The clock is ticking on the chances for several New Jersey Devils. The condensed NHL pre-season gives players less time to earn jobs and make impressions on their teams’ staffs and New Jersey’s hopefuls are no exception. 

On Thursday night, at Madison Square Garden, the Devils visited the New York Rangers for their third of four pre-season games. With just one exhibition game left, a handful of players are still fighting to earn their spots and solidify their roles. In a 4-3 Devils shootout loss, New Jersey received goals from Stefan Noesen, Ethan Edwards and Amadeus Lombardi. A shootout goal from Will Cuylle ended up being the game-winner.

Nico Daws started in net for New Jersey and was opposed by New York’s Joonas Korpisalo. The Devils’ young netminder stopped 20 of the 23 shots he faced through overtime, while the Blueshirts’ veteran goalie matched him with the same totals.

Getting back to the players trying to make a good impression, Stefan Noesen, Amadeus Lombardi and Anton Silaev each suited up against the Rangers, looking to solidify or earn their roles on this year’s Garden State squad.

Now, that’s not to say that Noesen needed to earn his roster spot; he has been on the team for the past two seasons. However, injuries cost him last year, limiting him to just 38 games and seven total points (three goals, four assists). With the Devils’ revamped roster, which includes Anthony Mantha, Luke Evangelista and Evan Rodrigues, a top-six, or even middle-six, role no longer looks to be available for him, meaning that Noesen will likely need to do what he can with fourth-line minutes and some special teams opportunities. 

“I went had some things done this summer that really helped out, some time off, some recovery,” Noesen told Devils’ Team Reporter Sam Kasan. “I feel pretty good. Getting through the first couple days of camp has been a lot. I haven’t done that up-and-down thing since January. I feel good. It’s great to play games, get reps and feel like a hockey player again.”

“It’s been a long road,” Noesen continued. “I had the adductor thing last summer. That delayed my season. The knee thing. I haven’t felt myself in about a year, if not longer. I’m getting older. I want to take it day by day and go out there, do the best I can. Show my grind and the will to win. That’s all you can ask for.”

It’s good news for the Devils that Noesen is feeling like himself again. But one has to wonder what a “successful” 2026-27 season looks like for him, beyond the obvious point of staying healthy.

Perhaps he can be a net-front presence on one of the two power-play units? He did score a power-play goal from just that very position 8:51 into the first period of the game against the Rangers. 

“Noesen was solid (tonight),” Head Coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “He was great on the bench too, with a younger, or at least, less experienced group around him. I thought he did well. I think through this camp, one of the biggest things for Noesen, (has been being healthy and staying healthy, getting through it. 

“I think, even coming in, I’m not so sure he was even all that confident he was gonna be able to really get through the camp on a day-to-day basis. But he has and he’s worked extremely hard and it’s been good to see a healthy Noesen, (’cause he) is a good player and didn’t have that much last season. But he’s off to a good start here right now.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Lombardi is hoping to break camp with New Jersey and make his NHL Debut after signing a two-year, two-way contract with the Devils on July 3rd, after having been part of the Detroit Red Wings’ system since being drafted in 2022 (fourth round). 

Lombardi has been well talked about during camp and for good reason. He has shown he can play a responsible two-way game, perhaps leaning more on the defensive than the offensive. But that’s hardly a “bad” trait in a likely fourth-line center/winger. In fact, you want whoever is in that role to be hard to play against and to be defensively responsible. 

“I’ve played center my whole life,” Lombardi told Kasan. “So wing is the adjustment that I have to make and learning how to play that new position. It’s nice to get a game in with some familiarity. I’m excited to play with Boqy (Jesper Boqvist) and Noes (Stefan Noesen); they’re both tremendous players. I think it’ll be fun tonight.”

“It’s a big part of staying in the lineup and helping my career overall,” Lombardi explained about the shifting between center and wing positions. “Being able to play both sides. Growing up, I only played center. This is my first year at wing. I’ve played four or five games my whole career on the wing. It’ll help me stay in the lineup, stay up with the team; hopefully down the road it’ll help me play up and down as well.”

That “comfort” of being back at his natural position shone through against the Rangers with 1:39 left in regulation as Lombardi drove hard to the net and beat Korpisalo five-hole to tie the game 3-3, thus necessitating overtime. 

“It was a fast game,” Lombardi said. “Obviously just trying to get my feet under me, new line mates, new buildings. So I felt good. Felt a little off in the dot, if I’m being honest. I gotta work on that for sure. But it’s just nice to be up the middle of the ice and a little bit more comfortable there. You’re moving a little bit more, where I can use my speed. But I thought we got better as the game went on and it sucks that we didn’t get the win.”

Last, but certainly not least, is Silaev, the hulking 6-foot-7, 211 lbs. defenseman whom the Devils are very high on. Throughout rookie camp, as well as training camp, Silaev has made plenty of people take notice, not only with his thunderous hits, but also with his sleek skating that has many Devils players in awe that somebody that big can skate that well. 

While Silaev is not constrained by the two-game veteran limit, he is still up against it to earn a roster spot out of camp. When fully healthy, the Devils have six NHL-caliber defensemen already locked into the lineup. And that’s not even counting Declan Chisholm, who’s had a strong camp and appears to have the inside track on making the team, while Jonathan Kovacevic is recovering from a minor off-season procedure. 

So, where does that leave the young Silaev? Could he go down to The AHL and bide his time before an inevitable injury opens up a spot for him? Sure. Could he go to The AHL and play so unbelievably well that he forces a call-up? Absolutely. 

What you don’t want to happen is for him to make the team as the seventh defenseman and rarely see playing time, because that would stunt his development. With only one more pre-season game left and Silaev not currently scheduled to play in it, this game against the Rangers was, more than likely, his last chance to show what he can do.

“I thought, once again, he’s obviously big and he moves very well, so he covers a lot of ground,” Keefe said about Silaev’s game. “There was one player in particular; it was in the third period, looked like he was beat, or maybe even overtime, but, anyway, it looked like he was beat, but just one stride and he recovers, cleans it up. That was a really good sign. 

“There’s pieces of his game he’s just gotta understand, like sometimes, when you skate that well, it can kinda take you to bad places if you’re not positionally sound. So there’s some there that we’ve gotta continue to work with him at. And there was some progress in that area; talking with him on the bench about a few things, he made some good adjustments.”

As for the rest of the game, Noesen opened the scoring 8:51 into the first period when Seamus Casey fired the puck toward Korpisalo during New Jersey’s first power-play of the game. Noesen got a stick on the puck and deflected it past New York’s goalie for the 1-0 New Jersey lead. (The power-play was awarded at 8:19 when Nathan Aspinall was called for holding Vladislav Kolyachonok).

Late in the opening period, a broken play in New Jersey’s end allowed Matt Rempe to find Joe Veleno all alone in front of Daws. The veteran center made a quick move and was swiftly stonewalled by the young goaltender, not once, but twice. For Daws, it was a solid reminder of why the Devils are so high on his potential and are willing to go into the season with him and Jake Allen as their two primary goalies. 

“I felt a lot more like myself,” Daws said after the game. “I found my pregame routine and it sounds dumb, but, first game of the year, it’s been so long now, I have to kind of remember everything that I do. But yeah, definitely felt a lot more like myself out there.”

Just over three minutes into the second period, New York’s Marc Del Gaizo laid out Lombardi with a big hit at the New Jersey blue line. Marc McLaughlin immediately stood up for his teammate and jumped Del Gaizo. The resulting penalties were a double-minor for roughing to McLaughlin and a standard two-minute roughing minor for Del Gaizo, with the Devils successfully killing off the penalty.

At 12:09 of the middle period, Matyas Melovsky sent a pass from behind the Rangers’ net out to Ethan Edwards at the lower-left circle. Edwards one-time sniped it, bar-down, over Korpisalo to give the Devils a 2-0 lead. 

Early in the third period, 2:11 apart, the Rangers tied the game. First came a puck that bounced off Will Cuylle and then came Anton Blidah’s tying goal when Daws was sprawled out and Blidah poked home the puck. 

With 10:03 gone in the third, Scott Morrow came down the left wing and attempted to backhand the pass through New Jersey’s crease. The puck deflected off Vladislav Kolyachonok and past Daws to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. 

“When it gets down to crunch time like that, you got to find a way to get points,” Daws explained. “I think, in the third period, they came out really hungry and something that I need to get better at is finding a way to stop the bleeding. Obviously, teams are gonna push and we’re gonna get outplayed at times and I gotta step up and make sure that I can kinda help settle everything down.”

Lombardi helped bail Daws out, at least temporarily, when, with 1:39 to go in the third, he beat Korpisalo five-hole to tie the game 3-3. He again had the game on his stick late in overtime but couldn’t replicate his third-period magic. Then, in the shootout, after Cuylle scored in the second round, Lombardi had another chance to be the hero, but his shot sailed high and the Rangers finished off their 4-3 comeback victory. 

For the Devils, they have one pre-season game left, Saturday night at UBS Arena against the New York Islanders. It is expected that they will use that game as a dress rehearsal by playing most of their Opening Night lineup. If that’s the case, then we should get a clearer picture of who has made the team and what roles to expect for them when the season begins.