Why the New Jersey Devils lost their mojo (And how they got it back)

Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

If the 2023 offseason has shown me anything about New Jersey, it’s that the Devils organization is once again a desirable destination for NHL players. And that makes me smile.

Let’s be real: New Jersey hasn’t been the same since Martin Brodeur left the organization as a player in 2014. He was the cornerstone of the franchise. Brodeur won four Vezina Trophies and three Stanley Cups as a member of the Devils.

In a perfect world, Brodeur would have played his entire career wearing red, black, and white. It’s what we all expected. It was unfathomable to think of Brodeur wearing any other uniform.

And then it happened: he signed with St. Louis. In one of the strangest twists in hockey history, Marty Brodeur, icon of all icons in New Jersey, played his final seven NHL games in a Blues jersey.

Even from my home in Missouri, I could feel the air being sucked out of the Devils franchise. Marty was gone. And whether he was right or wrong, General Manager Lou Lamoriello let it happen.

Less than a year later, the Hall of Fame builder was out of the big seat, bumped up to Team President. Ray Shero was installed as the Devils new GM. And within a few months, Lamoriello was gone, too, leaving New Jersey to become the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM.

For Devils fans, it was a lot to process. But it even extended to the players. They showed up to training camp for the 2015-16 season not knowing if they still needed to shave every day. Or if they had to tape their socks a certain way. Or if their goalie mask art needed to be approved by management. The list goes on and on.

It was a total culture shock – especially to players who had spent their entire careers within the high-walled confines of the Devils organization. I remember talking to old teammates during that training camp, and the overall vibe was best described with one word: weird. They didn’t know how to act or what to do. Everything under Lou was just so different from what they were experiencing with Shero in charge.

In just over a calendar year, the New Jersey franchise completely lost its identity. Lou was out. Marty was out. And the Devils struggled on the ice. Pretty much the only carryover was Mr. Devil, Ken Daneyko, who to this day remains with the franchise on the team’s TV broadcast.

Frankly, the Shero years were forgettable. The Devils tried to rebuild without a complete teardown. And there was some success. New Jersey made the 2017-18 Stanley Cup Playoffs on the back of Taylor Hall, who took home the Hart Trophy as league MVP. But the winning wasn’t sustainable, and the Devils quickly fell by the wayside.

To me, Shero was tasked with a nearly impossible job. The team’s culture had just imploded and the roster was a mess. Whoever took over the big chair after Lamoriello faced the huge task of rebuilding on and off the ice. But the team had draft picks, and Shero’s staff did well at the table.

Obviously first overall picks like Nico Hischier (2017) and Jack Hughes (2019) changed the course of the franchise. But they weren’t alone. Dawson Mercer, Jesper Bratt, Akira Schmid – take your pick. All of them are – or soon will be – difference makers acquired through the draft.

Even though Shero was let go in 2020, his fingerprints are still visible on the franchise. Players that were drafted during his tenure have been extended. Others were traded for valuable assets – cap space included – by current GM Tom Fitzgerald.

It’s been a process nearly a decade in the making, but the Devils finally have an identity again. The team plays fast under head coach Lindy Ruff, and there’s plenty of reason to believe New Jersey is just now entering another long, sustainable period of winning.

Why? Because players want to be Devil again. Let’s face it: downtown Newark isn’t a selling point. Even though the Prudential Center is a top-flight NHL building, the city still leaves a lot to be desired. Taxes are high in New Jersey. And travel from Hoboken – where most of the players live – can be unpredictable. It’s not the greatest setup.

But what New Jersey has going right now is a fun, winning culture that players want to be a part of. Erik Haula and Jesper Bratt wanted to stay. Timo Meier, after coming over from the San Jose Sharks at the 2023 trade deadline, did as well. All three have new, multi-year contracts. Even Tyler Toffoli preferred New Jersey over Calgary, and now he’s a Devil.

I think it says a lot about Fitzgerald. Obviously players want to win and get paid. But for New Jersey to suddenly be retaining – and gaining – talent in today’s NHL, it shows the players have trust in Fitzgerald.

That’s critical. Because a team can have all the cap space in the world and still not be able to sign the best players. The Devils have been down that road before in recent years, missing out on key free agents.

New Jersey has a fighting chance now. Even someone like Tomas Nosek, who signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Devils on July 19, may not have viewed the franchise similarly just a year or two ago. He’s coming to New Jersey with a very clear objective: to play center on the fourth line. On a lesser team, he might have been able to play higher in the lineup. But with the Devils, Nosek knows he has a chance to win the Stanley Cup. It matters.

The best part, however, is that New Jersey likely won’t have to spend heavily on free agents any time soon. Hughes and Hischier, the organization’s top two centermen, will only cost $15.25 million against the cap in each of the next four seasons. And aside from defenseman Dougie Hamilton, not a single Devils player makes north of $9 million a year.

Fitzgerald has spent money when necessary and gambled when prudent. Hughes had yet to earn the eight-year, $64 million extension he signed in November of 2021. The Devils were banking on Hughes blossoming into one of the NHL’s top players. And by every metric, he has. Hughes’ $8 million AAV is already a value, a wise bet by New Jersey that required a great deal of trust on both sides.

Right now I think the only question for the Devils is goaltending, and the hard part is that the team’s top prospects – Schmid and Nico Daws – are still a year or three away from full-time NHL duty. Don’t get me wrong, Schmid has a shot in 2023-24. But another year of pro experience in the AHL wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I can’t imagine it’ll be easy for Fitzgerald to stay patient with the development of his young goaltenders when the team is in win-now mode. And New Jersey’s defense isn’t that different. Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, blueliners who will both turn 20 before the 2023-24 season concludes, have star potential. But they’re not at the same stages of their careers as a Bratt or Hischier.

To me, that’s what makes New Jersey exciting. The Devils played so well during the 2022-23 season that it’s easy to overlook the fact that the team is still a few years away from peak maturity.

I’d be amped if I was a Devils fan. The on-ice product is exciting. The future is bright. Fitzgerald has done an excellent job as GM. And Brodeur – who re-joined the team in 2018, is New Jersey’s executive vice president of hockey operations. Even from a symbolic standpoint, having MB30 back in the fold just feels right. The Devils aren’t the same without him.

It’s taken a long time, but it’s clear to me that the mojo is back in New Jersey. And Devils are just now scratching the surface.

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Why the New Jersey Devils lost their mojo (And how they got it back)

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