With baseball season long since over for both local teams, and football season in early peril after a pyrrhic win for the Jets and embarrassing no-show by the Giants on national TV, hockey fans are more than ready for that sport to come out of hibernation – especially with anticipation high for the local teams. Of course, I’m not here to talk about the Rangers (who are more than adequately covered by Derek) or the Islanders – who narrowly missed the playoffs made the playoffs, going out in the first round last year but as we all know Lou Lamoriello will never stop pushing the envelope in trying to win-now. For the first time since at least the early 2010’s, the Devils are the team in town with the most expectations.

In many ways, how the Devils handle the new role of being the hunted is probably one of the biggest question marks surrounding this year’s team, after another seemingly immaculate offseason by GM Tom Fitzgerald in assembling this team not only for next year but seasons to come. To recap, he inked both key forwards Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier to eight-year extensions this offseason as well as re-signing UFA Erik Haula to a three-year deal. For good measure he also added goal-scoring winger Tyler Toffoli in trade just before the draft. Our only losses of any note up front were Tomas Tatar (just recently signed a one-year deal in Colorado) and Miles Wood, who signed even longer-term in Colorado – six years! – but both should be more than adequately replaced by the addition of Toffoli and UFA signing Tomas Nosek on a one-year deal.

After an offseason of rumors swirling around possible trades for the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck and others, the Devils still seem content with rolling into camp with the tandem of Vitek Vanecek and young Akira Schmid, who still may well be technically eligible for Calder consideration having only played 24 NHL games over his first two seasons. Coach Lindy Ruff is also set to return although there’s been no official confirmation on the terms of his anticipated extension this offseason, you would think something would have broken by now if there was a problem on coming to terms. At least we know Devils social media has lost none of their sense of humor this offseason, light-heartedly trolling the coach (an avowed Buffalo Bills fan) after the Jets’ surprising Monday Night Football win.

On defense, there will necessarily be a couple of significant changes after UFA defensemen Damon Severson (eight years with the Blue Jackets) and Ryan Graves (six years with the Penguins) both signed long-term deals with other organizations. Short-term the Devils traded for Colin Miller this offseason to add depth, but long-term Luke Hughes and 2022 #2 overall pick Simon Nemec will be expected to step in to the lineup sooner rather than later. Especially in the case of Luke, who already showed his chops by playing big minutes in the Devils’ playoff series with Carolina over the spring. Nemec probably isn’t too far off from cracking the lineup himself after a successful first pro season in Utica last year, but he’ll likely have to impress even more to win a starting job straight out of camp this year.

You can catch Nemec and other Devils prospects in the prospects challenge at Buffalo on live streams, with the first one against the Senators’ prospect team at noon today.

Even with an off day I might not watch until later, but it is the first taste of live hockey since May 11 (a little more than four months ago) when the Devils lost Game 5 to Carolina in the playoffs. Still, it’s a marker of how much things have changed just one offseason after talking about whether another Devils team that finished below 70 points the year before could somehow get to 90 and be in the playoff hunt. There’s definitely a different mindset when you’re trying to prove yourself and after you’re now expected to win. However, Fitz has done all he could to buffer the transition by bringing in vets over the last few offseasons to complement the young core, and keeping an experienced coach – even after some of us thought Lindy’s time was about to be up early last season coming off of two straight seventh-place finishes.

Our proper season opener is still a month away (at home against Detroit on October 12), and with so few questions in the lineup – the biggest of which might be whether the light finally clicks on for recent first-rounder Alexander Holtz or not in a pivotal camp for the former first-rounder – admittedly preseason probably will be even less watchable than normal. That won’t dull the anticipation any when it finally arrives though. In the span of one calendar year, we’ve gone from a fanbase with little hope to one now looking forward to hopefully being in contention for the next several years and I honestly can’t remember the last time I was anticipating a season this much.

After our Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2012, we lost captain Zach Parise in free agency then had to wait through another lockout. After our unexpected playoff appearance in 2018, we did little in the offseason and reality hit hard quickly after a 4-0 start. To be fair I do think there was a certain amount of anticipation in 2019 after an offseason where they traded for P.K. Subban and acquired a few other players, but with Taylor Hall’s contract situation looming there was always that black cloud there that things could unravel quickly if we got off to a slow start, and they did. Fortunately, the return from the Hall trade shortly before then-GM Ray Shero was dismissed became one of the factors in Fitz being able to turn things around as well as he has. With the foundation in place, now’s the time to take the next step this year.