The New Jersey Devils 15-20-1 since starting the season 8-1. It appeared the Devils were here to stay after making the playoffs last season and for the second time in three seasons.
The Devils were 13-4-1 at one point, doing so without Johnathan Kovacevic to begin the season, Evgenii Dadonov for stretches, Brett Pesce for stretches, and even Jack Hughes. And once Jack Hughes was injured, as it always does, it crippled the team. Even with him back in the lineup after his “freak accident,” the offence isn’t clicking yet.
And that one incident, along with Luke Hughes‘s contract holdout to start training camp, the Quinn Hughes saga, and the outside noise about trade rumours involving Dougie Hamilton, Dawson Mercer, and Ondrej Palat, is affecting the team and how they play.
Despite what the players say, on December 13, 2025, head coach Sheldon Keefe acknowledged that speculation about the Devils acquiring Quinn Hughes affects the group, whether or not it was true.
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“I think it’s coincidence,” Keefe said back in December following a game against the Anaheim Ducks. “But that said, like, there’s, been a lot of noise about that, and I think that as much as we don’t talk about it, the players, I don’t think talk about it, I think we’d probably be silly to think that it’s doesn’t, doesn’t impact any of the players that may have felt that they may have been associated with such a thing, whether true or not, in many cases, very untrue. It does impact a group, especially at a time when you’re trying to rally the group. It’s a little another thing that you got to try to overcome.”
The night before that game, Quinn Hughes was traded to the Minnesota Wild from the Vancouver Canucks. It has been reported that the Devils have been linked to the eldest Hughes brother since last year. And once that gets out, it affects the team as they were trying to find their game again. Regardless of who may or may not have been involved, the players are looking for a spark inside that room to rally around.
“For the Devils, it’s very clear to me that the whole Quinn Hughes situation just damaged their internal workings,” Elliotte Friedman said on the Friday edition of 32 Thoughts. “Business got out. No-trade clauses used. Things like that.
And I don’t know how you fix that. I mean, I kind of look at it like it’s business and you have to put it behind you. But the Devils right now have moved into a team that’s kind of like we’re waiting for something to happen. A team that’s kind of waiting for the shoe to drop. Is it going to be a trade? Is it going to be some kind of change?”
The New Jersey Devils haven’t changed one thing. Aside from Johnathan Kovacevic re-entering the lineup, the roster is the same as last year, minus a different bottom six. From their play over the last little stretch, where they are 10-17-1 in their last 28 games, everything that could go wrong does.
Now, maybe it is not as bad as everyone says, but the players are mentally fragile. If things are going well, the rest of their game breaks down. As has been the case for the last three or four seasons, once the air is let out of the bench by a backbreaking goal, the players lose their ability to rally.
Now, there was pushback against the Jets on Sunday, but defensive lapses cost them the game. Not having a shot on goal in the first 12 minutes of the third period is an issue. It was like the players were waiting for the Jets to score the next goal and break the tie. That is exactly what happened.
Just because certain players inside the room thought Quinn Hughes was coming and didn’t, shouldn’t mean the New Jersey Devils should be collapsing like this. Now, maybe they aren’t as good as many thought they would be; more on that another time.
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However, the mental maturity many thought was there isn’t there as the players let distractions like this into the locker room. The players have to go find the spark themselves instead of waiting for one. But maybe that spark is as simple as changing an assistant; it worked wonders for the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders.
There is too much rat poison surrounding the New Jersey Devils this season. The New York Rangers went through this last season. But how much of a spark will the Devils have unless something major is done to fix the locker room?
Until they mature as a team, the players will remain mentally weak, and the New Jersey Devils will struggle the rest of the season.
