Jack Hughes delivered the kind of finish the Devils wanted to open the season, and he did it with a little bit of theater.
New Jersey’s home opener ended with a 3-2 overtime win over the Philadelphia Flyers, a game the Devils controlled for long stretches before finally cashing in late. They piled up 44 shots and pushed past the 30-shot mark by the second intermission, but Flyers goalie Joseph Woll kept the visitors alive while Jake Allen helped New Jersey stay in it at the other end.
The goals came from the blue line early. Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes both beat Woll, and each time they erased a one-goal deficit. New Jersey never actually grabbed the lead until the end, which made overtime feel less like a bonus and more like a requirement.
That’s where Jack Hughes took over.
He was already deep into a heavy workload, with more than 23 minutes played by the time overtime began, and Sheldon Keefe kept leaning on his star. Hughes answered with the game-winner, his first goal of the season, and then added a celebration that sent the building straight back to one of his most memorable moments.
The stick toss was a clear callback to 2021, when Hughes buried an overtime winner against the Chicago Blackhawks and launched his stick into the crowd in a scene that lit up the league. It was a moment people still remember, and Thursday’s version carried the same kind of swagger.
That kind of finish mattered, but so did everything that came before it. The Devils didn’t just survive a close game; they looked like the team they were supposed to be. Sunny Mehta’s reshaped roster showed its depth, with Luke Evangelista looking good, Anthony Mantha handling his role, Evan Rodrigues flashing a few strong moments, and Amadeus Lombardi showing some promising spurts in his NHL debut.
For New Jersey, the result is the headline. The way they got there may be even more encouraging.
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 🡒]