Admittedly with an 82-game regular season on the docket and an anticipated playoff run after, preseason games interest me even less this year than they have in the previous several seasons. Don’t get me wrong, I would have probably gone to and/or watched a couple of the home ones if I’d been around for any of them – but I wasn’t and there’s nothing more meh than a road preseason game on TV or online stream. Pretty much the only things you want out of preseason as a fan of a team on the verge of Cup contending is health and evidence the team’s ready for the season anyway.

Mission accomplished on both fronts, we seem to have escaped preseason unscathed on the injury front and the Devils certainly look like an organization on a mission. It isn’t even the case that the Devils overplayed their regulars against everyone else’s second-teamers, exhibit A being their last preseason game at Elmont against the Islanders where basically Akira Schmid in front of our Utica team rolled their regulars 3-0 to clinch a spotless preseason.

Make no mistake though, our regulars came to play – none of them seem like they have to play their way into shape this year. Post-contract Jesper Bratt looks motivated to prove he’s worthy of the long-term deal he just signed, pacing the team with five goals and nine points in four preseason games. Just behind him is of course, Jack Hughes who had eight points in his four preseason games and coach Lindy Ruff sounded an ominious (for the rest of the league) note when asked about Hughes picking up where he left off:

Speaking of the coach, we finally got an answer as to his contract status…and the answer is basically status quo. No long-term extension for Lindy (yet), but he’s still here thanks to a team option that Devils management successfully kept quiet when all the speculation about the coach’s status was swirling. Lou Lamoriello would be proud of that kind of secrecy. Maybe it’s just as well it was kept quiet since if things had gone south last year, they could have brushed Lindy aside in the offseason without calling it a firing publicly. I don’t understand why we had to wait until September this offseason to hear about it, but that’s hockey culture I suppose.

Answering questions is usually the big concern – this side of staying healthy – for contending teams in the preseason, and for the Devils our biggest questions were (and are) surrounding two of our youngest players – one, how close is Simon Nemec to contributing and two, will the light come on for Alexander Holtz? So far it seems like the answers are pretty close…and maybe?

Nemec had two goals and four points in four games, by all accounts being pretty solid defensively. If it wasn’t for the presence of vets Colin Miller and Brendan Smith, I’d argue Nemec should be on the Opening Night roster but maybe he’ll just be this year’s Luke Hughes and come up late in the season to provide a spark after he’s fully ready. Holtz also had two goals in his four games but after early-camp talk about his improved skating came later-camp concerns about his off-puck play. With the coach again on a one-year deal, and the team now ready to win I’m not sure there’ll be a lot of patience with the 21-year old in what can only be described as a pivotal season for his future here.

I’m not sure how many real roster questions there are before tomorrow’s 5 PM deadline to have a 23-man roster for Thursday’s season opener against Detroit. Barring a last-minute move or injury disclosure, if we had a full 23-man roster I’d confidently be able to name 22 at least:

Forwards: J. Hughes, Hischier, Bratt, Meier, Toffoli, Mercer, Haula, Palat, Holtz, Bastian, McLeod, Nosek, Lazar

Defense: Hamilton, Siegenthaler, L. Hughes, Marino, Bahl, Miller, Smith

Goalies: Vanecek, Schmid

Seemingly none of the younger forwards like Nolan Foote (who I expected more from after GM Tom Fitzgerald talked him up at the end of last season) or Tyce Thompson really did enough to crack a veteran-laden roster, one might be here early to be the 14th forward and avoid waivers. But when your biggest question is fourteenth forward then things are seemingly looking up.