The New Jersey Devils appear to be ready to enter the 2020 SHL Fall Classic and will be looking to show that they are still a competitive squad. Coming within 2 games of the SHL championship the Devils would’ve loved to keep the core together but that simply was not possible with the amount of big name free agents they had. The biggest loss was of their star defenceman Brent Burns, a player who carried the Devils backend the past 2 seasons. But even with losing many of their stars the Devils were determined to ice a roster that could compete once again.

The Devils knew they wouldn’t be able to produce a roster with high end skill as they did last year so they went a different route and went to make their team as deep as they could with two-way talent. They added players like Silfverberg(picture above), Couture, Staal, Fast and Eller to help make their forwards responsible in their own end and give their defence as much support as they possibly can. The group won’t be a team that scores a ton each night even though they do have a good bit of goal scoring talent, however they will make life for their opponents miserable with their stellar defensive play. Tatar, Kovalchuk and Kessel are some of the players that aren’t really two-way guys, but they will help the Devils produce offence. Kovalchuk and Kessel will be key as they will be playing in the bottom 6 and will be the main threats on the 3rd line. If they can produce at a good clip it will give the Devils the boost they need.

The defence got overhauled big time. The only remaining member of the defence from last years group is their young stud Chabot. The defence is not as talented offensively as they were last year, but they are a lot harder to play against. They put an emphasis on getting players that were big and would hit. Chiarot, Holden, Edmundson and Bitetto best exemplify this aspect. They also added youngster Noah Hanifin. They hope he will be able to develop to be a good #2 d-man beside Chabot. This group once again isn’t sexy like their forward group, but it will be a tough group to play against.

The only position of the Devils that didn’t change change was the goaltending tandem. Price will once again be the starter and Bernier will be the backup. With Price getting up there in age he will likely not be able to carry the team for stretches as he did last year. However the Devils still see him as their franchise goalie and he will be on the untouchables list as long as he remains on the team. While his stats from the finals taint his overall playoff stats last year, he was a major part of why the Devils made the finals and he will be forever remembered by the Devils fanbase as the goalie who got them the closest to their first cup.

So with all these changes will the Devils be a top contender? No. But could they be a sneaky team? Without a doubt. They still have a little under 2M of cap space and they could add a major player between now and the trade deadline. One thing is for certain, teams shouldn’t sleep on the Devils as they are hungrier than ever for a title.