National insiders aren’t buying the New Jersey Devils as a serious contender heading into the regular season.
That was made plain early Tuesday morning when Sportsnet released its annual insider poll, asking its NHL voices to pick division winners and Stanley Cup finalists. The results mostly followed familiar lines. The Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, and Montreal Canadiens drew the bulk of the support to finish first in their divisions.
In the Metropolitan Division, the Hurricanes were the clear favorite, earning 14 of 21 votes. The part that stands out for New Jersey is what happened next: not a single insider picked the Devils to win the division. The seven votes that didn’t go to Carolina all landed on the Washington Capitals.
The snub didn’t stop there. None of the 21 voters included the Devils in their Stanley Cup Final picks, either as champion or runner-up.
That omission is easy enough to understand on the surface. New Jersey has been more of a roller-coaster team than a finished product since its breakthrough 2022-23 season, and this group has only one playoff series win to its name.
Still, there are reasons the Devils look better on paper than the poll suggests. The roster has changed, Jack Hughes is expected to be fully healthy and hungry, and when he’s rolling - as he was after the Olympics last season - he looks like a top-seven-at-worst player in the league. New Jersey also appears ready to lean back into the rush-heavy attack that was so dangerous four seasons ago.
The forward group is deep enough to stack up with the league’s best. It’s the kind of setup that can give a team two first lines, a second line, and a third line on any given night. The Devils are faster, more skilled, and better positioned for success than they’ve been in a long time.
There’s also natural growth coming from Luke Hughes, along with the possibility of adding the third Hughes brother, which is becoming increasingly likely. Even with all that in the mix, the Devils still didn’t earn a single vote.
In Other News...
Devils Opening Night Roster Includes A Few Immediate Surprises
The Devils are heading into the 2026-27 season with a little more intrigue than a standard opening-night lineup usually brings. Their roster announcement came with 14 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders, and it also reflected some of the early injury management that comes with getting a team through camp and into the first week of the year. Nick Bjugstad, Seamus Casey and Johnathan Kovacevic are all on the injured/non-roster list, which opened the door for a couple of fresh names to make the initial cut.
Among the more notable additions is Amadeus Lombardi, who is set to make his NHL debut and gives New Jersey another young player to watch right away. The goaltending group also has a new face in Remi Poirier, recently acquired from the Dallas Stars, adding another layer to a roster that already has a few moving parts before the season has even fully gotten started. For the Devils, the opening-night group is less about certainty than it is about how quickly these early roster decisions settle once the games begin. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Opening Night Roster Leaves One Tough Decision Still Hanging
The Devils have their opening-night group in place, and it comes with the kind of structure that tells you how the front office sees the roster taking shape. New Jersey set its 23-man roster with 14 forwards, six defensemen and three goaltenders, while Nick Bjugstad, Seamus Casey and Johnathan Kovacevic all begin the season on injured reserve. The club also made the unusual choice to carry three goalies, including recent addition Remi Poirier, which gives the lineup a little more depth in net than on the blue line.
What stands out most is what is not there. New Jersey does not have an extra defenseman on the roster, leaving the group thin on the back end as the season begins and putting more weight on the players already dressed. For a team trying to get through October in one piece, that shape of the roster creates an obvious question about how long this configuration can hold and whether a move is coming once the season starts to settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Opening Week Will Test Keefe Before Bigger Questions Get Answered
The Devils 2026-27 season opens with a quick early test, and it comes right away in the first week. Sheldon Keefe gets his first real look at a roster now overseen by new general manager Sunny Mehta, with three games packed into the opening stretch, including division meetings with the Flyers and Islanders.
It is the kind of start that can shape the conversation before October settles in, especially with the goaltending picture still in flux. Jake Allen, Nico Daws and newly acquired Rmi Poirier give Keefe and Mehta a few different options to sort through, and these first games should offer an early read on how the Devils might look once the season gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]