New Jersey Devils Bid Farewell to Sergei Brylin as the Three-Goalie Question Simmers

The New Jersey Devils spent the week saying goodbye to one of the last living links to their championship past. Sergei Brylin — three Stanley Cup rings as a player, more than a decade behind the bench in the organization — was officially named head coach of Dinamo Minsk in the KHL, a move the club acknowledged on July 18 and the KHL confirmed two days later. It was the emotional headline in an otherwise quiet stretch of New Jersey Devils news, one that also featured Jake Allen saying the quiet part out loud about the team's three-goalie roster and two prospects earning World Junior Summer Showcase assignments. Underneath it all sits the bigger picture: Sunny Mehta's first summer as general manager is essentially complete, and the roster he'll take into training camp is largely set.

Brylin Takes His Rings to Minsk

Brylin's departure closes a remarkable run. He won Cups with New Jersey in 1995, 2000 and 2003, and after retiring he simply never left, spending more than ten years coaching in the organization at the AHL and NHL levels. Now he gets his first head-coaching job in the KHL, one of the top leagues outside North America. The Devils congratulated him publicly, and the parting reads amicable: a respected developer of players who ran out of rungs to climb in New Jersey once Sheldon Keefe's staff for 2026-27 took its final shape earlier in July. For a franchise that leans hard on its heritage, losing Brylin stings a little even when everyone understands why.

Jake Allen and the Three-Goalie Question

The most candid quote of the week came from the crease. Appearing on Daily Faceoff Live, Allen addressed the reality that New Jersey will carry three NHL goaltenders — himself, Nico Daws and David Rittich — after trading Jacob Markstrom to Florida on June 30. "Everyone needs three good goalies... you got to have three good goalies nowadays," Allen said, before admitting his own experience in a Montreal trio wasn't pleasant: "Personally, I didn't really like it. Just because you feel on the outs." His prescription was "a clear line of communication."

Allen is the presumptive starter, and the depth chart behind him was built cheaply: Daws re-upped for two years at a $1.1 million average, and Rittich signed for one year at $1 million. But three goalies for two nets is a camp battle with feelings attached, and Allen just told everyone as much. How Keefe manages the split — and whether one of the three is eventually moved — is the position battle to watch in September.

Sunny Mehta's First Summer, in Full

Context matters here, because the week's calm follows a genuinely chaotic few months. New Jersey went 42-37-3 for 87 points last season, seventh in the Metropolitan Division, and missed the playoffs — a fate sealed in early April. Jack Hughes led the team with 77 points despite missing roughly eight weeks after finger surgery — the result, improbably, of a freak accident at a team dinner in November — and captain Nico Hischier paced the goal scoring with 28 while finishing ninth in Selke voting. Tom Fitzgerald was fired as GM on April 6; Mehta, hired away from Florida ten days later, has been busy since:

• Simon Nemec traded to Calgary with Maxim Tsyplakov for two conditional first-round picks, the No. 35 pick in June's draft and prospect Etienne Morin
• Markstrom dealt to Florida in a five-player deal returning Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Ben Steeves
• Hischier extended on July 1 for five years and $58.5 million — an $11.7 million cap hit beginning in 2027-28
• Anthony Mantha signed for two years at $4.75 million per season, the biggest outside addition
• A Barrett Hayton offer sheet at one year and $4.775 million, which Utah matched on July 8

The Hischier deal is the anchor. "I want to be a New Jersey Devil. I want to turn the ship around and I don't want to leave," the captain said, and Mehta called him "one of the core pieces that I definitely wanted as part of our future." The Hayton gambit failed — Utah simply matched, keeping New Jersey's 2027 second-round pick out of play as compensation — but it signaled a front office willing to be aggressive in ways its predecessor rarely was. The Nemec return, meanwhile, aged quickly: Calgary handed the young defenseman a five-year, $36.25 million contract within days of the trade, a reminder of exactly what New Jersey decided it could not afford to pay on a blue line already carrying two $9 million cap hits.

The Devils' Cap Picture

All that activity leaves little room to maneuver. Against a $104 million ceiling for 2026-27, PuckPedia projects the Devils at roughly $100 million committed with a full 23-man roster — about $4 million of space. Luke Hughes and Dougie Hamilton each count $9 million, Timo Meier $8.8 million, Jack Hughes $8 million and Jesper Bratt $7.875 million, with Hischier at $7.25 million for one more season before his new number kicks in. That structure explains the summer's bargain hunting on the edges: Arseny Gritsyuk re-signed at a $3.25 million average, while depth pieces like Riley Tufte and Vladislav Kolyachonok came in at $850,000. Paul Cotter, squeezed out, signed a one-year deal in Vancouver. With no Devils in arbitration this summer, the books are effectively closed.

Devils Prospects on the Summer Stage

The pipeline gets its showcase this week. The World Junior Summer Showcase runs July 28 through August 1 in Windsor, Ontario, and per the NHL's roster announcement, first-round pick Alexander Command — taken No. 12 overall in June — will skate for Sweden while Conrad Fondrk suits up for USA White. It's the first meaningful look at Command against top international peers since draft weekend, and the first checkpoint on the road to the 2027 World Juniors. Development camp already came and went in late June in Newark, so Windsor is the only prospect action on the calendar until rookie games against the Islanders on September 13 and 15. In Utica, meanwhile, the Comets open their home schedule October 10 under second-year head coach Ryan Parent.

What's Next for the New Jersey Devils

The schedule, released July 16, brings the NHL's new 84-game format and opens Thursday, October 1 against Philadelphia at Prudential Center. There are 13 back-to-back sets, down from 15 a year ago, and one monster to circle: a seven-game road trip from January 28 in Edmonton through February 18 in Florida, wrapped around the All-Star break at UBS Arena. The regular season ends April 10. Before any of that, rookies report September 11 and veterans September 16. The preseason is a four-game local affair: the Islanders visit Newark September 20, the Rangers follow on September 21, then return legs at Madison Square Garden on September 24 and UBS Arena on September 26. No Devils filed for arbitration this summer, so there are no hearings to sweat and no surprise cap charges coming.

That makes this a summer of settled questions and one unsettled net. The Devils enter August with their captain locked up well into the next decade, a reshaped blue-line ledger, and a goalie room that will sort itself out the hard way. Quiet weeks like this one are what a finished plan looks like — and by October, we'll find out whether Mehta's first round of New Jersey Devils roster surgery actually moves this team back into the playoff bracket.