2025 is just about over. While every single one of us has very different lives, we all presumably share one thing in common: A love for New Jersey Devils hockey. This team may annoy the bajeebers out of us sometimes, but this is the franchise we’ve chosen to support, and so we ride with the Devils through the good times and bad.
The calendar year of 2025 was an interesting one for New Jersey. It might not have been quite as eventful as some other years, but there was still plenty of intrigue surrounding Jersey’s team. As such, I felt it might be fun to count down the top 10 stories of 2025 involving the New Jersey Devils. Keep in mind, there is absolutely no scientific method here. This list is based purely on my own personal “eye test”, with factors such as on-ice impact, influence on the franchise, and amount of attention and speculation dedicated to it taken into account. I am sure you will disagree with either the ranking of some storylines, or the inclusion/omission of others.
With all that out of the way, let’s take a look at what I consider to be the top 10 New Jersey Devils stories of 2025.
10. Resolution of the Hockey Canada Case
Back in July, the trial involving members of the 2018 Hockey Canada World Junior Championship Team reached it’s conclusion, with former Devils Michael McLeod and Cal Foote acquitted of the sexual assault charges they were facing. This does not necessarily mean they didn’t do what they were accused of, just that the judge overseeing the trial decided that there was not enough evidence to produce a guilty verdict. As a result of their acquittal, many wondered if the Devils would try to reunite with McLeod (not so much Foote). The answer we got was a pretty resounding no, as McLeod continues to receive seemingly no attention from New Jersey to this day.
9. A Return To The Playoffs
In Sheldon Keefe’s first year at the helm, he guided the Devils back to the postseason. Their stay in the second season didn’t last long, as they suffered a gentleman’s sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes. That, along with the fact that the regular season was an absolute slog after the Christmas break, made for as frustrating a playoff campaign as one could ask for. Still, a season after missing the playoffs altogether, it was nice to see New Jersey get back to the tournament, even if poor offense and injuries conspired to make their run a short one. The Devils will now look to make the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time since 2008-09 and 2009-10.
8. The Year Of The No-Move Clause
As a result of the roster’s anemic offense, general manager Tom Fitzgerald has been trying desperately to inject some offensive talent into the lineup via the trade market. At least that’s what his allies in the media are telling us; who knows if that’s actually true. But standing in his way is the fact that Fitzgerald is completely handcuffed by all the no-move clauses he’s given out over the years. It has gotten to the point where Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com wrote about how Fitzgerald and the Devils have given out the most NMC’s in the league. The two biggest names that have been rumored to be on the trade block are Dougie Hamilton and Ondrej Palat. The problem is, both have extensive no-move protection, so trading them is close to impossible. I won’t go down the list of players who have some form of no-move clause on the roster, because it would be quicker to name the players who don’t. But just know that Fitzgerald’s bizarre obsession with handing out NMC’s put this organization in a serious bind in 2025.
7. The Development of Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec
Luke Hughes’ and Simon Nemec’s development have been a major story for this team in 2025. Hughes hasn’t made the leap New Jersey was counting on yet (spoiler alert: more on that later), but he’s certainly been better than what we’ve seen out of Nemec this calendar year. Nemec struggled mightily all regular season last year, including the 2025 portion of the season. But he turned it on big time in the playoffs against Carolina, and we all hoped that what we saw was the real Nemec and that his poor regular season was just the result of a preseason injury he never recovered from, plus the growing pains of learning a new system. Then in the 2025 part of the 25-26 campaign, Nemec continued to absolutely flounder defensively, raising serious concerns about his long-term ceiling. His offense has been decent at least, and in fact his point totals are excellent thanks to riding a shooting percentage binge. But he’s still not anywhere close to what the Devils were surely hoping he’d be at this point. Like Hughes, there’s still time for Nemec to develop into a quality defensemen. But Tom Fitzgerald, Sheldon Keefe, and the rest of the organization surely have to be concerned with the development (or lack thereof) they’ve seen from Hughes and Nemec in 2025.
6. The Quinn Hughes Sweepstakes
It seems odd that the long-term future of a player on another team would be a major storyline, but Quinn Hughes is no ordinary player. The older brother of the Devils’ Jack and Luke, Quinn was rumored to be unhappy with Vancouver Canucks management in recent times. This, coupled with Canucks executive Jim Rutherford’s shockingly blunt comments about Quinn’s desire to play with his brothers over the summer, led many to believe a trade to New Jersey was inevitable. We know what happened from there. Quinn was traded to the Minnesota Wild, disappointing Jack, Luke, and Devils fans everywhere. The Quinn Hughes saga reached one inflection point in 2025, but there will surely be at least one more to come in the year ahead.
5. Luke Hughes’ Long Term Future
It was a long, long staring contest. But in the end, Tom Fitzgerald got Luke Hughes’ signature on a long-term contract. Seven years to be exact, which means a huge piece of the Devils’ rising core is locked up long term. If we’re being honest, it’s been a disappointing year for Hughes on the ice. Once Brett Pesce went down, he struggled mightily, and he hasn’t taken the developmental leap the Devils were hoping he’d take. Heck, forget hoping, they were sort of banking on him taking the next step and becoming a true number-one defenseman. Nevertheless, Hughes’ development is not over, and at the very least, New Jersey has certainty with a player they hope is the future leader of their blueline (assuming Hughes’ older brother doesn’t join the party himself).
4. Injuries, Injuries, Injuries
I won’t run down a comprehensive list of all the serious injuries New Jersey has faced over the last calendar year. That list would be WAY too long, and besides, you all know the story by now. The hilarious number of injuries has no doubt been one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Devils in 2025. Star players, depth players, goalies…nobody has been safe from the injury bug this year. And while the league as a whole is experiencing a bit of an injury uptick this season, the Devils are still one of the unluckiest squads in the NHL when it comes to this stuff. We can only hope for better health for this team in 2026.
3. The Nonexistent Offense
In the 2025 part of the 24-25 regular season, New Jersey scuffled thanks in large part to a bottom six that just could not generate any semblance of offense. Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar, Nate Bastian, Justin Dowling, Curtis Lazar…all depth contributors that did not, well, contribute in 2025, and each one of them was jettisoned in the summer. In their place came players such as Cody Glass, Connor Brown, Evgenii Dadonov, Arseni Gritsyuk, and Luke Glendening. This group has been better, but still not good enough. Couple that with a top six that has gone through their fare share of scoring woes, and you have an offense that rates in the lower half of the league this season, as well as an offense that has posted the fewest 5-on-5 goals in the NHL since last Christmas. We can point to many issues surrounding this team, but the anemic offense has to be at or near the top of the list.
2. Jack Hughes’ Injuries
We mentioned general injuries already, but this one deserves special mention. Another year, another significant injury for Jack Hughes. Actually scratch that; significant injuries, plural, for Jack Hughes. In March, Jack Eichel sent Hughes careening into the end boards shoulder-first, ending Hughes’ season in devastating fashion. Upon returning at the start of the 2025-26 regular season, Hughes was off to a fine start, before he suffered a freak injury at a Chicago steakhouse that cost him roughly another month of action. I feel so bad for this guy, he just cannot stay healthy. I’ve resisted calling Hughes injury prone, and to be fair these two injuries (the Chicago incident especially) are not wounds that occur because a player is injury prone. Could Hughes have survived the Eichel debacle with his shoulder intact if he has some more muscle on him? Maybe. But maybe not. All that said, while I’ve resisted labelling Hughes as injury prone, the fact remains that Hughes has suffered significant injuries in four of the last five seasons. And 2025 was no different. It goes without saying, but the Devils need Hughes to overcome his injury struggles and become a durable player as he reaches his prime.
1. Tom Fitzgerald’s Job Security And Future With The Devils
And finally, the job security and long term future of general manager Tom Fitzgerald is, in my opinion, the biggest storyline of 2025. It’s something that affects every aspect of the organization and just about all the stories we’ve talked about today. The ridiculous amount of no-move clauses, the lack of development from the Devils’ young defensemen, Luke Hughes’ long-term contract, missing out on Quinn Hughes, the pathetic offense…it all comes back to Tom Fitzgerald and the job he’s done. Reports are that he’s safe at the moment, but I honestly believe he would be more likely than not to be fired if New Jersey misses the postseason this year. And if that happens, an entire organizational upheaval could take place. Granted, you could argue this would be a bigger story in 2026, but even if Fitzgerald’s job security wasn’t a big factor earlier in the year, the heat around him in the latter half of 2025 has gotten so great that it has had a significant impact on everything this franchise does and how this franchise is perceived. Tom Fitzgerald either remaining as general manager or getting his pink slip is the top Devils story of 2025 in my eyes, primarily for how impactful either scenario will be.
Happy New Year
And there you have it. As mentioned, I seriously doubt any of you will be pleased with all of this list. But that’s part of the fun of this whole exercise, debating what belongs and what doesn’t, and I encourage all of you to give us your top stories in the comments section.
We’ve reached the end of another year, which is usually a good time to reflect on the year that was. As I think back on 2025, I think of the highs and lows this team has provided me. I think of what could have gone differently. But most of all (and I apologize for getting all sappy), I think of how grateful I am to be a part of this community. I’ve been writing for this site since the beginning of the 2023-24 season, so I’m finishing up my third calendar year as a contributor. And I was a reader long, long before that. Despite how frustrating hockey can be sometimes, All About The Jersey remains a place I always love coming back to, whether to read a story, write a story, or peruse the comments sections to see what everyone else thinks about any given Devils topic. Thank you all for making this a wonderful space to share a love for New Jersey Devils hockey.
I hope you had a great 2025. Here’s to an equally great 2026. Let’s go Devils.