{"id":951803,"date":"2026-11-04T02:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T02:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951803\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T02:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T02:56:09","slug":"devils-deserve-to-be-viewed-as-an-elite-team-in-the-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951803\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils deserve to be viewed as an elite team in the East"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may finally be happening for the New Jersey Devils<\/a>. Despite heightened expectations during the Jack Hughes era, the Devils have struggled to become consistent contenders, winning just one playoff series since their run to the Stanley Cup final in 2012, and missing the postseason last year. <\/p>\n

This season, however, could be the one in which the Devils realize their potential. Their 18 points through 14 games puts them in second place in the Metropolitan Division, and they\u2019ve won seven of their last 10 games. According to MoneyPuck<\/a>, New Jersey\u2019s expected goals percentage of 58.57% ranks second in the NHL. With star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck now in the fold, the Devils are looking like a team to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday\u2019s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE<\/a>,\u00a0hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Steve Peters to discuss whether New Jersey has entered the class of elite teams in the East.<\/p>\n

Tyler\u00a0Yaremchuk:\u00a0When you talk about the elite teams in the East, Carolina, they\u2019re off to a great start. We had someone comment earlier, no Stanley Cup hangover there. Boston\u2019s looking like an absolute wagon in the early going here. Everyone\u2019s keeping an eye on Washington and Florida. Does New Jersey deserve to be mentioned in that elite tier in the East?<\/p>\n

Steve\u00a0Peters:\u00a0They do now. As long as they can stay healthy, I think that bodes well for this team. It\u2019s going to be a battle for second in the Metro. Let\u2019s face it, Carolina\u2019s almost won the division already. They\u2019re just exceptional. They picked up where they left off. But you\u2019re talking about Jersey, Washington, the Rangers are maybe starting to slide with their goaltending, the Islanders are right there. There is going to be a battle for second, and Pittsburgh\u2019s still going to climb out of the cellar, I think, too. There\u2019s going to be a battle for second.<\/p>\n

One thing New Jersey needs to start to do, and we talked about their small, skilled forwards, they\u2019re going to have to pick up the physicality. That\u2019s got to come from (Anthony) Mantha, who\u2019s only got two hits per game right now. That\u2019s not good enough. You talk about Timo Meier, who may bring some physicality, this team just isn\u2019t as physical as they need to be in a division where it\u2019s required. Right now they\u2019re 29th in the NHL in hits per 60 minutes, while the Rangers and the Islanders are both top-10. So they\u2019re going to have to pick up their physical game, because as the season wears on, you\u2019re going to have to beat some teams by being physical in the corners.<\/p>\n

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday\u2019s episode here\u2026<\/p>\n

\"new-jersey-devils\"<\/p>\n

New Jersey DevilsTeam Cap Summary<\/p>\n

\"PuckPedia\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cap Summary<\/p>\n

Projected Cap Hit<\/p>\n

$103,191,399<\/p>\n

$96,700,000<\/p>\n

Projected Cap Space<\/p>\n

$808,601<\/p>\n

$16,800,000<\/p>\n

Current Cap Space<\/p>\n

$980,429<\/p>\n

$16,800,000<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may finally be happening for the New Jersey Devils. Despite heightened expectations during the Jack Hughes era,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-951803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}