Good evening, everyone. I hope everyone around New Jersey and the United States has been having a fine Labor Day Weekend so far, and if you live somewhere else I hope you’re having a fine weekend. Today, I wanted to do a short overview of the credentialed media covering the New Jersey Devils. For those of you blissfully unaware of happenings on social media, there was a bit of a recent kerfuffle over the state of local journalism covering the New Jersey Devils. But take heart, dear reader: we are not
in the post-Gulitti dark ages anymore. Not only is there credentialed a beat writer covering the team, there are actually several. Let’s dive in.
Local Credentialed Beat Writers
NJ.com
The Star-Ledger may no longer be publishing in print, but NJ.com continues to provide some local coverage of our teams, and there is a new face covering the team this season. Ryan Novozinsky, who covered the team in the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2025-26 seasons, has moved on to another newspaper where he covers the Philadelphia Eagles. To take his place, NJ.com hired Anthony Corona, who now posts regular Youtube videos and interviews for his Devils coverage in addition to his articles for NJ.com.
New Jersey Hockey Now
New Jersey Hockey Now, hosted on the site Sportsnaut, is a relatively new source for credentialed reporting. James Nichols, the senior reporter for the site, has been on the Devils beat for a few years now. Previously he was also a New York Islanders writer. He was joined last season by Daniel Amoia, who has been writing about the Devils for a few years now. Notably, Nichols is the New Jersey Chapter Chair for the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
The Hockey News
The Hockey News also has two credentialed writers covering the New Jersey Devils this season. Returning for another year is Kristy Flannery, who also covers the Utica Comets. Joining her on The Hockey News for his first season covering the Devils is columnist Mike Fink, who has already published several articles on the team. Flannery has been a staple of the Devils coverage scene for a few years now, but I am also interested to see what Fink brings to the table as an apparently seasoned AHL writer.
Local Credentialed Writers for the Comets and Thunder
Utica-Rome Dailey Sentinel
While he is currently covering local football, the return of Utica Comets hockey means that Ben Birnell will be back to writing articles about the Devils’ top affiliate hockey club. Birnell is a great local writer whose articles more resemble newspaper columns than the advertisement-heavy posting that has become a new standard in sports reporting, and he is very tuned into what’s going on around the Comets. See here for his recent article on the Comets’ elevation of Adam Pawlick to Team President of the club.
Inside the Rink
Covering the Adirondack Thunder for this season is Armand Klisivitch, the ECHL Manager and Senior Editor of Inside the Rink. Personally, I will be more intrigued by the happenings around the Thunder this season, as the new-found depth that the Devils have in Utica under Braden Birch’s hand means that some decent players and guys we consider actual prospects may be seeing time in the ECHL this season. Adirondack has very occasionally produced intriguing players for the Devils, such as Xavier Parent, who was an undrafted free agent who signed AHL deals with the Comets before his ELC with the Devils in 2025. Now, with more prospects joining the fold in Utica, more of them may have to make their way through Adirondack like him, and Klisivitch will be on top of that coverage.
National Writers Who Occasionally Cover the Devils
NHL.com
While he is officially the NHL.com Senior Draft Writer, I would include Mike Morreale for his occasional coverage of the New Jersey Devils. Throughout last season, he was making appearances at Devils practices and games, though I imagine his national duties will regularly have him away this season. He did, however, recently write an article on Luke Evangelista since his trade to the New Jersey Devils, which indicates to me that he will still be around the team here and there.
The Athletic
The Athletic, once more, hardly has any coverage of the New Jersey Devils. Within the Metropolitan Division, it seems they hardly cover the Devils, Islanders, Hurricanes, or Capitals. Of course, Chris Johnston recently wrote a couple articles on Simon Nemec and Nico Hischier, but I take this more as their occasional “please stay subscribed to us” than anything else. You can get access to The Athletic through the New York Times. But as far as journalism goes, I don’t think it’d be uncontroversial to say that NYT is inconsistent at best as an organization and you’ll generally get better bang for your buck looking elsewhere for coverage.
Team Reporters
Returning for another season covering the New Jersey Devils from the team side are Amanda Stein and Sam Kasan. You can find their works on the New Jersey Devils website on NHL.com along with the team YouTube channel. It may be the popular thing to be cynical about team reporters, but they are sometimes the first source of information about the Devils, and they regularly have first interviews that other writers do not yet have access to.
Final Words and Your Thoughts
For 90% of news surrounding the New Jersey Devils, this is where we are looking. During trade season and free agency, national writers may take more of a focus, but these are the writers who cover the Devils day in and day out. Compared to when I first started blogging about the Devils in 2017 as a game writer for AATJ, this is a far better media situation than what we sat through for those rebuilding years. To that extent, I am thankful for our local coverage, and I look forward to another year following their work and passing it along to muse about and use as a springboard to occasionally pontificate on here.
I still miss newspapers, though.
But what do you think about the local media scene for the New Jersey Devils? Are you happy that we have more of a local focus than a national one, or do you think we’re missing something there? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
