Good morning, Devils fans. With training camp just around the corner and the deadline for the Devils to have signed their unsigned college graduates to NHL Entry-Level Contracts just about passed, it is time for this year’s iteration of the Top 25 Under 25.
If you would like to make your voice heard for the annual community vote, which gets counted along with the writer votes, read carefully! Then, please feel free to participate in the poll.
The Requirements
As always, eligibility for the AATJ Top 25 Under 25 is rather simple: if the player is a member of the New Jersey Devils organization, whether signed to a contract or on their reserve list, they can be ranked as long as their birthdate is after September 15, 2001. If someone turns 25 on September 16, 2026, they would still be eligible for the list. In total, the New Jersey Devils have 39 players in the NHL organization under the age of 25, which is down from 39 in 2025.
The Additions
The New Jersey Devils have 10 new under-25 players in the organization. The most notable of those 10 is first-round pick Alexander Command, though it is possible that Amadeus Lombardi, who was picked up in a pre-draft trade, ends up in the NHL this season. Aside from Lombardi, the Devils also picked up Etienne Morin in the Simon Nemec trade and Ben Steeves in the Jacob Markstrom trade.
The Departures
The Summer of Sunny has led to some extra departures from the list, though six out of the 12 who are off the Top 25 are simple age-outs. Gone are the years of Jack Hughes leading the way: there will be a new number one in the lead-up to this season.
Aside from Nemec, who was traded away before the NHL Draft in June, the current news is the lack of contracts for Samu Salminen and Charlie Leddy. Unless they sign ELCs today, they will be free to sign with any NHL team. Prior to former General Manager Tom Fitzgerald’s firing, he and Dan MacKinnon did sign Charlie Leddy to an AHL contract with Utica, but this does not preclude him from leaving the organization through an ELC with another team. As for Salminen, the Devils are not even partially connected to him after today. He will no longer be their reserve, and he will not be appearing for Utica this season. Salminen once reached a high of being ranked 18th in 2023 before falling to 25 in 2024 and then back up a bit to 22nd in 2025.
Leddy, of course, may be more likely to rejoin the organization fully at some point. There is some precedent for players joining the Top 25 list after being with Utica on AHL deals, such as Xavier Parent, who was with Utica and Adirondack for a couple of years as an undrafted free agent before signing an ELC prior to last season. As such, 2025 was the only year Parent was on the Top 25 Under 25 list. On the other hand, Braden Birch is under no obligation to hand a Utica roster spot to Leddy. It is certainly possible that Leddy ends up in the ECHL at points this season. As James wrote earlier in the week when he went over potential pairings for Utica, Leddy has a lot of people to overcome there. (And if you want to review possible Utica forward lines in preparation for this list, James wrote about that as well.)
Last Year’s Results
The full history of the Top 25 Under 25 can be accessed here. The largest drop last season was Tyler Brennan, who went from 27th to the last-place 41st, which makes sense considering he is now off the list entirely. For that matter, the second-to-last ranked player last year, Viktor Hurtig, is also no longer on the list. But Brennan just beat Josh Filmon among droppers last year, as Filmon went from 14th to 27th. The biggest riser last year was Cole Brown, who went from 39th to 23rd. Close behind Brown in terms of spots risen was Mikhail Yegorov, who made a big jump into the top 10, going from 22nd to 7th. Other risers from last year include Chase Cheslock and Matyas Melovsky, who both rose 13 spots to the middle of the pack.
The Survey
The survey, like last year, is hosted on polling.com: you can access it here. Please be careful on the ranking system, as all of the players in the list are already there in alphabetical order by last name. You can see them below in spreadsheet form.
You can familiarize yourself with the list if need be before ranking them on the poll. If you want to play it safe, you can refer to this list and order them in a document or spreadsheet. Then, when you feel like you have your order right, go into the polling.com survey and use the drag tools to order everything there. Remember: the poll will limit your responses, so double-check your list before submitting. And, if you want to share your full list as the results posts come out, save the list in your document or spreadsheet for later use. If you have a problem with the poll, please email me at chrisf.allaboutthejersey@gmail.com.
The survey will expire on August 25 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.
Thank you all to those who participate!