Today is the first of our Playoff Series reviews and with the New Jersey Devils now eliminated I think it’s time we address the team and what their next steps will be going forward. New Jersey had their ups and downs all season long. New Head Coach new roster pieces and like years of the past an annoying amount of injuries all leading to a season of average contention. Well let’s look into their season as a whole, their playoff run and first round exit, and what the future has in store for this promising young team. Subscribe to Jimmy Hockey for more NHL News and Breakdowns.
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24 Comments
The bottom six, injuries to the entire defensive core, and Jack Hughes did them in during the playoffs.
Nevertheless, something has to be done about the bottom six. This was the Achilles heel. Jack’s injury problems are a concern. If he can only make it through 60 games next season, I feel it may be time to look beyond him.
the devils were banged up and the canes are a much much much better and deeper team with elite PK and a PP that found its stride at the right time
The Devils were playing legitimately great hockey before New Years. They had the same record by Dec 27th, 2025 that they had during the 22-23 season. It's actually shocking how different they looked before the new year vs after. Still, we have a talented squad and the future looks bright
Fanbase? What fanbase? Paramedics??😂
If Fitz does nothing worthwhile this offseason, he needs to go. Simple as.
bottom 6 retool and a top 6 winger, and to stay healthy is really all the devils need to be a team that is a legitimate threat. boeser is the best fit in my opinion for the top 6 wing role but well see what happens, cap space isnt unlimited. as for defense fitzy has a big decision to make, the LD slots are solidified in my opinion but RD is a different story, nemec was one of if not our best dman in the post season. wed have to get significant value in return for him to trade him which may or may not happen given that nemec did have a rough regular season, nemec does have a ton of potential and he needs a roster spot and currently he doesnt have one, and out of the RD's on the team, pesce just signed last offseason, and kovacevic just signed an extension at the deadline, so those 2 arent going anywhere and by process of elimination it does mean that one of either nemec or dougie will get dealt elsewhere this offseason, and i see the devils sending dougie elsewhere. it clears a bunch of cap space and gives nemec a roster spot. dougie has a modified NMC that goes into effect on july 1st so that also complicates things a little bit more. just have to wait and see what happens
I watched all 82 games. The issues started before injuries. Thats not really a good excuse in my eyes, at a point the devils just started trying to get too cute.
Accountability and discipline became a real issue. And that is the first thing this team needs to get going. We have all the pieces, we just need the right kick in the ass. I dont know if keefe being everybody’s best friend is whats best for this team. This team needs a dad lol
As a Devs fan, I'd like to see a deeper dive into what makes the Canes PK special. It just looked impenetrable, with multiple times predicting the only pass, getting the intercept and threatening the other way. You mentioned zone entries, but I think it was just a fortress, in every lane at all times. Of course we had key PP elements missing, but to be denied completely (bar one goal a couple seconds back to 5-on-5), was wild to see for a generally strong PP this year.
At the other end – I felt the Canes PP was more dynamic than ours. You want fast passing to a one-time from inside the dot, or far post, and the Canes delivered this in bucketfulls. Marky was amazing all series – nothing on him for this one, but the special teams diff at either end was the decider in this series.
Found this from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NJt9Shbukw … wondered how different it was this year.
Devils are soft AF & have no real leadership. Simple
It broke them when Jack went down for the season and then It got worse and they never recovered.ugh
As a Devils fan, I’m not sure the narrative of being “young” applies to the team anymore. Jack, Luke, and Mercer are still young but everyone else who plays every night is over 25 and either in their prime or past it. I think the team played admirably and I have a lot of optimism for Keefe and the top half of the roster. I do not have that same faith in Fitz or the bottom half. For Fitz, doing your job 2 days a year (TDL day, July 1st) isn’t good enough to keep up with how competitive the league is. I get not wanting to overpay, but if you’re serious about us contending, letting almost $10M of LTIR sit there and do nothing with it two years in a row while true contending teams maximize all advantages is just not good enough. The bottom six is filled with players who are past their prime or just too slow/unskilled for today’s NHL
Didn't mention 3 dman want down in game 1 also we outscored the canes 11 to 7 at 5 on 5 missing LUKE killed the power play and missing kovy killed pk.
The biggest mistake they made was thinking they were playing the Rangers. Wrong! Carolina has a grinding defense. Devils arent built like that.
Next year, we will be back.
NJ is expecting to steal Quinn Hughes from the Canucks (my hometown team)!
Really went wrong? It's Jersey , they're ass
Great video all around. A couple things with this season.
The Devils were ravaged by injuries, they need another scorer on their top 6 and retool most of the bottom 6. If they can do those things and stay healthy, the Devils can be dangerous next year.
I have faith in Sheldon Keefe, but GM Tom Fitzgerald needs to step up and be more aggressive than he's ever have to better this team in the long run
A few years ago in 2023 injuries didn’t bother the team and it’s like they made into the two rounds. Holding onto Nemec and Casey and trading Dougie for Quinn Hughes would be detrimental to the defense. If you look at Jonathan Kovacevic he’s overcoming a knee injury, and this I believe stays my case and keeping both young men on defense. Luke Hughes is only gonna have to rehab a little bit and do a little bit more strength and conditioning to overcome any injuries that would occur in the playoffs again, but pushing for Sam Bennett would be a huge jump forward. Arseni Gritsyuk is on his way to New Jersey soon.
As a Rangers fan this is very satisfying.
First off Hughes is a fragile Frankie. Injuries or not they were arguably the worst team in the playoffs.
NHL is a joke. Why give average teams like Montreal, NJ, etc. a shot at beating or beating up much better teams that worked so hard and excelled during a ridiculously long regular season.
why make this video?
what went wrong?
jack got hurt
the end
goodbye
Jack is a fragile player. He's now had at least two shoulder separations. Every time you have one it's pops out easier. He's a great offensive player and his defense is improving every year. It seems like he needs to put on weight to me. Lucas Raymond of the Red Wings is the same size as Jack and 2 years ago he put on 15 lbs and he wasn't getting knocked around as much. Jack can't really put on weight if he's busy recovering from shoulder surgery, I understand that. It's a shame, I think it would really help his game.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣