Devils Q & A: June (Part 1)
A little Question and Answer action for your Sunday morning.
As much as I’m still disappointed about the Devils’ postseason departure, I really am quite excited to continue diving into the off-season content I’ve been looking forward to for a while. From now until early July, I’m going to be hard at work providing as much content as I can throw at you in every way imaginable, from free agency to trades to the NHL Entry Draft.
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A couple of days ago, I put out a Q&A request on the main social media platforms I’m involved in — Twitter, Discord, and now Reddit.
I’m going to try and answer every single question I got on the mediums I posted to, so not only are the posts going to be inherently long (this one is over 4,000 words), but I’m going to break them down into a few separate pieces over the coming days.
Thank you all for the submissions, and let’s get into it!
Q: Was playoffs Nemec who he is as a player? What do you see his role being next year? Will he ever live up to being number two overall? (u/Firefly_Forever1 on Reddit)
A: It’s no secret that I’m higher on Simon Nemec’s capabilities than most, and I certainly hold the opinion that the playoff Nemec is much closer to the real player than who we saw in the regular season. The only problem with saying playoff Nemec is who he will be is that I actually think he’s going to be better than that; much better.
During the postseason, he played like a solid second-pairing defenseman, at least in the last three games once he got his confidence back. He showed only flashes of what he truly can be, as good as he was in general. Flashes of the potentially elite subtle deceptions with the puck — the head fakes, feigned calm demeanor, banks off the walls, fake shots to passes and vice versa, blind passes that could make Nemec such a threat in the future if he finds his groove and can execute them consistently.
With the addition of Brad Shaw as assistant coach, someone who has developed the likes of Zach Werenski and Alex Pietrangelo (among many others), I have more confidence than I ever have in Nemec reaching his full potential. He presumably has his swagger back, he has a coach with him who has been a phenomenal defensive development coach, and he’s going to be starting the season on the team with Johnathan Kovacevic injured.
As far as his role goes, that’s a tough one. As I mentioned, he’s going to be on the team to begin the 2025-26 season, likely in a third-pair role. When Kovacevic returns, it gets much more complex.
With six players on the defense corps locked up for at least the next two seasons, he might find himself on the outside looking in for playing time. Maybe the Devils move off Dougie Hamilton. Maybe they move off Brenden Dillon. Maybe Kovacevic is out longer than expected. Those, to me, are the only scenarios in which Nemec really gets meaningful time on ice next season.
I do think he’ll live up to the draft pedigree he owns as a second-overall pick, but I don’t think he’ll ever be regarded as the second-best player of that draft — Logan Cooley and Shane Wright will be #1 and #2 in due time, I think. Maybe Lane Hutson gets in that conversation, too. Nemec is going to be a very, very good player for a very, very long time.
Of course, none of this matters if he gets moved for top-six help.
Q: Bring back one player from a Devils’ Stanley Cup Finals team to join the current team. (u/Alternative-Plan1376 on Reddit)
A: 2012 Ilya Kovalchuk. As much as his departure from the team killed any positive outlook on Kovy from thereon out, his dominance and role with the Devils during his tenure here were undeniable, particularly in that 2012 run.
With the 2025-26 Devils desperately in need of a plus-finishing, top-line quality left-winger to play alongside Jack and Bratt, near-prime Kovalchuk would be the perfect addition. He’s the best goal-scorer the Devils ever had.
I strongly considered Patrik Elias from the 2000-01 team — the greatest forward in franchise history in the midst of his prime would have fit pretty well in the Devils’ top six. Ultimately, though, no one in Devils history has the pure goal-scoring upside as Kovalchuk.
Q: Jonathan Toews? (@Troupe24 on Twitter)
Toews 3C? Yea or nay? (u/True2Caesar on Reddit)
A: I would not have Toews high on my priority list, to be honest. It’s cool and all that he’s making his NHL return, but he hasn’t played in two seasons and was already one of the slowest skaters in the league when he was 34 — his 23 speed bursts of 20+ mph in 2022-23 paled in comparison to the league-average of 70.1, and even if he played a full 82 games, his pace would prorate to 35.
Toews’s career was already on a downtrend pre-hiatus, and at 37 with two years of non-NHL play, I don’t think it’s going to get any better. I also don’t think the Devils have an interest in getting any older or slower — Toews feels like a move better suited for teams whose cores aren’t still at the relative beginning of their primes.
Q: Are you looking at tape/gameplay when evaluating the prospects in our pipeline? If so, how are you sourcing the film? (u/blade430 on Reddit)
A: Yes! Whenever I do scouting reports on any non-NHL players, I always make sure to have at least a few viewings of the player beforehand. This applies to both Devils prospects and draft eligibles.
I go about seeing games in a few ways. Firstly, and mostly, being that I am a contributor for Dobber Prospects as well (where I also cover the Devils), I have access to watching any and all games from the AHL, OHL, WHL, and QMJHL at any time. I live near a D1 college, so I am able to attend whenever notable college teams visit (and get a press pass when I do so, which is neat). Beyond those two and the nationally broadcast games/tournaments, I use streaming sites to get active and past games. In my recent scouting reports, while I always write on prospects I’ve scouted myself at least a couple of times, if I don’t have clips myself (which I sometimes do), I source them from social media with the proper credit.
It’s a lot of work, but well worth the effort.
Q: With where the team is at now do you see a move for Quinn to get additional years of him here (assuming he signs here), or do you think it’s best we wait it out until FA? If the move is go for him now, who do you best view as disposable in terms of sending back for him? (u/McRibs2024 on Reddit)
Do you think there’s a legitimate chance Quinn is a devil at some
point this year? If so, what’s the trade look like? (@Mike57719474 on
Twitter)
Quinn Hughes, when? (@dml2662 on Discord)
A: In all honesty, I don’t think Quinn Hughes will be a Devil this season. The two most likely scenarios for the third brother joining the crew are 1) he joins in free agency in the 2027 off-season, or 2) he is acquired at the 2026-27 trade deadline. I simply don’t think Vancouver feels the need to move him before that.
They probably should — they’re not going anywhere with their team anytime soon, in my opinion, especially if Quinn has one foot out the door already. Knowing that he’s leaving in two seasons regardless, why wouldn’t they maximize the trade return? Might as well kickstart the rebuild or retool, right?
If the Devils were to acquire him this season, there should be just a few names the Devils don’t consider trading. Obviously the Hughes brothers aren’t going anywhere, but the other untouchables end at Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt. Anyone else should be on the block.
If I were in charge of the Canucks, I’d be looking for a complete rebuild; it could be a quick one with the value they have between Quinn, Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk, and all the one-year-left contracts they have. In my head, one of the Devils’ stud defense prospects would unquestionably be on the move — probably Nemec or Casey. I have to imagine Dawson Mercer is at the forefront of the Canucks’ other priorities, among the obvious picks that would need to be sent over. Either way, if they’re looking for a rebuild package, the two players that would be sent their way would be Mercer and one of Nemec/Casey/Silayev.
Q: Who should the Devils acquire to add scoring? (@yxzyzzyx on Discord)
A: Depends on what kind of scoring you’re looking for, top-six or depth.
For the top six, there are a ton of players I’d be interested in if they were made available. Marco Rossi would be my #1 target, especially if the rumored price of a late-round first is all that it’s going to take. JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch are rumored to be on the trading block. I’d take Jared McCann from the Seattle Kraken in a heartbeat. I’d be on board with acquiring Elias Pettersson, even if the chances of that happening are astronomically low. If they want to go the free agent route, Nikolaj Ehlers or Matt Duchene would be great gets in my opinion, though I don’t think they’re going to add a top-six forward in free agency.
Middle-six options are plentiful, too. I’d be happy with Chris Kreider, Jack Quinn, Pavel Zacha, Mason Marchment, and Morgan Geekie in the trade market — even Vladimir Tarasenko for the right price. Ryan Donato, Jakub Vrana, Andrew Mangiapane, Claude Giroux, and Anthony Mantha are all available in free agency.
Then there are the true depth guys — fourth liners who can chip in offensively. I’m a huge fan of Mikey Eyssimont and believe he’d be a fantastic player to target. Cole Koepke can probably be had for near league-minimum and is good for double-digit goal totals. Eric Robinson and Jack Roslovic, both of whom are expiring UFAs coming from Carolina, can score pretty copiously with limited minutes.
I know I just threw out a bunch of names there, but the point was that they have a ton of options to choose from if they want to effectively add scoring throughout the lineup.
If I were to pick one target from each demographic there, my top-six add would be Marco Rossi, my middle-six add would be Ryan Donato, and my depth add would be Mikey Eyssimont.
Rossi is an absolute dawg. He’s young, he’s fast, he’s hard-working, he shoots well, he facilitates even better, he doesn’t shy away from physicality, he’s difficult to knock off the puck, he is a rebound machine, and he’s going to be so much cheaper to acquire than he should be. The rumored price when Minnesota and Philadelphia engaged in trade talks was either Tyson Foerster or a late-first-round pick. To gloss over that would be a purely ignorant decision. His contract request was seven years at $7 million per, and that’s completely reasonable, especially considering the rising cap. For a 23-year-old, 60-point scorer with no signs of slowing down his development? Sign me up for that, please.
Evolving Hockey is predicting Donato’s next contract to be three years at $4.7M AAV, and for a 29-year-old who broke out in a big way (31G, 31A) on the Chicago Blackhawks, that seems like a fair price. Eyssimont is arguably the hardest-working player in the league, and for a team whose bottom-six both relies on the forecheck and desperately lacks speed, he would be the perfect fit.
Q: Is Fitz on the hot seat, and if so, how hot is it? (@DevsFan82 on Twitter)
How do you think Fitz compares to the rest of the GMs in the
league? Would you say he’s a top 15 GM? Top 10? (u/blade430 on
Reddit)
A: I did a post on this about a month ago, but in brief, I actually think Fitzgerald is a pretty good GM compared to the rest of the league. He has a clear weakness in drafting — he almost always picks for need over talent in the first round of the draft, and very much overprioritizes size after the second round (if he drafted solely in the second, he’d be phenomenal). A lot of the Devils’ center woes would be alleviated had he picked BPA (Marco Rossi or Cole Perfetti over Alex Holtz, even Logan Cooley or Shane Wright over Simon Nemec), and the Chase Stillman pick should still have a sour taste in everyone’s mouths after seeing what Logan Stankoven did in the playoffs.
Beyond that, I also don’t like that he overcorrected from the 2022-23 team, showing a clear prioritization of getting “harder to play against” rather than leaning into the core’s strength of speed and skill — something that the 2021-22 Avalanche did, and look where they went. Since, the Devils have certainly gotten “grittier” and “harder to play against,” but have sacrificed speed, skill, and scoring in the process.
His strengths, in my opinion, more than make up for that. Fitzgerald excels at (most) contract negotiations, and it has set the Devils up for a long, prosperous future. Getting all of Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, and Jesper Bratt locked up long-term for less than $9M AAV each is the boon of all boons. Jonas Siegenthaler is signed at $3.4 million through 2028. Brett Pesce is signed at $5.5 million until 2030. I think Johnathan Kovacevic’s deal is more than fair for the player he is. Ondrej Palat’s deal is undeniably bad, I’m not a fan of Brenden Dillon’s deal, and Kurtis MacDermid’s presence on the team at all makes me mad, but for the most part, the Devils’ cap situation is pretty pristine.
The second clear plus for Fitzgerald is his trade negotiation abilities. Looking back at every single one of his trades, I counted two: sending out Pavel Zacha for Erik Haula, and sending out Zakhar Bardakhov and a 7th for MacDermid. The Haula trade was pretty inconsequential and is only poor in retrospect after accounting for the unprecedented growth Zacha underwent, and the MacDermid trade was just a Hockey Man making a stupid Hockey Man trade. The list otherwise is exceptional.
I don’t think his seat is particularly hot, either. My understanding is that the owners have high regard for Fitzgerald, as a person and as a GM, so I don’t think he’s worried about his job at all.
If I were to rank Fitzgerald, I’d say he's good-not-great. I also must say that I think that most GMs in the league are bad. With that in mind, I would be confident placing him in the top half of the league, and would strongly consider him a top-10 GM.
Q: When did you become a Devils fan? (u/Basic_Mastodon3078 on Reddit)
A: Since I can remember, really. I grew up in a sports-oriented household — my family treated Football Sunday like a holiday, we sat and watched almost every Devils game as a group, and the Mets would always be playing in the background if they were on. Hockey was always the main sport, though, and being that everyone was from New Jersey, we had to be Devils fans.
I would say my interest really started to grow during the 2012 Cup run, when I was still just 11 years old. I went to a couple of games during that postseason, including one of the Eastern Conference Finals games against the Rangers, and it really took my fandom to the next level. I’ve watched just about every Devils game since, barring work complications (and even then, I try to find a way).
My fandom turned up another notch over the past few years, particularly when I started writing, and now it takes up pretty much all of my (limited) free time. I started blogging with Infernal Access — thank you to Todd Cordell for kickstarting my hockey-writing career — where I still contribute once a week or so. From then, I worked with The Hockey Writers, where I covered the Devils (of course) as well as the Maple Leafs and Sabres. I left there to start this passion project (and simultaneously work with Dobber), and, as I said, it pretty much takes up every iota of free time I have. Shoutouts to both my very supportive girlfriend and insomnia for letting me get as much done as I’m able to while working 50-60 hours a week at my real job.
Q: Should I dislike Rempe more for being a dirty Ranger or the fact that he’s the reason the Devils traded and resigned Kurtis Mcdermid? (u/WorkingWhiteGUY on Reddit)
A: As much as I want to say Door #1, the reality, to me, is that Matt Rempe’s presence resulting in Kurtis MacDermid still being on the Devils’ payroll does far more mental damage than him being a dirty player on my least favorite team.
Even beyond the salary cap implications, acquiring him cost the Devils Zakhar Bardakhov, who ended up turning into a pretty good center prospect over in the Avalanche pipeline. After scoring 35 points (17 goals, 18 assists) in 53 KHL games, he signed his ELC and is coming over to North America next season. Wouldn’t it be nice to know we had a worthwhile center prospect other than Matyas Melovsky?
I hate Rempe, though. He’s dirty, on the Rangers, a horrible hockey player, and he gets way too much attention. There are no redeemable qualities in his game.
Q: Will Jack play more than 70 games next year? 75? (u/Firefly_Forever1 on Reddit)
A: It’s obviously impossible to tell, but I have genuine confidence. The shoulder surgery is worrisome, to be sure, but Fitzgerald said in a press conference that he has no worries about Jack’s shoulder moving forward. I have to imagine that he’s going to be hard at work, building some muscle and changing some parts of his game to prioritize not falling into the boards at full speed so often.
Plus, I’m super high on the Greg Ackerman hire, and I think it’s flown under the radar. For those who don’t know, Ackerman was added as a Senior Data Analyst to the Devils’ front office. He previously worked as a Sports Science Analyst for the Seattle Mariners, where he specialized in studying biomechanics, player workload, and injury prevention. The Mariners had one of the least-injured pitching rotations in the MLB while he worked there. I’m certain that adding a guy like that has legitimate value and will contribute to the Devils players as a whole staying healthy.
Q: Is there a singular trade that would shake up the team completely for the better, and what would it be? (I’m talking, if you moved on from one of our stars or something, etc.) (@k1773rm0nk3y on Discord)
A: First off, quick shout to k1773rm0nk3y for making the Devils’ Advocates logo — it rocks.
To answer your question, I honestly don’t believe there would be any changes to the Devils’ core that would benefit New Jersey. For reference, in core players, I’m talking about the Hughes brothers, Hischier, Meier, and Bratt. I don’t think there has been an example of moving off a player of that magnitude and skill that has actually paid off for the team shipping them out with the exception of the Erik Karlsson trade from Ottawa to San Jose, and that trade only looks great in retrospect because the Sharks fell off beyond anyone’s prediction. No disrespect to Mackenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau, but they’re not the caliber of player of any of those guys. As far as I’m aware, the trades always favor the team acquiring the big name (Jack Eichel to the Golden Knights; Mikko Rantanen to the Stars; Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers; Joe Thornton to the Sharks).
The biggest-named player on the roster who could be shipped out and benefit the Devils is Dougie Hamilton, though even then, I’m skeptical of the value he’d theoretically bring back. The cap space would be nice, and perhaps he has value, but even then, I think Dougie probably gives more value to the Devils (particularly if Shaw digs his claws in and forces a bit of an uptrend in play) while on the roster as opposed to in a trade.
Q: Favorite genre of music? Favorite food item at the Rock? (u/blade430 on Reddit)
A: My favorite is probably progressive metal, but I listen to practically every genre pretty religiously. Bands like Haken, Caligula’s Horse, Sleep Token, Karnivool, Leprous, and Animals as Leaders will always be my favorites. I’d been introduced to the genre about 10 or so years ago, while amid drum lessons. It’s been my favorite genre to play and to listen to since — huge shoutout to “Mute” by Caligula’s Horse for being my most recent favorite song to play along to, though I haven’t played in a short while.
When I’m feeling productive, I listen to fusion (Snarky Puppy, Lettuce), jazz (Moses Yoofee Trio, Aaron Parks), and quiet alternative (Horse Feathers, Noah Kahan, Iron & Wine, Bruno Major). When I feel like blasting music on the highway, I’ll always be bumping JID and Kendrick (and sometimes Denzel Curry). When I’m at the gym, it’s almost exclusively some sort of metal (Knocked Loose, Wage War, Beartooth, Motionless in White) — shoutout to BrattPack for putting me on to some great metal tunes. I grew up listening to classic rock, so I usually listen to that on long drives when I want to sing along — my “Road Trip” playlist is exclusively that, and it’s 37 hours long.
So yeah, if I had to pick a favorite genre, it’s progressive metal, but I’m all over the place all the time. My Apple Replay (don’t judge me) almost always tells me I have more than 1,000 artists listened to during the year. Here’s 2024:
As far as my favorite food at the Rock, hands down, it’s the Taylor Ham (fight me), egg, and cheese sandwich from Downtown Diner. They used to have it a while back and got rid of it temporarily, and I couldn’t have been happier to see it return. I’m also a sucker for crappy pizza, so a slice of pepperoni is my second go-to.
Again, thank you all for the submissions. If you don’t see your question in this post, fret not! I’ll be answering every question I received. Stay tuned!