The New Jersey Devils host the Minnesota Wild at the Prudential Center on Wednesday after winning their fifth straight game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Related: 3 Takeaways From the Devils’ 5-2 Victory Over Maple Leafs
This is the final contest of the Wild’s five-game road trip. They beat the New York Rangers on Oct. 20, but the other three games ended in losses.
Devils Storylines
With Jacob Markstrom still out due to injury, Jake Allen has played every contest since Oct. 13. The Devils can’t continue to play Allen, or they will risk injuring him. Since this is also the second game of a back-to-back, Nico Daws will get his first start of the season tonight.
Daws had four starts with the Devils last season, with a 3-1-0 record, and an overall goals-against average (GAA) of 1.60, a save percentage (SV%) of .939, and one shutout on Feb. 23 against the Nashville Predators. While Allen has been remarkable for the Devils in the past three games, Daws has shown enough promise to help the team win.
According to Puckpedia, there is still no update on Stefan Noesen, who is on injured reserve (IR) after undergoing surgery last in the offseason and has yet to play a game in 2025-26. Dawson Mercer has been filling in well for Noesen as the second-line right winger, but of course, the Devils want a fully healthy team.
Jack Hughes is the player to watch in this game. He scored a hat trick against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday and now has six goals in his last three games.
Team Stats
New Jersey Devils
Season Record: 5-1-0
Top Scorers:
- Jesper Bratt – 3 goals (G), 7 assists (A), 10 points (P)
- Jack Hughes – 6 G, 3 A, 9 P
- Timo Meier – 3 G, 3 A, 6 P
- Nico Hischier – 2 G, 4 A, 6 P
- Dawson Mercer – 3 G, 2 A, 5 P
Goalie Stats:
- Jake Allen – 3-0-0, 1.91 goals-against average (GAA), .931 save percentage (SV%)
- Jacob Markstrom – 2-1-0, 3.89 GAA, .845 SV%
Minnesota Wild
Season Record: 3-3-1
Top Scorers:
- Kirill Kaprizov – 5 G, 5 A, 10 P
- Matt Boldy – 4 G, 6 A, 10 P
- Marco Rossi – 1 G, 4 A, 5 P
- Vladimir Tarasenko – 1 G, 4 A, 5 P
- Joel Eriksson Ek – 1 G, 4 A, 5 P
Goalie Stats:
- Filip Gustavsson – 2-3-0, 3.04 GAA, .899 SV%
- Jesper Wallstedt – 1-0-1, 2.35 GAA, .909 SV%
Team Lineups
(Subject to change before puck drop)
As per The Hockey Writers’ projected lineup article
New Jersey Devils
Ondrej Palat — Jack Hughes — Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier — Nico Hischier — Dawson Mercer
Arseni Gritsyuk — Cody Glass — Connor Brown
Paul Cotter — Luke Glendening — Brian Halonen
Luke Hughes — Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler — Dougie Hamilton
Brenden Dillon — Simon Nemec
Jake Allen
Nico Daws
Scratched: Dennis Cholowski
Injured: Jacob Markstrom, Stefan Noesen, Evgenii Dadonov, Zack MacEwen, Johnathan Kovacevic, Marc McLaughlin, Seamus Casey, Juho Lammikko
Minnesota Wild
Kirill Kaprizov — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matty Boldy
Marcus Johansson — Ryan Hartman — Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno — Danila Yurov — Vinnie Hinostroza
Yakov Trenin — Ben Jones — Tyler Pitlick
Jonas Brodin — Brock Faber
Zeev Buium — Jared Spurgeon
Jacob Middleton — David Jiricek
Filip Gustavsson
Jesper Wallstedt
Scratched: Hunter Haight, Daemon Hunt
Injured: Marco Rossi, Mats Zuccarello, Nico Sturm, Michael Milne, Cameron Butler, Zach Bogosian, Stevie Leskovar
Next Up for New Jersey
Tonight’s contest against the Wild kicks off a three-game homestand for the Devils. They will host the San Jose Sharks on Friday, Oct. 24, and the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, Oct. 26, before heading to Colorado for a rematch on Oct. 28.
