Only one NHL team went undefeated in the 2023 preseason

The New Jersey Devils are one of the best teams in the NHL on paper. They had the third most points in the league last year and still have one of the five best prospect farms in the league. They are set up to be very good for a long time.

They are also the only NHL team to go undefeated. They are only the 5th team in the post-lockout era to ever do that which is pretty cool. They capped it off with a big win over the New York Islanders on Friday night to make it 7-0.

The cool thing about that win on Friday is that only a handful of their regulars were in the lineup. It was mostly a lineup of prospects or veterans trying to get those last few spots on the real roster. Meanwhile, the New York Islanders had their full NHL lineup and couldn’t beat this junior varsity Devils squad.

Preseason means nothing in the grand scheme of things but this year it is showing that the New Jersey Devils are ready to go. They won’t win their first seven games but they should win most of them.

The New Jersey Devils are ready for a big regular season in 2023-24.

Guys like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dougie Hamilton, Timo Meier, and Jesper Bratt amongst others are expected to lead the way. Other good veterans like Tyler Toffoli, John Marino, and Erik Haula are expected to be great as well. The good news is that they all were big reasons for this team’s dominant preseason performance.

We know that the top guys are going to translate that game to the regular season when it begins next week. The bidding for jobs through these final few games of the preseason is what could make or break them as Cup contenders early in the season. They will make the right decisions.

There are some young players trying to take over some of these roles in the long term. Kids like Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, and Kevin Bahl amongst others are expected to make the jump this year. If they can play the way that they have here when the games count, this team could be unstoppable.

This is the most exciting entrance into a New Jersey Devils season there has ever been and this preseason made it even more fun. Hopefully, they can recreate some of that magic when it starts to begin for real. It’s not time to plan the parade yet but they should be very happy with how they’ve played so far.