It’s that time. The NHL pre-season is entering its homestretch and teams are beginning to finalize their Opening Night rosters.
For the New Jersey Devils, Sunday afternoon represented a chance to get a good, long look at most of their healthy players as they played a split-squad doubleheader; half the team traveled to Ottawa to take on the Senators and the other half stayed in Newark to host the Washington Capitals. Against Washington, New Jersey lost 3-2 in a shootout and played most of its NHL regulars, including goalie Jacob Markstrom, who allowed two goals on 18 shots faced and was a perfect two-for-two on shots faced while on the penalty-kill. Nico Daws replaced Markstrom to start the third period and was a perfect four-for-four in the third period and overtime before giving up three goals in the five-round shootout.
As the Devils attempt to finalize the puzzle pieces of their roster, highly-touted prospect Arseny Gritsyuk was given another opportunity to lock down a spot, starting the game as the left-wing on a line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. With the Devils mixing Grits into their PB&J, this trio had a 60.00 CF% and an FF% of 57.14. Gritsyuk himself was credited with an iCF of five, iSCF of three and two iHDCF.
Roughly halfway through the game, Gritsyuk was put on a line with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier, but the young winger didn’t seem to mesh too well with his new linemates in limited ice time. That new line was caved in to the tune of a 33.33 CF% and generally graded out negatively in most metrics.
“He’s getting used to The League,” Assistant Coach Jeremy Colliton said about Gritsyuk. “And getting used to our players. So, to give him the opportunity to play with those different combinations, you know, that’s likely gonna happen during the season. So just to give him a little bit of a taste now of what that’s like. Where he ends up, I don’t know, but certainly it’s a good experience for him. That was kind of the plan, to make that flip around halfway through the game. He’s a shooter; he is dangerous. You can see, in all the games that he’s played, he’s got flashes of skill that really pop and hopefully he can continue to improve as we go.”
“He’s a great player,” Hischier added about Gritsyuk. “You’ve seen it out there. He has an unbelievable shot…obviously, it’s an adjustment coming over here, but he’s been doing a great job so far and he works hard too.”
Another camp story has been the play of left-wing farmhand Brian Halonen. The 26-year-old has appeared in four total NHL games for New Jersey, two each in 2023-24 and 2024-25. But during this year’s camp, he has been given plenty of runway to show what he can do on a consistent basis. Head Coach Sheldon Keefe made it a point of saying that he told Halonen at the start of camp, “Don’t be the forgotten man here. Push and challenge and take advantage of every opportunity that you get.”
Against the Capitals, Halonen played just 11:01 and had an ixG of 0.1, iCF of two and iSCF of one. He also registered two hits and was on the receiving end five times.
Captain Nico Hischier and Timo Meier have chemistry to spare, but their third linemate is up in the air, thanks to Stefan Noesen’s groin injury, which will keep the winger out for the beginning of the season. Ondrej Palat started Sunday’s game on the left side before he switched places with Gritsyuk. For now, the identity of Hischier and Meier’s steady third man remains a mystery.
Bottom-six center Luke Glendening was brought in on a PTO and has been receiving consistent opportunities to prove he can be the anchor for the fourth line. He helped his cause against the Capitals by winning 53.8% of his face-offs while also playing at even-strength, on the power-play and penalty-kill. He was also credited with blocking four shots.
Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey came into camp as two of New Jersey’s top defensive prospects, with each having made brief impacts at The NHL level over the past two seasons. Nemec holds the inside track to a top-six defensive spot on Opening Night, especially with Luke Hughes remaining unsigned and Jonathan Kovacevic out until at least January courtesy of knee surgery. Against Detroit, Nemec and Casey each saw over 25 minutes of ice time, playing in all situations. And Nemec also recorded an assist.
Shane Lachance and Lenni Hameenaho made their pre-season debuts against the Capitals and formed a solid third line with Matyas Melovsky. Lachance scored the game-tying goal with four minutes left in the third period to force overtime.
“I honestly didn’t think it was gonna count,” Lachance said about his goal, which was reviewed for potential goaltender interference. “I just turned around and kind of hit him after the fact, but I guess they saw something different.”
As for the scoring of this game, Nico Hischier tallied a power-play goal 15:10 into the second period to draw the Devils within 2-1 after former Devil Graeme Clarke and Ryan Leonard gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead through the first 35 minutes of the game. As mentioned above, Lachance scored the game-tying goal late in the third period. Neither team scored in overtime, and then, in the shootout, Jack Hughes and Arseny Gritsyuk “scored” for New Jersey. However, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Leonard, and Andrew Cristall outdid them, scoring thrice in the five rounds to hand the Devils a 3-2 loss.
As for their special teams, the Devils went one-for-five against the Capitals on the man-advantage and were a perfect two-for-two on the penalty-kill. Next up for the Devils is a trip to Madison Square Garden for another pre-season tilt against the Rangers on Thursday night.
