player of his caliber would be a massive step in bringing home another cup to Jersey.

Bringing in a player like Quinn would add to the deepest defensive core in the league, consisting of Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, Brendan Dillon, Jonas Siegenthaler, Jonathan Kovacevic, Šimon Nemec, and Seamus Casey.

This defensive core was a strong suit for the team this year, as it witnessed the progression of Hughes, and the solid additions of Pesce and Dillon.  Siegenthaler was one of the best D-men this year before getting injured, while Kovacevic went from being the 7th defenseman to earning a five year, $20M extension.

For the young guns, it was a struggle of a season for Nemec, but proved his worth during the Carolina series, most notably with his clutch Game 3 winner.  Casey got limited action during the season, but showcased his offensive capabilities and that he would be a starter on almost every other NHL team.

For the netminder, the Devils finally solved the problem that had been killing them for so many years.  When Markström was fully healthy this year, he put on a show and should be able to provide Jersey with his elite services for the next couple years.  With a goalie like this, it gives the Devils a legit chance to win the cup as long as they make the right adjustments around him.

That said, it should be interesting to see what Fitzgerald does for this team in the offseason, as with this team having many of the key components needed to win it all, it should only take a few tweaks and maybe, just maybe a big swing for Quinn to get this team back to the promised land.

Ryan Nelke can be reached at nelkerya@shu.edu

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