On Wednesday, New Jersey Devils veterans will make their way to Prudential Center for their medicals to officially kick off the 2025-26 season.
It won't be until the following day that we will get our first glimpse of the line combinations and defensive pairs as the organization will hold on-ice sessions at RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House.
Many outlets are expecting the following forward lines to start training camp.
Ondrej Palat - Jack Hughes - Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier - Nico Hischier - Stefan Noesen
Arseniy Gritsyuk - Dawson Mercer - Connor Brown
Paul Cotter - Cody Glass - Evgenii Dadonov
With three new additions to this group, including Brown, Dadonov, and Gritsyuk, head coach Sheldon Keefe will use the next few weeks to experiment and determine which trios will be the most effective.
After all, that comes with the territory of being a head coach.
"That's part of it," Keefe recently told The Hockey News. "That is the feel of the coach, and you usually make those decisions by evaluating on a daily basis and being in communication with the players. Sometimes, there are factors outside of one particular line or a couple of different lines that might impact having to make a change.
"Ultimately, you are trying to build a team," he continued. "You're not trying to just necessarily build a line. You are trying to build four lines and six defense that can coexist well over the course of 60 minutes."
Back in January, Keefe shared that when he reaches a point where he needs to shuffle his lines, he prefers to keep pairs together.
A few weeks ago, he provided additional insight into his thought process when changes occur.
"Sometimes you just have a feeling this is not going to work," Keefe shared. "Whether it is some conflicts in terms of how the skill sets mesh together, or even personalities, energy, and all these kinds of things. You are managing that part in terms of coaching a team vs. an individual."
Soon, we will see if the outlets are correct with the above lineup or if Keefe has something else up his sleeve.
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