Five Burning Questions for the New Jersey Devils in 2024-25

The 2024-25 season is rapidly approaching, and after a down season last year expectations are high once again for the New Jersey Devils. 2023-24 showed that team progression isn’t always linear. However, a new season and a bevy of offseason moves have reignited championship aspirations. That being said, some questions will need to be answered regarding the long-term state of the organization.

Is the Goaltending Finally Fixed?

The Devils have been in a vortex of bad or inconsistent goaltending for the better part of a decade now. General manager Tom Fitzgerald has tried throwing resources at the problem in the past and did so again this summer by acquiring 2022 Vezina runner-up, Jacob Markstrom. After sitting near the bottom of the league in both GAA and SV%, the Devils brought in a goalie who can hopefully bring stability to the crease.

Markstrom is coming off a solid season in which he posted a 2.78 GAA and a 0.905 SV% on a poor Calgary Flames team. However, he’s not far removed from that incredible Vezina-caliber season on a playoff team. A much improved (and hopefully healthy) Devils defense will offer him plenty of insulation that he hasn’t had in Calgary over the past two seasons.

Also, returning from last year is Jake Allen, who in 13 games put together some great performances. He ended the season with a 3.11 GAA and a 0.900 SV%, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Allen put together multiple 35+ save wins, as well as multiple games over a .940 SV%. After taking a starter’s workload to end the season, Allen should settle into the number two role behind Markstrom with the potential to form a top-10 goalie duo in the league.

New Coach Bump Impact?

For the majority of the Lindy Ruff era, the Devils were abysmal. Yes, the blame doesn’t solely go on the coach given the state of the organization, but outside of 2022-23, the Devils never felt like they had an advantage over anyone. From 2020-2024 the Devils were 16th and 22nd in Goals For and Goals Against, their power play was 24th, and the penalty kill was 16th. Hardly the rankings of a team poised to win a Stanley Cup.

Fitzgerald pounced on the opportunity to bring in former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe who, unlike Lindy, had tremendous team success during that stretch. The Leafs were 4th in Goals For, 13th in Goals Against, and had the third-best power play and the 12th-best penalty kill. Regardless of the lack of postseason success in Toronto, Keefe is a proven winner in the regular season.

A young, fresh voice in a locker room whose core leaders are all in their mid-20s could breathe fresh life into the team. Keefe has been around and had success with young superstars and will know how to utilize the likes of Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt to their full potential. Add in this likely being the best defensive core and goalie tandem Keefe’s had in his coaching career, and there should be no reason the Devils aren’t back to their 2022-23 form. Coaches typically have more success in their second job, and Keefe is set up to do so in Year One in Jersey.

Enough Depth?

To say every Devils player was hurt last season may be an exaggeration, but it felt like it. The Devils lost Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Jonas Siegenthaler, Ondrej Palat, and Hischier each to double-digit games last season. Matched with a lack of depth in the lineup when everyone was healthy and it’s no wonder they struggled so mightily.

Adding depth was a box that Fitzgerald wanted to check off multiple times during the offseason. Upfront, Stefan Noesen, Paul Cotter, and Tomas Tatar were added. On the backend, Brett Pesce and Brendan Dillon were signed to add quality NHL experience and depth, while Jonathan Kovacevic gives them another body with 100+ games of experience.

Fitzgerald made it a priority to add players who can play with jam, while also contributing in multiple facets of the games. Defensively, Pesce and Dillon will help round out the defense and allow Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec not to have to carry the burden of playing massive minutes every night.

It’s the trio of Cotter, Noesen, and Tatar that is most interesting. Cotter has been a bottom-six player on the Vegas Golden Knights, but Fitzgerald says he believes that there is more to his game that can be unlocked. Noesen, who broke out with the Devils back in 2016-17, has been a consistent middle-six scorer for the Carolina Hurricanes and an asset on the power play. Ten of his 27 goals over the past two seasons have come on the man advantage. As for Tatar, he struggled last year after not returning to the Devils. However, he’s a proven complementary piece that had good chemistry with Hischier, Mercer, and Hughes back in 2022-23.

Yes, the Devils will only go as far as their stars take them, but they’ll need to lean on their depth at times, especially when the games get tight down the stretch and in the playoffs.

Breakout Prospect?

The Devils have done a great job over the years finding hidden gems in the draft that have broken out to become NHLers and very good prospects. Most notable is former sixth-round pick Jesper Bratt. Prospects such as 2019 fifth-round pick Arseni Gritsyuk, 2021 fourth-rounder Jakub Malek, and 2022 sixth-rounder Josh Filmon all look like very solid NHL prospects.

There are a handful of players that fit the mold of a breakout prospect. Whether they slid down the draft board or have projectable NHL tools, without having put it all together. The first one that comes to mind is the 2023 fourth-round winger Cam Squires. Squires recently signed his ELC after taking a leap in his development last season. He led Cape Breton in the QMJHL in points with 72 in 66 games and was sixth in scoring in the playoffs with 20 points. Squires has good burst to break away from defenders and a snappy release which helped him score 33 goals last season. Another big year could be in store for Squires before he turns pro next season.

Another prospect to look out for is goalie Isaac Poulter. While you could technically call last season his breakout year, his 2024-25 could firmly put him on the map. We’ve talked about him before, and he ended high in our prospect rankings, but Poulter will have the chance to play a big chunk of AHL games this season. The undrafted goalie dominated in the ECHL last year, while also putting together a solid AHL campaign. It was enough to earn him an NHL contract, and as of right now the number two job behind Nico Daws in Utica.

The final prospect to look out for this year is 2024 sixth-round pick Matyas Melovsky. The double over-ager put together a nice season in the QMJHL, scoring 60 points in 53 games, as well as 19 points in 17 playoff games, and was a standout player for Czechia at the World Junior Championship. He doesn’t project as much more than a bottom-six forward, but he plays with energy and abrasiveness, two traits you need to make it as a depth player. If he can put together a solid year, his stock may continue to rise to the point where 4C could become a possibility.

Can the Devils Meet the hype?

The last time the Devils were asked if they could live up to the hype was precisely this time last year. The answer was no, they couldn’t. That shouldn’t stop anyone from asking them again. On paper, they’ve made the necessary moves to get back to the playoffs and have their own superstar talent. So again, can they live up to the hype?

The only thing stopping the Devils from outperforming last year and being a great team is injuries. If their top players once again succumb to the injury bug then the season could be in peril. If they luck out and aren’t dealt anything of significance then they should be right back at the top of the conference. They have a proven 1A goalie, a coach who’s a proven winner in the regular season, superstar talents in Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, and Dougie Hamilton, as well as high-quality complementary and depth players.

The Metro division and Eastern Conference as a whole have warts. The Hurricanes lost top talent and the Rangers, while still very good, could regress from a Presidents trophy season. There’s no reason a team with a Vezina-caliber goalie and multiple point-per-game players should not finish as one of the top teams in the division and push for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

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