The New Jersey Devils‘ preseason schedule was just released. They are slated to match up against the New York Islanders (9/22, 9/27) and New York Rangers (9/30, 10/1) twice, as well as the Montreal Canadiens (9/24), Washington Capitals (9/25) and Philadelphia Flyers (10/3) once.
Immediately, the Flyers game caught my attention. Why? Well, that’s because their 7:00 PM ET start time on Oct. 3 is just 18 hours before the Devils open their regular season in Czechia.
When I tweeted it out, my mentions quickly became flooded with fans claiming the NHL was ‘unfair’. Many wondered how travel would even be possible. I would like to clear up any confusion.
No Impact on Devils
It’s (obviously) unfeasible for any Devils players to hop on a ~10-hour flight immediately after playing, get virtually no sleep, and then play the tail end of a back-to-back in a different continent. But that won’t happen.
It’s near-certain that everyone who should make the opening night roster will already be in Czechia when the puck drops in Philly. Per NHL rules, a team is only required to dress eight “veterans” for a preseason game, meaning mostly American Hockey League-rostered players will participate.
The common misconception lies in what “veteran” actually means. It doesn’t have to be anybody poised to make the final roster. A veteran is defined as the following:
- A skater who played 30-plus NHL games the previous season
- Goalies who played in 30-plus NHL games the previous season (or dressed in 50-plus)
- Any player who has played 100-plus NHL games
- Current year first-round pick
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As they have in previous seasons, it’s very likely that the Devils will sign a handful of players with 100-plus NHL games of experience to professional try-out agreements. Assuming they don’t trade their draft pick, that player can count as a “veteran” too. It’s unlikely they’ll draft someone at 10 who is making an NHL roster a couple months later.
In last year’s preseason matchup against the Islanders, the Devils were able to recall a plethora of players from the AHL to meet their roster requirements. I’d expect they do the same here. Furthermore, the NHL can (and likely will) issue an exemption if the Devils still can’t meet the requirement of eight.
Most recently, the NHL offered an exemption to Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright at the end of last preseason, allowing him to be assigned to the AHL since he missed the cutoff by a few days. The NHL could similarly bend the rules a bit for players like Akira Schmid, Max Willman, Santeri Hatakka, Shane Bowers, Samuel Laberge and/or Nico Daws, who played in the NHL last season but didn’t meet the “games played” requirement. They could count as “veterans” for that game in Philly if they don’t make the NHL roster and travel to Czechia. There is no possible way, in any universe, that the NHL will let a preseason game impact their highly anticipated Global Series in Czechia.
Preseason could be tricky with scheduling because teams typically only play against opponents in their geographical region. There’s always going to be oddities with scheduling – for example, the Flyers have seven preseason contests while the Flyers have six. With such a small time period to get players back to game action, the preseason will never be perfect.
Rest assured, the Devils will be just fine and won’t be impacted by this scheduled contest. Their preseason opener is now just 97 days away, when they take on the Islanders on Sept. 22, 2024, at the Prudential Center. And while we’re at it, remember: preseason results should always be taken with a grain of salt. The Devils had a perfect 7-0-0 record last preseason but finished under NHL-.500 in the regular season.
