Heading into 2026-27, the pressure in New Jersey isn’t spread evenly. The whole Devils roster is carrying expectations after last season’s collapse, but Dawson Mercer and Jake Allen are the two players with the most on their shoulders.
Mercer is in a tricky spot because the Devils keep adding forwards, and that changes his place in the lineup fast. He was already dealing with the question of whether he would stay in the top six or slide into the bottom six, and the arrival of Luke Evangelista makes that decision even sharper.
New Jersey acquired Evangelista from the Nashville Predators for two 2028 NHL Draft picks, and he comes in after posting 56 points in 81 games last season. At 24 years old, he’s already shown he can drive offense.
Evangelista is part of a growing group of new faces up front. The Devils have also brought in Anthony Mantha, Jesper Boqvist, and Evan Rodrigues.
Those additions appear set to deepen the bottom six, while Evangelista looks likely to land in the top six. That leaves Mercer squeezed out of a spot he’s spent time holding, including a run alongside Nico Hischier and Timo Meier.
That’s where the real pressure kicks in. Mercer has played in the bottom six before, but after seeing time with Hischier, being bumped down would still be a significant shift.
He can’t carry that frustration into his game, though. Whatever line he’s on, the Devils need him producing.
There’s another layer here too: Mercer is in the final season of his three-year contract. He has spent his entire NHL career with New Jersey, and now he’s staring at both a changing role and an uncertain future beyond this season. That makes 2026-27 a huge year for him.
Allen’s pressure looks different, but it’s just as real. Since arriving in New Jersey, he has lived in Jacob Markstrom’s shadow. Now, for the first time, Allen is stepping into the starting job.
He has already shown he can handle bigger moments, especially when Markstrom was injured. But this season, the Devils are asking him to be the primary guy.
Nico Daws is still on the roster, though he has not played a full NHL season yet, and the team also signed David Rittich to a one-year contract after he played 30 games with the New York Islanders in 2025-26. New Jersey could go with a three-goalie setup, or it could sort out a clearer backup role for Daws or Rittich.
No matter how the depth chart settles, Allen is the one taking the biggest step forward. He is entering the second year of his five-year contract, and this is his chance to show the Devils they made the right call in extending him.
The bottom line is simple: New Jersey needs both Mercer and Allen to deliver. If they don’t, the ripple effect could hit the rest of the roster hard. And with the Devils aiming for a run at the Stanley Cup, there’s no room for either player to disappear from the spotlight.
In Other News...
Devils Turned The Nemec Deal Into A Much Bigger Storyline
The Devils roster shakeup did not stop with one deal, because the move involving Simon Nemec and Maxim Tsyplakov ended up opening the door to a much larger reset. New Jersey sent the pair to Calgary for defensive prospect Etienne Morin, a 2026 second-round pick, and first-round picks from Colorado and Vegas, a clear sign that the front office shift after Tom Fitzgeralds departure and Sunny Mehtas arrival is already changing how the organization values its assets.
Luke Evangelista is part of that broader picture, too, giving the Devils another layer of intrigue as they try to rework the lineup around younger talent and more flexible long-term pieces. His addition gives the team another potential offensive option, and the question now is how New Jersey will line up those pieces and what kind of scoring support he and his linemates can provide as this new era takes shape. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Prospects Suddenly Face Real Pressure To Prove Themselves In Utica
The Devils roster has gotten crowded enough that even promising young players may have to wait their turn, and that makes Utica a far more consequential stop than it was a few weeks ago. With Luke Evangelista now in the mix, the path to NHL minutes looks narrower for players such as Lenni Hameenaho and David Rittich, while the attention shifts to the prospects who need the AHL to become more than just a holding pattern.
Matyas Melovsky, Shane Lachance and Jakub Malek are among the names that now matter even more in that setting, because their recent play will go a long way toward determining who can actually help New Jersey down the line. For the Devils, the bigger question is not just which prospects can survive in Utica, but which ones can sharpen enough there to turn a logjam into real competition, especially with goaltending still presenting its own uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Camp Competition May Shut The Door On Outside Tryouts
The NHLs move to an 84-game season starting in 2026-27 comes with a smaller preseason, and that may have a direct effect on how the Devils handle camp battles. New Jersey already has plenty of depth on both the forward and blue-line sides, which means there figures to be real competition for roster spots before anyone outside the organization even gets a long look.
In that kind of setup, professional tryouts can become more of a luxury than a need. The Devils are expected to keep the PTO market quiet this offseason, not because they lack questions, but because the roster squeeze and shortened preseason leave less room to sort through extras while they evaluate the players already in the building. [Read more 🡒]