The New Jersey Devils have spent the offseason making the kind of moves that don’t always grab headlines, but do change the shape of a roster. They brought in Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista to bolster the top six, added Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, and Amadeus Lombardi to reshape the bottom half of the lineup, and handed the front office reins to Sunny Mehta. The quieter work may have mattered most, though: Nico Hischier and Arseny Gritisyuk both got long-term deals, and Hischier’s extension shut down the trade noise that had started to swirl around the Devils captain after some unsavory comments late last season.
That’s the kind of stability New Jersey wanted. Detroit, meanwhile, has been living in the opposite world.
The Red Wings moved on from Steve Yzerman, but they still haven’t settled on a full-time general manager. Shawn Horcoff is set to handle things on an interim basis heading into the season, and that alone would make for a messy stretch. It gets worse because Dylan Larkin requested a trade.
For a while, the assumption was that Larkin would wind up with the Minnesota Wild. That possibility still matters to Devils fans because Larkin is close with Quinn Hughes, and a reunion there could complicate the idea of the Hughes brothers playing together down the road.
But Elliotte Friedman said on his latest 32 Thoughts podcast that Larkin’s trade list has grown, and the new names change the picture. Colorado, Washington, Dallas, and Tampa Bay are now in the mix. That opens the door for Detroit to move beyond the same lowball offers from Bill Guerin that have been hanging over this all summer.
Of those new destinations, Washington is the one that should really catch the Devils’ attention.
The Capitals already went to work this offseason after missing the playoffs last year. They added Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, and Boone Jenner, and they also got Alex Ovechkin to come back for another season.
The wingers look loaded, maybe even the deepest group in the league from lines one through four. Ryan Leonard adds another layer of upside to that mix.
The problem is down the middle. Pierre-Luc Dubois is their first-line center, and Dylan Strome is their second-line center. That leaves Washington with a center situation that might be even shakier than Minnesota’s.
That’s where the Devils come in. With Jack Hughes and Hischier anchoring the top of their lineup, New Jersey still has a clear edge over a Capitals group that would be trying to patch a major hole.
Larkin is better than either Dubois or Strome, and he would give Washington a massive boost. The salary-cap puzzle would not be simple, but that is the kind of one-year problem teams can usually sort out if they’re willing to do the work.
In Other News...
Devils Camp Cuts Put The Spotlight On Whos Really In The Mix
The Devils continued trimming their training camp roster by sending a group of players, including prospects Anton Silaev and Lenni Hmeenaho, to their AHL affiliate in Utica. It is the kind of early fall move that usually tells you a lot about where a team thinks its young players stand, and in this case it gives New Jersey a chance to keep two of its more interesting prospects active while camp sorts itself out.
Silaev and Hmeenaho are waiver-exempt, which means the Devils can move them between New Jersey and the Utica Comets without the risk of losing them on waivers. For a team trying to balance immediate NHL decisions with long-term development, that flexibility matters, and it suggests the front office is comfortable giving these players more runway in the minors rather than forcing them into a rushed battle for jobs before the roster is ready to settle. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Just Got A Big Boost In Their Quinn Hughes Chase
The Devils long-range planning may have just gotten a little easier. With the NHL projecting the salary cap to rise to $127.5 million for the 2028-29 season, New Jersey would have more room to maneuver when the time comes to build out the roster around its core, and that matters when a franchise is eyeing a major extension for a defenseman of Quinn Hughes caliber.
For the Devils, the appeal is obvious: more financial flexibility could help them chase a player who would change the shape of the blue line and strengthen the teams competitiveness for years. The cap projection does not guarantee anything, but it gives New Jersey a better backdrop for one of the more important decisions in its future roster building. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Fans Are Seeing Why This Late Pick Could Push For Minutes
Matyas Melovsky was the kind of late draft pick that rarely makes much noise at first, but he has been giving the Devils a reason to pay attention. Selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the young forward turned a strong final QMJHL season into a solid first pro year with the Utica Comets, where he put up 10 goals and 26 points in 55 games and started to show the kind of touch that can travel as he climbs the organization.
Now, in Devils training camp and preseason this year, Melovsky has carried that momentum into a bigger spotlight. For a team always looking for cost-controlled depth and young players who can force a conversation, his early showing has made him one of the more interesting names in the mix, even if the path from promising camp performer to NHL minutes is still a step-by-step process. [Read more 🡒]