Recapping The New Jersey Devils 25-26 Season

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

It's time to do what has been long overdue and recap the best and the worst moments of

one of the most disappointing seasons in the history of the New Jersey Devils franchise.

That's coming up next.

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In the world, my name is Zach Berman and today is what the title says it is we are recapping

the New Jersey Devils 2025, 2020, six seasons and all of the pitfalls and moments of levity

and happiness that came with it alongside all of the infuriating moments and there were plenty.

But we're going to talk about that today here on the LOD.

We begin with, I guess, just to say to the union on the rest of the league.

Who are you rooting for in Philly, Carolina?

Oh, God.

I can't bring myself to root for Philly but

I feel like if I had to choose, I'm rooting for the flyers.

I mean, over the canes at this point, I've said over and over again.

Be shocked if the canes lost the East.

But I feel like we're going to be seeing Stanley Cup final games in Raleigh.

Right?

There's no way they don't.

Right?

Who knows?

I just, I don't see Philadelphia having the scoring depth.

And I mean, yeah, what are played out of his mind.

But this is a series that if you're Philly and you want to somehow pull this off,

I can't see it happening.

I'll go canes in five.

I think Philly wins a game at home.

But there's a part of me that sits there and goes, well, should have been us.

Should have been us losing to the flyer.

Should have been us losing to the Hurricanes in a second.

The devil's got swept by the Philadelphia flyers this season.

Minnesota has Dallas right on the precipice of elimination.

I don't like that.

If you want Quinn Hughes, maybe to not sign in Minnesota, I'd prefer him to not win this series.

So I think we're all collectively rooting for the stars here.

But the stars kind of look like they're cooked.

I'm not going to lie.

And I think as a neutral fan, the two series I've had the most fun with are Utah,

Vegas and Montreal and Tampa.

I was a banger since city last night.

Really enjoyable game with double OT.

And I think Montreal just plays the most fun style of hockey left in these playoffs is a pure neutral.

And I'll drive ass a lesky stunk yesterday.

So I'm rooting for the Habs.

I'm rooting for Utah. I'm rooting for some of our former our former devils and John Marino and Nick D. Simone.

I would like to see the mammoths somehow pull it off, but.

As a really tough blow to blow yesterday in the third period to give up the hat trick the public Doraphia with the net empty and then.

To lose the game on a shorty. I mean, yikes.

There are a couple, a couple of teases. So to speak on.

Where I'm going to be going with this list.

I think we're going to go.

10 best and 10 worst.

I think we're going to start with the best.

And we're going to work our way down.

Best moment of the 25 26 season.

Didn't actually happen while the New Jersey Devils were playing.

I don't think I need to.

Be super mysterious on what this moment was.

But the New Jersey Devils face the franchise.

Jack Hughes scoring the golden goal to win.

Gold medals.

Or to win the gold medal for team USA in the 26 winter Olympics in Milan.

Not just one of the most special moments ever by a New Jersey devil.

One of the most special moments in recent American sports history.

A complete where were you when moment that had me in tears.

And it was one of the proudest moments I think I've ever had as a New Jersey Devils fan.

To be able to say like, yeah, that's the star player on the team that I root for that did that.

It was just a completely different experience than anything I've ever had as a sports fan.

That's an easy number one.

No questions asked.

I don't think I need to elaborate much more on that.

The number two favorite moment of the season.

It was the eight game win streak.

I mean, duh.

Remember when we thought the New Jersey Devils were potentially a playoff team at the start of the year.

They had a really bad loss on opening night against the Carolina Hurricanes that I think for sure.

We'll be on this list as in yeah, it will be on this list.

But after that loss in Raleigh.

New Jersey Devils got there.

You know what together.

And they proceeded to win game after game after game.

And it was somebody knew every night that was pitching in one night.

It was Jack one night. It was Niko one night.

It was Arseny Gritziak who we found out over this stretch was in fact the real deal and everything.

We hope he would be.

Sometimes it was Jake Allen.

Sometimes it's just prepared.

Sometimes it was everybody.

Out of the teams that the devils beaten this stretch.

Several of them were in the playoffs now.

Tampa, Edmonton, Minnesota, Colorado.

It's one of the most impressive win streaks in recent New Jersey Devils franchise history.

Caped off with an electrifying 4-3 overtime win at home against the avalanche.

Who we now know are one of the best teams in the league.

I think we knew it back then too.

Was a lot of fun.

And there really was not much of a sense that hey, this team might fall off.

Number three favorite moment of the year.

That's an easy one.

Simone Nemitch's hat trick against the Chicago black ox on national television,

including the game winning goal and overtime.

One of the few moments all season.

That had me like actually screaming at my TV in pure ecstasy.

To see Nemo go bar down on that shot in overtime.

Was that was a religious experience.

I think easily my favorite singular win of the season.

Number four.

Jack uses hat trick against the New York Rangers.

The only time all season that the Rangers went to the prudential center.

And Jack on a Saturday afternoon on national TV.

Goes absolutely nuclear against the team that he owns the most.

Devils put up six against the Rangers.

It was the first time they scored six all season.

It was a blast of a game.

And you thought to yourself maybe for a moment.

This team had a little bit of life still left in the tank.

It did not.

That's number four.

Number five.

And I feel a little bit of guilt including this is one of the more positive moments

because it was someone in fact losing their job.

But it was Tom Fitzgerald getting fired.

I think we were I mean we were all holding out.

I don't want to say hope.

But hope that the Devils would pull the trigger.

I think a lot of us were very anxious.

Worrying that Fitzgerald would be retained after what was obviously a disaster season.

Instead the New Jersey Devils with about a week left in the 25 26 season.

Decide the pull the plug.

And it was very much a we're not firing you but we're firing you kind of thing.

A big sigh of relief I think collectively as we got to realize.

Once that the New Jersey Devils were actually willing to move on.

And take their frontal office in a fresh new direction.

After that it kind of drops off.

What else is really up there because that's that's an easy top five.

But once you get to get past those games.

It's really dicey.

Gotta think.

Oh yeah.

Number six.

One of my favorite wins of the year.

I was there in person.

So the New Jersey Devils defeating the washing capitals on November 15th in a shootout.

This was after Jack went down.

It's the first game without Jack.

And Simone Nemitz scored the shootout winner.

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In what was a game where I think we all kind of left it.

Thinking to ourselves the devils would actually be able to sustain without Jack.

Now we know that is very obviously not the case.

But just for a night.

Just for a night we felt.

That they could pull off what they as we all know now couldn't.

We're going to take a quick break.

And when we return, we'll discuss the back half of my favorites of the year.

And we'll get into.

The worst moments of what was truly a terrible season all in.

Next on locked on devils.

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Favorite moment of the year number seven.

It was beating the Maple Leafs at home, which we hadn't done since 2018.

But the New Jersey Devils finally got off the snide.

Against the Toronto Maple Leafs beating them in a shootout on March 4th.

4 to 3 was a fun game all the way through.

I had a lot of fun with this one.

Number eight.

I guess we can go into the specific win streak games.

This is before we knew that Florida was bad.

The home opener was a lot of fun this year.

Dominating the defending two time Stanley Cup champions was a blast from start to finish great game.

Jack scored one of his bank shot goals.

I was there in person.

I had a lot of fun with this one.

Number nine.

The game that came right after the New Jersey Devils defeating the Edmonton Oilers five three at home on a Saturday.

The Rock is Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center.

Connor Brown scoring a shorthanded goal against his old team.

That was cool.

Jack scoring twice.

That was cool.

And number ten.

New Jersey Devils defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Actually, that's an honorable mention.

Number ten.

The Devils defeating the Penguins two won in a shootout.

Jake Allen standing on his head was a lot of fun to watch.

I think this was a game that feels somewhat memorable.

Despite the fact that the season was so forgettable.

Arsenic Gritziuk scored a beauty of a goal as well.

That's an honorable mention.

The real number ten was trading Andre pull out to the New York Islanders on January 28th.

Finally, that bandaid ripped off by Tom Fitzgerald in his penultimate move.

His New Jersey Devils GM getting rid of his salary in exchange for a pick and forward.

Max Simplkopf, who was fine, perfectly serviceable as a New Jersey devil.

Meanwhile, Palat, who is a disaster of a contract to sign to begin with.

Goes over to the New York Islanders and is promptly a disaster.

And the Isles end up missing the playoffs.

They collapse down the stretch and miss and Andre pull out is still stuck.

On the island next year still making his full six million dollars and the Isles cannot get rid of them.

So that was very easily one of the more fun moments of the year.

Now I think we got to get to the not so fun.

And there was a lot of not so fun.

The number one worst New Jersey Devils moment of the year.

Now there's a lot to choose from.

It was Quinn Hughes being dealt with the Minnesota wild.

Everything kind of felt like it was reaching a rapid crescendo.

Right around the time that it happened.

That whole week there were just rumors stirring you had heard that the Devils were potentially making way or making progress with the Vancouver canucks to try and unite all three.

He used brothers.

You had heard that the Devils were trying to move cap trying to get out of some of their contracts trying to get guys to wave their no movement causes.

As we now know they failed to do that.

And two days before the Vancouver canucks visited the New Jersey Devils and beat the New Jersey Devils.

It was a game that will come back to later on this list.

We got the notification from Elliott Friedman on the night of Friday, December 12th that.

Quinn Hughes had been dealt not to Newark New Jersey, but to St. Paul, Minnesota.

For a package, including defenseman Z. Buium forward Marco Rossi among other pieces.

So both Buium and Rossi were passed on in their respective draft classes by Tom Fitzgerald.

For players that are no longer part of that are either no longer part of the New Jersey Devils organization, the case of Alexander Holtz or still overseas in Russia and very clearly the wrong pick in.

It was the signature Tom Fitzgerald failure every mistake that he had made up until that point, whether it be in some of the contracts he gave out and some of the no movement clauses he gave out.

Some of the draft picks he had made everything had led to that moment.

That was his biggest failure.

I think if he got Quinn Hughes, he'd still have the job, even if the Devils missed the playoffs.

But I also think if the Devils got Quinn Hughes, they wouldn't have missed the playoffs.

I mean, we also found out that there is a deal that would have sent Quinn to Detroit, that Steve Iserman vetoed because Quinn wouldn't sign an extension with the Wild or with the Redwings.

So Fitzgerald didn't even come in second. He was nowhere near acquiring Quinn Hughes in what should have been a layup.

Instead, it was one of the biggest failures by a general manager in New Jersey Devils franchise history.

And in a season that was marked with so many Tom Fitzgerald failures, this one stands out as the biggest.

We'll get through the last nine worst moments of the 25-26 season after this break, which is sponsored by our lovely friends and my very own optometrist, Warby Parker.

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All right.

Number one worst devil's moment of the season missing out on acquiring Queen Hughes number two.

It was the Jacob marks from extension. It was the timing that it came out. It was the.

It was the numbers. It was everything.

It just felt really odd.

That the devils were so eager to extend their goalie who was very clearly not 100% and very clearly.

That it keeping pucks out of the net.

Happen on Halloween night.

Big scare for all of us.

The day after Jacob marks from allowed a career high time keyword is at the time eight goals against the Colorado avalanche in Denver.

I was in San Francisco. I remember I was in a waymo. I was in one of those self driving cabs. I wanted to jump off a window when I got the notifications.

That X marks marks the spot tweet from the devils still haunts me to this day.

That was just a bad, bad moment and the devils are going to have to work pretty hard to get out of the contract.

So we'll see because like I said.

That was one of the worst out that was the worst performance by Jacob marks from in his career at the time.

Our number three moment was the worst performance of Jacob marks from his career.

And since money pucks started tracking goalie sets.

The worst single game performance by any goalie in modern NHL history.

This came in early January at UBS arena on January six.

The New Jersey devils losing nine nothing to the New York Islanders.

Jacob marks from allowing all nine goals on national television.

P.K. Suban was in the broadcast booth. His own jersey was thrown on the ice by a devils fan in Elmont.

And it just it kept on getting worse.

And this is compounded by our number four worst moment of the year, the following practice.

The next day, the New Jersey devils were late to getting out on the ice.

I think we all thought, ooh, someone might be held accountable for this.

Who's going to get fired as a key visit Fitzgerald.

Is it both are they're going to be roster changes? Who knows?

And instead, the devils come out for practice like nothing was wrong.

And it was just a normal loss that had taken place the night prior.

That was such a dark moment because it really hammered home on January six.

The season was cooked and the team wasn't going anywhere like that was it.

You knew it at the time.

I was very comfortable declaring the season over that day turned out to be the right call.

And it's one of the worst losses in franchise history.

And the fact that it's only number that the worst loss in franchise history was only number three on this list.

And the practice after is only number four.

It's crazy, right?

Number five was Tom Fitzgerald's trade deadline slash presser.

The New Jersey devils did nothing at the trade deadline, which in a vacuum,

I did not have a problem with and especially now in hindsight,

knowing that Fitzgerald tried to make several deals that were shot down

due to no movement clauses.

Could he have tried to go out and get Conor Garland,

Braden Shen, another terrible contract, perhaps,

to make the New Jersey devils situation even harder for the person that would replace him.

He certainly tried his damnedest, but instead decides to go out and spew a bunch of BS at his presser,

including the fact that he straight up lied about not trying to trade Dougie Hamilton.

When he benched Dougie Hamilton, our number six worst moment of the season in an attempt to try and get the New Jersey devils best offensive defenseman

to wave his no movement clause.

A terrible moment.

I don't know if you've ever felt in someone who is not perfect,

but committed to New Jersey at a time where the devils were not a very good team

is benched because of performance issues.

I know we're going back and working five and six years performance issues, supposedly.

Tom Fitzgerald at this presser back in January decides to say things such as I don't even look at the standings.

And then two months later straight up lies to the media and the fans by saying he never tried to trade him.

Why'd you bench him?

Are you like that is when it got to the point where it's like not only is this guy not good at his job, but he thinks the fans are dumb.

It was a ridiculous move and a ridiculously incompetent moment by one of the worst GMs in the NHL at the time.

Might be back in the NHL because now they're reporting that he might in fact be getting the Nashville job.

So we shall see how that pans out.

Those were number five and number six, number seven.

We go back to Long Island.

On December 23rd, two days before Christmas.

Jacob March from single handedly gifts the New York Islanders two points in a two one loss that I was in the building for.

First goal for the Isles being like a straight up giveaway to the other team.

And then the second goal just an absolute blueberry muffin that beats Jacob March from with less than a minute to go by Adam Pellick.

Really?

Adam Pellick?

Of all people?

Come on.

And that was the moment where you seriously are like, OK, I think this team is not very good.

The number eight moment worst moment.

January 4th.

Luke Hughes scores on himself twice in the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes and then is promptly booed every time he touches the puck for the remainder of the game.

One of the worst looks the devil's fan base has presented of themselves ever.

It was, I mean, it was a joke of a game to begin with, but also just a joke to be booing one of your own players every time he touches the puck.

Completely classless, completely trashy and just completely not right.

Oh, yeah, the devil's in turned around and lost the next game.

The next game.

Yeah, for mention, next game.

Nine seconds.

So what do you do?

Number nine.

I don't know.

Look, I'm losing count here.

There are so many bad moments.

Dude.

Where do I even begin?

The loss against Ottawa in January 31st where the devil's had the time goal overturned and Jake Allen gave up a really, really bad goal.

The shutout against Columbus.

At home.

Right before the Olympics.

Really the last three games before the Olympic break could just be one moment in themselves.

Because they lost to the aisles again.

On the last game before the break.

Three to one.

They lost late the third period.

Couple other games that really stood out as bad moments.

Losing five three to Columbus on December 1st.

Blowing a two nothing lead on Brandon Dylan's 1000 career game and then Brandon Dylan getting jumped in said game.

That was terrible.

The loss to Philadelphia on November 29th.

When Jacob Markstrom single handedly cost them against the flyers.

The lifeless terrible performance on December 30th in Toronto where the devils were shut out by a.

Basically group of Toronto Marlies.

No Austin Matthews.

No William Neelander.

The devils could not score.

That was really rough.

I know.

Yeah.

I'm totally missing something.

R and I.

Worst moment of the season.

Chicago cut.

Easy.

Jack Hughes almost amputating his pinky finger at a steakhouse dinner in Chicago.

Right after one of the most exhilarating wins of the season.

And completely altering the long term and short term history of the New Jersey Devils franchise.

By doing so.

He would miss the next month and then would not be himself until the Olympics.

But does this.

This moment is such a sliding door moment in Devils history because if Jack doesn't do this.

Devils are probably.

Playoff team.

They're probably first ground exits and does Tom Fitzgerald keep his job.

Who knows.

What kind of trades the devils try and make?

Who knows.

We're going to do a draft preview for our next episode.

Look at some prospects as I haven't really done that yet.

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