The Devils open their season with a pretty clear mirror in front of them: another Metropolitan Division team with plenty of talent, plenty of uncertainty, and a blue line that still needs answers.
Philadelphia already got its first harsh lesson. The Flyers came out of their home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins and got buried 7-0, a result that was embarrassing no matter how early the calendar says it is. New Jersey, meanwhile, enters its first game with a defense that hasn’t exactly inspired certainty either - even if the hope in Newark is that the group is ready from day one.
That’s the real thread running through this matchup at Prudential Center. Both clubs have forwards who can cause problems.
Both have coaches known for their systems and their X’s and O’s. And both are being viewed as teams stuck in that murky middle of the Metro, good enough to make people squint, not good enough to remove the doubt.
The defense is where the uncertainty gets loud.
The preseason is normally when pairings start to settle in, but this year has forced teams to learn fast and adjust on the fly. The Flyers found that out immediately, and the Devils are hoping their own combinations don’t need much more figuring out once the games start counting.
New Jersey does have some pieces built for the defensive side of the job. Brendon Dillon, Brett Pesce, and Johnathan Kovacevic are all stay-at-home types, but the Devils need that group to do more than just survive. They have to clear traffic in front of the net and keep chances from piling up in dangerous spots.
Philadelphia is counting on Rasmus Ristolainen to be that kind of presence, but that wasn’t the story in the opener. He and the rest of the Flyers’ defense were beaten all night, with the Penguins generating quality looks over and over again.
The bigger issue, though, is what happens when a team doesn’t have that true number-one defenseman to anchor everything.
Only a few clubs around the league have the kind of blue-line force that can tilt games all by himself - the Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, and Zach Werenski level. Those players don’t just eat minutes.
They change how everyone else around them can play. They take the toughest shifts, they help the rest of the defense breathe a little easier, and they turn defense into offense with the puck on their stick.
Without that piece, the whole structure changes.
For the Flyers, that means Travis Sanheim is being asked to be the answer, even though he’s good and not great, and not elite. Because of that, Philadelphia can’t lean on him in every situation the way teams with a true No. 1 defenseman can. Instead, they need Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, and Ristolainen to hold up the rest of the load.
The Devils are hoping Luke Hughes grows into that role for them. The skill is there on the offensive side.
What still has to be proven is whether he can become the player the team leans on when everything tightens up. If he doesn’t take that next step, New Jersey is left with a hole and no obvious fix on the roster.
There’s more uncertainty beyond the blue line, too.
The Flyers are on the second night of a back-to-back, which gives them a first look at their new backup. Dan Vladar carried them last season, but Joseph Woll was brought in to ease some of that pressure.
New Jersey, on the other hand, is bringing in a revamped forward group and trying to figure out what it all looks like in real time. Anthony Mantha, Luke Evangelista, Amadeus Lombardi, and Evan Rodrigues are all expected to be in the opening-night lineup, and none of them were with the Devils last season. The question is simple enough: do those additions raise the ceiling?
There are individual storylines baked into the first few games, too. Philadelphia wants to know whether Porter Martone can flash elite upside as a rookie, and whether Matvei Michkov can rebound after a rough sophomore season. The Devils are watching to see if a healthy Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt can once again take over games, while also waiting to see which lesser-known player makes the first real jump.
That’s what makes this one more than just the first night of the schedule. New Jersey hasn’t played yet.
Philadelphia has only one game behind it. But both teams already look like they’re carrying more questions than they expected into the year, and that makes tonight at Prudential Center a pretty intriguing early test.
In Other News...
Dawson Mercer Enters A Critical Devils Season For One Big Reason
The Devils spent the offseason reshaping their forward group, and the ripple effects have landed squarely on Dawson Mercer. With additions such as Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista changing the depth chart, Mercer is no longer being viewed through the lens of the breakout 2022-23 season that raised expectations around him. Instead, he enters this year in the bottom six, a different kind of assignment for a player whose value once seemed to be trending steadily upward.
That shift gives Mercer a chance to prove he can still matter even without the same offensive runway. He is expected to skate with Arseny Gritsyuk and Evan Rodrigues, a lineup spot that could help stabilize his game and show the Devils he can contribute in a lesser role. If the production does not rebound, though, the questions around his long-term fit in New Jersey are only going to get louder. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Face A Costly Long Term Test As Cap Space Climbs
Rising NHL salary caps are changing the math for clubs everywhere, and the Devils are no exception. With more room across the league, New Jersey is staring at a roster picture where pending unrestricted and restricted free agents could all see their next deals climb, especially as the team weighs younger pieces against veterans who have already carved out roles in the lineup.
Cody Glass, Declan Chisholm, Jonas Seigenthaler, Anthony Mantha, Dawson Mercer and Amadeus Lombardi all fit somewhere in that conversation, whether as current contributors or players who could matter more down the road. Sunny Mehta and the front office now have to balance those rising contract expectations against the need to keep the cap flexible, which makes the next stretch of negotiations a potentially expensive test of how the Devils want this roster to look long term. [Read more 🡒]
Devils May Have One Early Problem With This Revamped Lineup
The Devils are heading into the season with a noticeably different look after a busy offseason that brought in Anthony Mantha, Luke Evangelista, Evan Rodrigues, Amadeus Lombardi, Jesper Boqvist and defenseman Declan Chisholm, while Simon Nemec and Jacob Markstrom are gone. Even with all that turnover, the bigger short-term challenge may not be talent so much as timing, because this roster is being built to sort itself out on the fly.
New Jersey also plans to use a three-goalie rotation, and every one of its four forward lines is expected to feature at least one new face. That kind of overhaul can work, but it rarely clicks instantly, and the Devils may need several weeks before the chemistry settles in and the best version of the lineup comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]