1980s Meadowlands Struggles

Lore & Background

The Meadowlands in the 1980s was a place where the ice seemed to stretch endlessly under fluorescent lights, and the stands thinned out by the third period. The Devils, added to the NHL alongside the Buffalo Sabres and Hartford Whalers as part of the 1982 expansion, arrived with little infrastructure, a modest budget, and a roster assembled from the league's overlooked players. Al Arbour, the legendary former New York Rangers coach, was tapped to helm the club in its first two seasons, but even his pedigree could not mask the talent gap. The team bled points in every month, and the local press, already skeptical of a hockey team in a state that had given them the Jets and the Giants, turned the Devils into a running joke.

Ownership changed hands during the decade. The Wirtz brothers, Al and John, acquired the franchise in the mid-1980s, bringing a more structured front-office approach, but the on-ice product remained stubbornly mediocre. The draft became the team's only real lever, and when the 1984 draft yielded Adam Oates at 13th overall, the organization saw its first genuine spark. Oates, a small, electric playmaker out of the University of North Dakota, became the face of the franchise for a generation of fans who had grown up watching their team lose. Yet even his brilliance could not lift a roster that lacked depth, goaltending, and defensive structure.

By the late 1980s, the Devils had settled into a grim rhythm: a 30-to-35-win season, a last-place finish, and a draft pick that might, in a few years, become the foundation of something better. The 1989 draft, in which the Devils selected Scott Stevens first overall, marked the quiet beginning of the end of the struggle. But for the decade as a whole, the Meadowlands belonged to the losing team—the one whose fans came anyway, in the cold, in the dark, because the alternative was to admit the franchise was a mistake.

In Their Own Story

The scoreboard reads 1-3, third period, and the Meadowlands is half-empty. You can hear the Giants' practice echoes from the practice rink next door, muffled through the concrete wall. The Devils' center, a kid no bigger than the Zamboni, tucks the puck behind the net and just stands there, breathing hard, watching the empty blue seats. The arena smells like stale coffee and rubber. Somewhere in the tunnel, a coach is already planning tomorrow's loss. The kid skates back, taps the puck to a teammate, and for one second the crowd—maybe two hundred people, maybe fewer—roars. It isn't a win. It isn't even close. But the sound carries, and for a moment the Meadowlands is just a hockey arena, and the team in it is just a team that hasn't given up yet. Not yet.

Reader's Guide

1982–1984: The Arrival. The Devils enter the NHL as a 1982 expansion team and immediately find themselves at the bottom of the Patrick Division. Al Arbour, hired for his Rangers pedigree, coaches a roster of castoffs and untested rookies. The Meadowlands, a shared NFL facility, feels more like a warehouse than a hockey home. Attendance is sparse, the media is mocking, and the team finishes last in its first two seasons. The identity is pure survival: show up, skate, don't get embarrassed.

1985–1987: The Ownership Shift. The Wirtz brothers acquire the franchise and begin imposing structure on a front office that had been ad hoc. The coaching carousel continues, but the draft becomes the team's primary tool. Adam Oates, selected 13th overall in 1984, enters the league and becomes the first player fans can point to and say, 'That one's ours.' He is brilliant, small, relentless, and utterly surrounded by mediocrity. The Devils still finish near the bottom, but the narrative shifts from 'why are they here?' to 'what if they build around him?'

1988–1989: The Fracture. The late 1980s bring a quiet reckoning. The organization realizes that drafting well is not enough without depth, goaltending, and defensive cohesion. The 1989 draft, in which the Devils select Scott Stevens first overall, signals a philosophical break: the team will now build a core rather than chase a single star. The 1980s end with the Devils still winless in the playoffs, still last or near-last, but the foundation—Oates, Stevens, a steadier front office—is laid. The struggle is over. The building is not.

Did You Know?

• The Devils were one of three NHL expansion teams added in 1982, alongside the Buffalo Sabres and the Hartford Whalers.
• Meadowlands Arena was a shared facility with the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets, meaning the Devils often played in a space designed primarily for football.
• Adam Oates, drafted 13th overall in 1984, became the franchise's first true generational star and played for the Devils for over a decade.
• The Wirtz brothers, Al and John, acquired the franchise during the 1980s and would go on to oversee the team's rise into the 1990s championship era.