I understand this is just the opening of our "window", and we all have faith this team will only get better in the next few years. But I really don't understand why people are saying "ahh, this isn't our Cup year" or "I don't have Cup dreams yet" or "it's not our time yet."
This team is currently on pace to finish with 115 points. That would be a franchise record. The team has (knock on wood) gotten relatively great injury luck, and is getting outstanding performances from several players. There's absolutely no guarantee that we'll get a season from Hamilton like this again, or that we'll have a defensive group this deep and this talented again. There's no guarantee that Jack Hughes will have a season this special again.
We're just fans so we can't really change anything about the team, but I'd point to the 2017 New York Yankees as a great example of when things go wrong. Yankee fans were ecstatic, because this "young and talented team" was "far ahead of schedule" and "the future was bright". They were getting excellent production from their home-grown sure-fire superstars Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Luis Severino. They had the coffers stacked full, along with a top-5 prospect in the entire sport with Gleyber Torres and a top-ranked farm system surrounding him.
When the Yankees balked at a chance to add Justin Verlander, fans said the same thing in unison -- "that's okay! that makes sense. it's not our time yet. we're only going to get better." And when Verlander beat the Yankees twice en route to winning ALCS MVP, even then Yankees fans said "wow! what a ride. we'll be back."
They haven't gotten closer to a World Series than 2017 in the 6 years since. Gary Sanchez was a backup a few years later. Luis Severino never found a way to stay healthy. Gleyber Torres turned out to be an okay, moderately productive player -- but certainly not the superstar shortstop of the future he was a near-lock to be. Clint Frazier was an overwhelmingly useless player that the Yankees white-knuckled until he was out of the league. The rest of the farm system was a bunch of duds that got hugged by the Yankees until all of their value oozed out of them like popping a pimple. Only Aaron Judge kept blossoming into a superstar, but much like hockey a single player can't do it all.
I think the Devils future is bright. I don't think they will face a similar fate as the Yankees, and I don't think they should be reckless with their upper-end prospects like Nemec and Hughes. But I cringe every time I see comments like "oh, I'm not worried about trying for the cup this year. There's plenty of time for that!". Because maybe there is -- but maybe this is the best Devils team we'll see for a long time. It would be an injustice to the players in that locker room and the fans in the Prudential Center if Tommy Fitzgerald doesn't do everything in his power to add reinforcements for this playoff run.
