There are always position battles in training camp. This season, the New Jersey Devils camp is notable for lacking a battle in the crease. For the first time in nearly a decade, the team will enter camp with a bonafide starting goalie and one of the top backups in the NHL, Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen. The confidence each provides to the team is palpable, allowing the team’s decision-makers to focus on rounding out the rest of the roster.
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Goal is not the only place New Jersey’s roster decisions are already set. The team enters training camp with as complete and diverse a group of forwards as any team in the NHL. The core group of forwards is set, leaving the main battles to contest for spots along the edges of the roster. There will be internal battles among the core for ice time and positioning alongside Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, but there is a core group of at least 11 forwards whose spot on the roster appears assured.
The defense is much more in flux. Dougie Hamilton’s return from injury and free agent acquisitions Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon looked to have solidified the defense, adding to burgeoning stars Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. Injuries to Hughes and Nemec in the weeks leading up to camp have left the defense with perhaps two vacancies on the opening night roster.
As the team heads into camp, the roster has been supplemented with the signing of Jakub Zboril and Kevin Labanc to professional tryout contracts (PTO). Both veterans will arrive in camp with real opportunities to make the team and reignite their careers. Each will have to outperform incumbents to make the roster, but with the potential for injury and inexperience, there will be opportunities for both.
Fourth Line Forwards
The first training camp battle will ascertain which three forwards new head coach Sheldon Keefe will deploy as his fourth line. The one apparent lock seems to be Curtis Lazar, who general manager Tom Fitzgerald declared the fourth-line center heading into the offseason. Lazar has earned the opportunity to begin the season in that role, as he has done everything asked of him by the Devils and more. He led the team in hits (by 28), all forwards in blocks by 15, tied for the team lead in short-handed goals, and on a team with a goal differential of minus-17, he led all players at plus-10. All that from a player who only averages just north of 12 minutes a game.
The question then becomes who Keefe will deploy as his fourth-line wingers. The main choices are newcomer Paul Cotter, veteran Nathan Bastian, enforcer Kurtis MacDermid, Nolan Foote, or Labanc. The Devils seem to believe they have found a diamond in the rough in Cotter and will likely give him every opportunity to make the team as a fourth-liner. Fitzgerald also indicated that the team believes Cotter can play higher up in the lineup should the opportunity present itself. If one wing is Cotter’s to lose, that leaves the other as the actual battleground.
The Devils could put a premium on size and play Cotter and MacDermid, or opt for speed and play Cotter and Bastian. As the Florida Panthers proved in the playoffs, rotating pairs of wings around a fourth-line center to adapt play styles is effective. The Devils missed the speed and attitude of Miles Wood last season and often did not even play the fourth line after the first period. Cotter should change that as he brings a version of Wood’s tenacity and combination of speed, power, and scoring ability. Labanc and Foote bring an offensive component the Devils also missed from its fourth line last season. Some decisions may include needing a right or left-hand shot as part of the group. An underrated aspect of the decision is Foote’s heavy shot and his size. At the same time, Labanc brings significant experience, including being the first player in NHL history to have a four-point period in a Game 7, but lacks the size of Bastian, MacDermid, Cotter, or Foote.
Prediction: The Devils begin the season with a fourth line of Lazar, Cotter, and Bastian to maximize speed, forecheck, and high pressure in all three zones.
13th & 14th Forwards
If the Devils choose Bastian as their 12th forward, that would leave at least three players for the final two roster spots. Assuming the team will carry 14 forwards, the Devils will have good choices to fill the final two roster spots. It is difficult to believe they would cut MacDermid after giving him a three-year contract extension before he hit free agency, leaving Labanc to battle Foote for the final roster spot, with a wild card like Brian Halonen also being a possibility.
The Devils will likely try to find a way to keep all of the named players. A complicating factor is that Foote would have to clear waivers to be sent to the American Hockey League (AHL), making cutting him at the end of camp a risky proposition. With his resume, Labanc could look askew at an assignment to Utica. He also would have to clear waivers, creating a risk, or he could choose not to sign with the Devils if the AHL is possible and leave after his PTO to try to sign with another club out of camp. He also could decide there is value in staying with the organization, knowing that he would be the first call-up from Utica and having the opportunity to be a part of a winning organization, something that eluded him the last few years in San Jose.
Prediction: Despite Fitzgerald previously calling Foote an example of excellent player development, the addition of Cotter has essentially made Foote duplicative. The 2019 first-round pick will have an uphill battle to make the team and will likely start the season in Utica or as part of a trade at the end of camp rather than risk a waiver claim. The season-long injury Foote suffered last season may have cost him his opportunity to crack the Devils lineup permanently.
Building a Blue Line
Fitzgerald made a conscious effort to build from the crease outwards this offseason. He eschewed high-priced forwards, instead choosing to allocate his resources to solidify goaltending and defense. The additions of Dillon and Pesce were calculated to relieve pressure from Hughes and Nemec and potentially provide each with a proven veteran partner to speed up their development. Unfortunately, as Mike Tyson was fond of saying, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Over the last year, the Devils have constantly been punched in the face by catastrophic injuries.
The injury bug has struck again, keeping Hughes out 6-8 weeks to begin the season. There is also uncertainty about Nemec’s availability after suffering an injury in Olympic qualifying during the summer. The Devils have indicated that they will update Nemec’s status once training camp begins. Either way, the Devils have four locks to make the opening night roster and two to three open spots with at least four players vying to make the roster.
Taking Nemec out of the equation, Santeri Hatakka, Zboril, Nick DeSimone, and Jonathan Kovasevic are the remaining candidates. Depending on the team’s needs, this list provides two right-shot defensemen and two left-shot defensemen. None of the four have significant NHL experience. Zboril is a former first-round draft pick who has played 76 NHL games since 2018, with no more than 42 games in a season. He has not played in the NHL since 2022-23. The other left-shot defenseman is Hatakka, who was acquired as part of the Timo Meier trade and has shown flashes in his time with the Devils in both preseason and his 12 NHL games with the club last season. In those 12 games, he demonstrated physicality and fluidity with the puck, which helped him rise to the top of their defenseman prospect list.
The two right-shot defensemen likely have a better shot at making the team. DeSimone, who they acquired off of waivers from the Calgary Flames, has proven to be a good fit with Hughes in limited minutes and has demonstrated that he could at least serve as a 7th or 8th defenseman. His ability to sit for a month and seamlessly integrate into the lineup has been impressive. In just over 130 minutes with DeSimone on the ice at 5v5, the Devils outscored opponents 8-2 and played to a save percentage of over 96%.
The team traded for Kovacevic early in the summer in exchange for a late-round draft pick. The behemoth defenseman has played 143 NHL games over the three seasons, and his 82-game average is 16 points with 96 hits and 99 blocks. He profiles as more of a Ryan Graves or Dillon-type defenseman, whereas DeSimone is more mobile and a better puck mover. Kovacevic fits the team’s off-season mission to get bigger and more stout. He is coming off a season where he led the Montreal Canadiens in plus/minus and set a career-high in goals. Kovacevic adds depth and versatility to the right side in a way that nobody else on the roster would.
Prediction: The Devils will start the season with Jonas Siegenthaler, Hamilton, Pesce, Dillon, Kovacevic, Hatakka, and DeSimone as their defense corps. Should Nemec be ready to begin the season with the team, then DeSimone is the likely roster casualty. They will keep Hatakka to play on the left side in Hughes’ place and Kovacevic as insurance for Nemec.
The Devils are fortunate that they have much of their core locked down. The battles in training camp will be along the team’s edges, but that does not make them insignificant. As they learned last season, games are won on the margins, and the deeper teams are the ones who survive the grind of the regular season to earn the right to navigate the gauntlet of the postseason.
