From a franchise that once got dismissed on national television as a Mickey Mouse operation to three Stanley Cup banners hanging in Newark, here is the definitive countdown of the goals, hits, and hires that shaped the Devils into what they are today.
The 20 Moments That Built New Jersey Devils History
Few NHL franchises have traveled as strange a path as the New Jersey Devils. Born out of two failed relocations, dismissed early on as an afterthought, the team spent the 1980s and 1990s quietly assembling the culture, the personnel, and eventually the championship pedigree that turned them into one of hockey’s model organizations. Ranking the moments that got them there means weighing overtime heroics against front office decisions, and legendary hits against the individual records that stood for decades. Here is where they land.
The Double Overtime Cup Winner
Down 3 to 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals just weeks earlier, the Devils had already survived one seven game gauntlet before running into a Dallas Stars team that pushed Game 6 of the Finals into a second overtime. Jason Arnott had spent much of the first overtime in the penalty box, fearing he might become the goat of the series rather than its hero. Instead, with Scott Stevens holding the puck in at the point and Patrik Elias digging it out along the boards, Elias threaded a pass across the crease that Arnott buried past Ed Belfour 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the second extra session. The goal delivered New Jersey’s second Stanley Cup in six years and remains, by any fan vote or franchise retrospective, the single most iconic moment the organization has ever produced.
The First Stanley Cup Championship
Nobody outside New Jersey gave the Devils a chance against a Detroit Red Wings team that had steamrolled the Western Conference. New Jersey swept the series in four games behind a suffocating neutral zone trap defense that frustrated Detroit’s high powered offense at every turn and, in the process, permanently reshaped how teams around the league approached defensive hockey. It was the first championship in franchise history, arriving just seven years after the Devils had missed the playoffs entirely in nine of their first ten seasons.
The 2003 Championship and Brodeur’s Historic Shutout
New Jersey closed out the Anaheim Mighty Ducks with a 3 to 0 win in Game 7, giving the franchise its third Stanley Cup in nine years. Michael Rupp scored the Cup clinching goal, but the signature achievement belonged to Martin Brodeur, who recorded his third shutout of the series, an extraordinary feat that underscored just how dominant New Jersey’s goaltending had become during the franchise’s championship era.
“Henrique! It’s Over!”
Just 63 seconds into overtime of Game 6 against the rival New York Rangers, Adam Henrique buried the goal that sent the Devils back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2003, eliminating a Rangers team that had entered the postseason as the East’s top seed. The broadcast call, simply shouting the young forward’s name, instantly entered the franchise’s highlight canon.
Brodeur Breaks Patrick Roy’s Wins Record
A 3 to 2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks gave Martin Brodeur his 552nd career regular season victory, surpassing Patrick Roy to become the winningest goaltender in NHL history, a record he would go on to extend to 691 wins by the time he retired, a mark that remains, by a considerable margin, the standard every future NHL goaltender will chase.
The Franchise Arrives in New Jersey
After failed stints as the Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies, the franchise was purchased by shipping magnate John McMullen and relocated to the Meadowlands, giving New Jersey its first NHL team and setting the stage for four decades of hockey history that had nowhere to go but up from a rocky start.
Brodeur Breaks the All-Time Shutout Record
A 4 to 0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins gave Brodeur his 104th career shutout, surpassing the legendary Terry Sawchuk for the most shutouts in NHL history, a record that stood as one of the sport’s most difficult marks to reach given how dramatically the game had shifted toward higher scoring in the decades since Sawchuk’s era.
Patrik Elias’ No-Look Pass to Arnott
Facing elimination down 3 to 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against Philadelphia, the Devils stormed back to force and win Game 7, with Elias scoring both goals himself, including the late game winner that completed one of the more dramatic comebacks in franchise playoff history and set the stage for the Stanley Cup run that followed just weeks later.
Taylor Hall Wins the Hart Trophy
Hall’s spectacular 93 point season almost single handedly dragged the Devils back into playoff contention, and his performance was rewarded with the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player, the first time in franchise history a Devils skater had won the award.
Drafting Martin Brodeur
General manager Lou Lamoriello traded down in the first round to select goaltender Martin Brodeur with the 20th overall pick, a decision that would anchor the franchise’s crease for two decades and directly underpin all three of its Stanley Cup championships.
John MacLean Sends New Jersey to the Playoffs
MacLean’s overtime goal against the Chicago Blackhawks on the final day of the regular season clinched the Devils’ first ever playoff berth, sparking what became known as the Mickey Mouse revenge run, a direct response to a dismissive comment made about the franchise on national television that the team turned into playoff motivation.
Scott Stevens’ Hit on Eric Lindros
In Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, captain Scott Stevens delivered a thunderous, entirely legal open ice hit on Philadelphia captain Eric Lindros, a moment that instantly shifted the physical and psychological balance of the rivalry and became one of the most replayed hits in NHL history.
Scott Stevens’ Hit on Paul Kariya
Three years later, Stevens delivered another era defining open ice hit, this time on Anaheim captain Paul Kariya in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, setting a punishing tone that carried directly into New Jersey’s Game 7 championship win two nights later.
Martin Brodeur Scores a Playoff Goal
Brodeur fired the puck the length of the ice into an empty Montreal net, becoming only the second goaltender in NHL history to score a goal in a playoff game, a genuinely rare feat that added another layer to his already growing legend in New Jersey.
Jack Hughes Selected First Overall
The Devils selected American phenomenon Jack Hughes with the first overall pick, a selection that ushered in the franchise’s modern era and established the centerpiece around which New Jersey has built its current core.
Ken Daneyko’s Emotional Game 7 Goal
Lifelong Devil Ken Daneyko, a defenseman not known for offense, broke a scoreless streak that had stretched across 256 consecutive games by scoring in Game 7 against Toronto, a moment that brought the Continental Airlines Arena crowd to tears given how central Daneyko had been to the franchise’s entire history to that point.
The 2023 Hudson River Rivalry Comeback
After falling behind 2 games to none against the rival New York Rangers, rookie goaltender Akira Schmid stepped into the net and helped spark a Devils rally that culminated in a grueling Game 7 win in Newark, reigniting one of hockey’s fiercest modern rivalries for a new generation of fans.
Lou Lamoriello Hired as General Manager
Owner John McMullen hired Providence College athletic director Lou Lamoriello, a decision that instituted the strict, disciplined organizational culture that would eventually yield three Stanley Cups and define the Devils’ identity for the better part of three decades.
The Miracle Run to the 1988 Wales Conference Finals
As total playoff rookies, the Devils stunned the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins in a chaotic, improbable run that firmly established the franchise’s identity as a genuine contender rather than an afterthought, just one season after the Mickey Mouse comment had defined how the rest of the league viewed them.
The Opening of Prudential Center
The Devils officially moved out of East Rutherford’s Meadowlands and opened a state of the art, dedicated hockey arena in downtown Newark, permanently anchoring the franchise to the city and giving New Jersey hockey a true home of its own for the first time in franchise history.
Taken together, these twenty moments trace a genuinely improbable arc, from a franchise nobody wanted to a three time Stanley Cup champion with its own permanent home in Newark. New chapters keep getting written by the current core built around Jack Hughes, but the goals, hits, and hires that got the Devils here remain the foundation everything since has been built on.
