The Devils have many unanswered questions heading into 2026-27

The New Jersey Devils finished the 2025-26 campaign with a 42-37-3 record and 87 points, finishing seventh in the Atlantic Division and 12 points back of a Wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

On last Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk looks ahead to the 2026-27 season and analyzes whether the Devils can get back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think five of the Eastern Conference playoff teams in 2026-27 are coming from the Atlantic Division. That means there’s only going to be three teams from the Metropolitan Division that make it. The Carolina Hurricanes will be one of those teams, since they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Washington Capitals just signed everyone and added a ton of quality pieces this offseason.

So where does that leave New Jersey? They’re on my Concern O’Meter for 2026-27. Listen, I don’t want to do this and poo-poo on a team that has a starting goalie who’s a friend of the show, because I think Jake Allen can absolutely play 40-plus games and do good for New Jersey next year.

But what is Nico Daws? Who did they add up front? They added Anthony Mantha in the offseason, he scored 30 goals last year but I don’t think he’s doing it again this season. I look at this forward group and think it’s pretty similar to the one they had last year.

I look at the blue line and see they didn’t get rid of Dougie Hamilton, so is that just another season full of drama? You have some young pieces and I generally like their blue line, but it’s the same team as last year.

You can say that they won 42 games last season and that they won more games that their lost, which is impressive when you consider there were teams above them in the standings who did not have more wins than they lost, but can New Jersey get 10 more points in a conference that didn’t get any less competitive? I’m not totally sold on that.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…