The New Jersey Devils had an 8-game winning streak early in the 2025-26 season. Then, it looked like they might cruise to a Metropolitan Division title and go into the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a legitimate contender. Instead, Jack Hughes cut his hand while out to team dinner in Chicago, people started to underperform, and they were out of the playoffs well before the Olympic break. Jack Hughes scoring the Golden Goal in Milano Cortina sparked him to another level, which was important to see, but the team didn't win enough to truly get back into the playoff mix. Every time they started to flirt with being close to that line, they faltered. Sunny Mehta has some work to do. The depth on the team is simply not good enough. They lack bottom-six scoring, defensive consistency, and goaltending was weak. With all of that said, the stars on the team must be better. What makes you a star in New Jersey's case? Well, you can start with the guys that make a lot of money. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes, and Dougie Hamilton fall into that category more than anyone else as far as skaters go. Although Jack Hughes lit the world on fire from the time the Olympics ended and the the NHL season finale, he must avoid any injuries if the team wants to win. His cut was a freak accident, but that can't happen either. It's hard to play all 82 games, very few do, but missing weeks at a time can't be the case going forward, especially for a non-hockey injury. The rest of the stars, especially the forwards, need more offensively. Meier, Hischier, and Bratt were by no means bad in 2025-26, but they weren't the leaders that the team needed them to be. Hischier sacrifices offense for defense sometimes, and that's never going to change, but they still need more out of him. Even in a "down year", he came in 9th for the Selke Trophy. Still, he needs to be closer to winning the trophy for the Devils to truly be an elite team. It's a big year ahead for Luke Hughes. He won't have the "miss part of training camp" excuse this time. He must continue to put up points while playing significantly better in his own end. Again, it's not only about the stars. They are just part of the issue, not the complete issue. They are all highly skilled players, but they have to find a way to come back together and play well at the same time, as they did in 2022-23. The coach is also a question mark, as the star players (except Jack Hughes, when healthy) have seemingly taken a step back in Sheldon Keefe's second year. Sunny Mehta doesn't want to see this core become the "they have talent, but they don't win" group. He must make moves to supplement them, even if that means making a change to the core at some point. Image [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/3f3eae3d-e1fb-44c6-a8cd-1bcc8b77bef8.jpeg] Visit The Hockey News New Jersey Devils [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-jersey-devils]team site to stay up to date on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more. For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free [https://thehockeynews.store/products/print-subscription]. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting on the article below on THN.com or by creating your own post in our community forum.
