The history of the New Jersey Devils National Hockey League team dates back to 1982, when the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey and became the Devils. Since 1995, the franchise has played in the Stanley Cup Final five times, winning the Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003.
Kansas City and Colorado
In 1974, the NHL ended its first expansion period (dating back to 1967) by adding teams in Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.Laroche, p. 1, ch. Washington Capitals. Due to a rodeo being held in Kansas City's Kemper Arena, the Scouts were forced to wait nine games before making their home debut. The Scouts won for the first time in Kansas City on November 3, 1974, against their expansion brethren, the Washington Capitals, 5–4. Kansas City struggled in their inaugural season as they garnered only 41 points in 1974–75. They regressed to 36 points 1975–76 as the Scouts won only 12 games, including only one victory in their final 44 games – still the worst in franchise history as of the 2025–26 season. The Scouts failed to make the playoffs in either season in Kansas City and won only 27 of 160 games.
For their second season, the Scouts sold just 2,000 season tickets and were almost $1 million in debt.Griggs, p. 123. Kansas City's owners lost an estimated $5 million on the team and decided to sell after only two years. Following the 1975–76 season, the franchise was relocated to Denver, renamed the Colorado Rockies and played at the McNichols Sports Arena.
The team made a fresh start in Colorado and won its first game, 4–2 over the Toronto Maple Leafs.Maguire, p. 141. They looked like a possible playoff contender in 1976–77 but a collapse featuring an 18-game losing streak caused them to finish the year with a record of 20–46–14, good for 54 points. The Rockies improved to 59 points the next season but still had the sixth-worst record in the league. However, the Smythe Division was so weak that year—only the Chicago Black Hawks had a winning record—the Rockies were able to edge out the Vancouver Canucks for second place by two points. The rules of the time guaranteed a playoff spot to the top two teams in each division. The franchise's playoff debut did not last long, however, as the Philadelphia Flyers eliminated them in a two-game sweep.
A lack of stability continually plagued the team. In their first eight years, the Scouts/Rockies went through ten coaches, none lasting two full seasons. While in Denver, the team changed owners twice. Amid this instability, they never even came close to a winning season, never finishing less than 20 games under .500. Even in their sole playoff season in Denver, they were 21 games under .500.
Prior to the 1978–79 season, owner Jack Vickers sold the team to New Jersey trucking tycoon Arthur Imperatore, who announced that he intended to move the team to the New Jersey Meadowlands in East Rutherford. Imperatore's plan received criticism, as it would have resulted in the Rockies moving to a location near the markets of three existing teams: the New York Islanders, New York Rangers, and Flyers. Also, there was no facility in New Jersey that was suitable even for temporary use. Imperatore initially planned to share Madison Square Garden with the Rangers for two seasons until a new arena was completed. However, Flyers owner Ed Snider announced his opposition to the move; this effectively blocked the Rockies' relocation, as in those days a unanimous vote by league owners was necessary for a franchise to move. In 1979, the team hired Don Cherry as head coach and traded for Maple Leafs star Lanny McDonald. Despite these moves, the Rockies still posted the worst record in the NHL and Cherry was fired after the season. Businessman Peter Gilbert purchased the Rockies from Imperatore in 1980. They played in Colorado through the 1981–82 season with the possibility of moving; Gilbert's losses on the team reached an estimated $4.5 million in 1981–82. However, his desire to relocate the franchise to New Jersey was not shared by the NHL.Jenish, p. 277. Gilbert sold the Rockies to a three-man group headed by New Jersey shipping magnate and Jersey City native John McMullen (who also owned Major League Baseball's Houston Astros) on May 27, 1982. McMullen announced that the Rockies would move to East Rutherford and play at Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands (which opened the previous year), as the NHL's board of governors had approved the relocation. As part of the relocation deal, the Devils had to compensate the Islanders, Rangers and Flyers for encroaching on the established teams' territory. The combined total the Devils owed the three teams was nearly $20 million.Wise and Meyer, p. 290.
New Jersey
1982–1993: Building the foundation
On June 30, 1982, the team was renamed the New Jersey Devils, after the legend of the Jersey Devil, a legendary creature that supposedly inhabited the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. Over 10,000 people voted in a contest to select the name. The team began play in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at the Brendan Byrne Arena, later renamed the Continental Airlines Arena and eventually the Izod Center, where they would call home through the 2006–07 season. With their relocation, the newly rechristened Devils were placed in the Wales Conference's Patrick Division. The Devils' first game ended in a 3–3 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 5, 1982. Their first win, a 3–2 victory, came in New Jersey at the expense of the Rangers. The team finished with a 17–49–14 record, putting them three points above last place in the Patrick Division.
In the following season, the Devils were criticized by Wayne Gretzky after they were blown out 13–4 by his team, the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky was upset that former teammate Ron Low played for what he considered an inferior team, and in a post-game interview said:
Later, Gretzky publicly admitted that his comment was "blown all out of proportion." In response, many Devils fans wore Mickey Mouse apparel when the Oilers returned to New Jersey.
In the 1983–84 season, the Devils hosted the annual NHL All-Star Game at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Chico Resch was the winning goaltender, and Devils defenseman Joe Cirella tallied a goal as the Wales Conference beat the Campbell Conference 7–6. However, the team did not achieve much success. Head coach Bill MacMillan was fired midway through the season and replaced with Tom McVie, and the Devils won only 17 games. After the season, McVie was replaced by Doug Carpenter.
Meanwhile, with new ownership in place, the Devils began a slow journey to respectability. They assembled a nucleus of young players; John MacLean, Bruce Driver, Ken Daneyko, Kirk Muller and Pat Verbeek all complemented the veteran goaltender Resch. The team's record improved each season between 1983–84 and 1986–87. However, playing in a division where the Flyers, Capitals, and Islanders provided strong competition for most of the 1980s, the Devils found themselves unable to reach the playoffs. They finished last in the six-team Patrick Division in 1985–86 and 1986–87 despite improving their point totals to 59 and 64, respectively.
On January 22, 1987, a massive blizzard hit the metropolitan area resulting in only 334 fans attending the game between the Devils and the Calgary Flames at Brendan Byrne Arena, where the Devils rallied to win 7–5. The Devils officially recognized the fans that made the journey to the game as the "334 Club". The fans received a letter that read, "You are hereby inducted and given lifetime membership to a club that cannot grow – the 334 Club".
In a move that Daneyko and MacLean later credited with helping to turn around the franchise's fortunes, McMullen hired Providence College athletic director Lou Lamoriello as team president in April 1987. Lamoriello appointed himself general manager before the 1987–88 season. Although Lamoriello had been a college coach for 15 years, he was seen as "an NHL outsider, and therefore a bit of a quirky fit", according to Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe.
The 1987–88 Devils garnered the first winning record in the franchise's 14-year history. In the final game of the regular season, they beat the Blackhawks 4–3 on an overtime goal by MacLean, sending them to the playoffs for the first time in New Jersey.
The team made it all the way to the conference finals, but lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games. In that series, head coach Jim Schoenfeld verbally abused referee Don Koharski after the third game. During the exchange, Koharski slipped and fell. Claims were made that Schoenfeld had pushed him, but video evidence indicates that Koharski fell down. As Koharski snapped that Schoenfeld was "gone", Schoenfeld replied, "Good, 'cause you fell you fat pig. Have another doughnut." League vice president Brian O'Neill ordered Schoenfeld to sit out Game 4. No hearing took place before the suspension. Claiming Schoenfeld's rights had been violated, the Devils appealed to New Jersey Superior Court judge James F. Madden, who issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the suspension. In his order, Madden pointed out that the NHL's investigation consisted of two phone calls—one to Koharski and one to Schoenfeld—and criticized O'Neill for not reviewing the videotape. In protest, referee Dave Newell and linesmen Gord Broseker and Ray Scapinello refused to work the game. After more than an hour's delay, three off-ice officials—Paul McInnis, Jim Sullivan and Vin Godleski—were tracked down to work the game. McInnis served as the referee, while Sullivan and Godleski worked the lines wearing yellow scrimmage sweaters. Notably, NHL President John Ziegler was away on personal business and could not be contacted, leaving Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz, as chairman of the NHL's board of governors, to give the order to play the game with backup officials.
Ziegler conducted a hearing on May 10, and suspended Schoenfeld for game five and fined him $1,000; the Devils were fined $10,000. Schoenfeld later admitted he regretted his comments. Nonetheless, Devils fans and broadcasters claimed that the officials shortchanged them for several years afterward.
The next season, the Devils once again slipped below .500 and missed the playoffs. Lamoriello made several postseason player changes, notably signing of two Soviet stars—Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Starikov. The Devils drafted Fetisov years earlier in the 1983 entry draft, but the Soviet government did not allow Fetisov, who was an army officer as well as a member of the national team, to leave the country. Shortly after, the Devils signed Fetisov's defense partner, Alexei Kasatonov. The team changed coaches midway through each of the next two seasons. Schoenfeld was replaced with John Cunniff in 1989–90, and Tom McVie was re-hired midway through the 1990–91 season and helmed the team through its third-straight first-round elimination in 1991–92. Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" team, was brought in for the 1992–93 season, but when the team yet again was eliminated in the first round, he was fired and replaced with former Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Lemaire.
1993–2000: A championship franchise