New Jersey: A Place Called Home | FEATURE

TAKEAWAYS

• There are all kinds of different connections players on the Devils roster have to New Jersey, this article explores them more in-depth
• Being a part of the Devils connects people with the state of New Jersey, and it has a profound effect on them.
• Roots to New Jersey and the Devils come in many different shapes and forms, as discussed below

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As the doors to Prudential Center open on the start of a new hockey season, players have returned and gathered at the arena awaiting the arrival of a fresh new season. For many there's familiarity everywhere, every corner, every inch of ice.

There are so many different definitions of what someone considers their home. There are places where you physically live - your house, your condo – and then there’s the home where it’s a place where you feel loved, comfortable, accepted, and protected.

The New Jersey Devils off-season has been as much about bringing people home as it has been about adding the building blocks for the goal of creating a team that can win it all. They say when you do, you are brothers for life.

Again, home.

Brett Pesce’s face lights up thinking about being a New Jersey Devil. His is a homecoming of epic proportions. The drive from Tarrytown, NY to Prudential Center is less than an hour. Tarrytown is where he and his wife Amy spend their off-season. It’s hard to fathom that they only had to drive less than an hour south to reach their in-season home.

“It’s kind of a weird feeling of walking around,” Pesce said. “I live in Hoboken, it’s like I literally just have a smile on my face just walking around. I get coffee or whatever, it’s so, so cool and hard to explain. I’m just soaking it all in right now.”

Pesce had spent his entire career in Carolina, nine NHL seasons, up until now. When free agency arrived for the first time this past summer, the draw to New Jersey was too much to ignore.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words to be honest,” Pesce said. “It was automatically No. 1, it was ‘let’s do everything we can to try to get there.’”

Everything is all of a sudden so close. Whether it’s the ability to drive home for a home-cooked meal by mom, spend time with some of his childhood friends, or just be in a truly familiar surrounding, knowing that he’s going to have those opportunities, that he’s (back) home now, it’s all so familiar but in such a different way.

“It’s a different feel,” he marveled. “This is home, right? This is where I grew up. I’m very proud of where I am from, in Westchester. It’s not a big hockey area around there, so it’s pretty cool. I live in such a small town, I know everyone, and everyone roots for me, so for them to be so close, it’s pretty surreal.”

Brett is home.

Then there’s Tomas Tatar, who left and is back again.

Proving you can always come home again.

After spending two seasons with the Devils in 2021-23, Tatar played last season split between Colorado and Seattle. But deep down, there was always a pull back to New Jersey.

“It was for hard for me to leave from here,” Tatar said.

In his two seasons with the Devils, the connection he made to his teammates, the staff, the city and the fans has been hard for him to describe. Everything felt like family. And even though he had left physically last season, he never quite fully disconnected from Jersey.

“I was pretty upset about me leaving Jersey,” he said. “You know after a year like we had (in 2022-23), it was so special. So, it was tough. Thank God I was still in touch with boys. So honestly now it feels like I never left.”

He arrived back in New Jersey a couple of weeks before training camp started and walked into that ever-familiar locker room, a place where he could not be more proud to call his home. He beams just talking about it.

“From all that had happened, when I stepped here on the ice, wow, it felt like I never left," he said. "It’s like I’m just continuing what we left here. It’s just a familiar feel with the facility, the staff. Honestly, it’s like you’ve been here the whole time.”

Just like it is when you step back into your own home from a long time away, everything feels so much better when you’re back.

“We had such a special bond here,” he said. “And it should tell you something when you’re playing for another team and still even in touch with the other teammates as well. Asking how is everything. And I was really interested in how the guys were doing last season as well, so I was checking them out. It was just tough stuff for me to leave.”

Tougher yet because he saw how difficult a season it was for New Jersey last year. Off the record-breaking success the year before, last year did not go anyone’s way, a feeling that Tatar can relate to as he returns.

Ultimately, he’s just happy to be able to be back riding alongside his beloved teammates, through thick and thin.

“Everybody is upset about what happened. I was upset that I wasn’t here, he said. "I’m upset that I couldn’t be here and couldn’t help. I’m just very excited and expecting a lot from myself.”

They missed him too.

“It’s super, super important for us to get a guy like that back,” Jesper Bratt said emphatically. “We love that. Having 'Tuna' here, he was such a big part of our room, of our team, in the locker room, on the road, on the ice. He’s a guy that brings so much energy, so much joy, he works so hard. Those are the guys that you want on your team. When he wasn’t here, we really missed him.”

Tomas is home.

The time that Stefan Noesen was away from New Jersey was significantly longer than Tatar’s. The changes from 2018 to 2024 are far greater, but there is still so much familiarity.

“It’s good to be back in that familiar area, a familiar place with familiar faces,” Noesen said. While the coaching staff is different than his first foray with New Jersey, so much of the behind-the-scenes staff remains intact and recognizable.

Jesper Bratt, who along with Nico Hischier are the only two remaining players from Noesen’s first time in New Jersey, was equally excited for the return of Noesen as he is of Tatar.

“They realize what an amazing place New Jersey is to really play for, with everything we have to offer here,” Bratt said. “And I think the way we play hockey, too, that’s obviously amazing, getting guys like that back, that's going to make a big difference for us.”

Stefan is back.

For Seamus Casey, it’s a different homecoming entirely. It’s rooted in his past and all brand new.

Casey grew up in Florida, but his roots harken back to Hoboken, New Jersey. It’s where his father and his mother lived together before the Casey children arrived. Seamus had heard all the stories from his parents and still has family in the area, but when he arrived in New Jersey for his first training camp, he had a little more time than he’s had in the past.

So, he and his dad went exploring.

“I saw my dad, we drove around Hoboken,” Casey shared. “(My parents) lived there for eight years. He showed me Washington Street, they lived on Bloomfield. So we were driving around that whole area. We were driving around and he was like, every little sidewalk, every little street and corner, he had a story for.

“He’s told me the stories a million times before, but he told them all again. He thinks I’ve never heard them before,” he laughed, “but it was nice to finally put the picture to the stories. He showed me the building that they lived in, it was a two-story condo building. So cool looking right at the New York City skyline. It was really cool to do that with him.”

Seamus is now discovering where his family called home.

Just take a quick glance at the New Jersey Devils roster and there are so many stories that tie them to life in New Jersey, that makes being a New Jersey Devil a wholehearted experience.

No matter whose story of coming home resonates with you most, what it should tell you is that the experience of being here in New Jersey is one that once you’re here, you've found a home.

It embeds itself into who you are as a person.

As Tom Fitzgerald has often been heard saying – it’s the NHL’s hidden gem.

Perhaps not so hidden anymore.