For the eleventh time within the last 14 years, the Recent Jersey Devils didn’t play beyond the 82nd game of the regular season schedule and won’t play within the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Despite an initially promising 8–1 start, the Devils struggled to seek out consistency and were dealt a serious setback when star forward Jack Hughes missed multiple weeks with a freak hand injury suffered during a team dinner; just one in all several injuries that plagued the Devils’ roster. They ultimately finished with a 42–37–3 record (87 points), missing the playoffs by 10 points.
Naturally, rampant feelings of disappointment are going through the Devils’ dressing room right away, as they explained earlier this week during their locker room clean-out day at Prudential Center in Newark.
“Very disappointing. Not the 12 months that we hoped, or we wanted,” team captain Nico Hischier said via NHL.com. “Unfortunately, it’s what it’s right away. We’ve got to take the appropriate things out of it and move on.”
“Obviously, not where we would like to be,” scoring leader Jack Hughes lamented. “You need to be a team whose season continues to be happening. It’s a frustrating 12 months, and we’re not where we would like to be.”
“It’s hard to process that that is the last day. It’s been hard,” said forward Jesper Bratt. “This 12 months stings essentially the most out of yearly where I’ve been in this case due to the anticipation from before the 12 months, expectations, and the group that now we have, I feel like we shouldn’t be on this position, but at the identical time, we played ourselves into this position. It’s a tough league, and also you get what you deserve in a way. It’s frustrating. It’s not a fun day right away.”
It was much more disappointing for the Devils, considering the type of talent that they’ve within the room that has been together now for a few years, yet has still struggled to place together consistent performances enough to be checked out as a serious threat by their opposition.
Here’s a have a look at a couple of trade candidates that the Devils and latest general manager Sunny Mehta, who was hired this week to exchange the terminated Tom Fitzgerald, could consider within the upcoming weeks and months now that they are officially in offseason mode.
Dougie Hamilton has long been rumored to be on the move
Considered one of the Devils players who politely declined all media availability after their season got here to an in depth was veteran defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who has long been rumored to be on the trade block.
In the course of the offseason, there have been rumors that Hamilton was approached by the Devils and asked to facilitate a deal despite possessing a 10-team no-trade clause, something that his agent J.P. Barry sounded off on.
“In our view, this decision is all about business moderately than his game right away. Singling him out seems very calculated at this stage,” Barry said via Yahoo Sports. “Dougie has a 10-team trade list, and there have been efforts to trade him going back to the draft last 12 months. We’ve got made it clear to the Devils that we’ll consider teams outside our list and other creative ways to get to a team that’s mutually acceptable.”
Among the many obstacles in the way in which of latest Devils GM Sunny Mehta is that Hamilton still has two years left on his contract with a substantial salary cap hit of $9 million a 12 months. Moreover, he possesses the aforementioned 10-team no-trade clause.
That being said, moving on from Hamilton, even when it requires retaining a portion of his salary, would open up considerable space for Mehta to work with.
Each Simon Nemec and Paul Cotter are pending restricted free agents
Amongst the selections that Mehta may have ahead of him is the fate of pending restricted free agents Simon Nemec and Paul Cotter.
Cotter was one in all a handful of names on the Devils roster who were heavily involved in trade discussions in the times and weeks leading as much as last month’s NHL Trade Deadline, and while he remained on the roster, his regression – 16 goals scored in 2024-25 to only six goals scored in 2025-26 – make him an excellent candidate to waive goodbye to.
Nemec, who reached latest career-highs in goals and assists, could potentially be dangled as trade bait as a way to acquire more of a scoring punch. Like Cotter, Nemec was included in trade rumors in the times and weeks leading as much as the NHL trade deadline, though he ultimately remained in place.
For the eleventh time within the last 14 years, the Recent Jersey Devils didn’t play beyond the 82nd game of the regular season schedule and won’t play within the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite an initially promising 8–1 start, the Devils struggled to seek out consistency and were dealt a serious setback when star forward Jack Hughes missed multiple weeks with a freak hand injury suffered during a team dinner; just one in all several injuries that plagued the Devils’ roster.