The New Jersey Devils wrapped up preseason with a convincing 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night at UBS Arena, and they did it with the kind of complete performance teams love to see before the games start counting.
New Jersey had already beaten the Islanders 2-1 earlier in the week at Prudential Center for its first preseason victory of 2026-27. This time, with the full NHL lineup in the mix, the Devils controlled the night from the opening puck drop and left little doubt in the finale.
Luke Evangelista was the headline act. In just his second game wearing red and black, he not only picked up an assist on the Devils’ opening goal but also kept building chemistry with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier. That line already looks like it has real bite.
Evangelista then made his biggest mark on the power play. After Scott Mayfield went off for holding, New Jersey’s top unit went to work with Hischier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes, and Evangelista on the ice.
J. Hughes fed the puck to Evangelista, who buried it in front 6:13 into the first period to get New Jersey on the board.
He wasn’t done there. After Arseny Gritsyuk made it 2-0 early in the second period, Evangelista struck again right away to stretch the Devils’ lead to three. He finished with two goals on three shots, led the team with six shot attempts, and logged 14:57 of ice time.
Afterward, Evangelista talked about what it meant to get a look on the first power-play unit so early in his Devils tenure. “I worked on my release a lot this summer…Hopefully it pays off. It’s just one game, so still a long ways to go, but it was a good start,” said Evangelista.
The depth pieces also made their case. New Jersey’s third line of Gritsyuk, Evan Rodrigues, and Dawson Mercer delivered despite playing the fewest 5-on-5 minutes. Mercer set up Rodrigues with a one-touch pass, and Gritsyuk finished the play with his wrist shot 42 seconds into the second period.
The fourth line may have been just as important. Amadeus Lombardi, Cody Glass, and Connor Brown generated 10 shot attempts at 5-on-5 while allowing only one against. They also posted a 100% shots for percentage, with five shots for and none allowed.
That’s a promising sign for the bottom six, especially with Nick Bjugstad expected to miss four to six months after surgery on a torn pectoral muscle. Sunny Mehta may have found something with Lombardi, and the way that line performed made a strong case for him to stick around when opening night arrives.
New Jersey’s penalty kill was just as sharp. The Devils went 4-for-4 while allowing only two shots on goal. After Mercer was whistled for hooking, Glass won the opening faceoff and Hischier answered with a shorthanded wrist shot, keeping the Islanders from getting a shot on goal on that first chance.
Later in the first period, Jake Allen handled the only shot he faced on another kill, while Gritsyuk blocked a chance from Kashawn Aitcheson. The Devils stopped the Islanders twice more on the man advantage, and the only blemish came late when Simon Holmstrom cut the deficit to three in the third period.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe liked what he saw across the board. “I think we did a lot of really good things today.
Five-on-five, power play, penalty kill, goaltending. I liked a lot about our game, yet there’s still lots we can get better at,” stated Keefe.
The preseason is now over, and the Devils will open the regular season on Oct. 1 at home against the Philadelphia Flyers.
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Islanders Enter The Season With One Debate Fans Cant Ignore
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New York also closed the preseason with a loss to New Jersey, so the focus now shifts to how the lineup pieces fit once the games count. Bo Horvat, Ryan Pulock, Matthew Schaefer, Kyle Palmieri, Alexander Romanov and Semyon Varlamov are all expected to play key roles, but the bigger question around the Islanders remains how the roster settles after those last decisions and what it means for the tone of the season ahead. [Read more 🡒]