The New Jersey Devils are looking to return to the playoffs next season, with Sunny Mehta as the new general manager. After locking up captain Nico Hischier to a five-year extension, Mehta’s next goal is to insulate Jack Hughes and the Devils offence.
Ever since Jack Hughes was drafted number one overall by the Devils in 2019, the goal has been to have the offense run through him. In theory, that works great, but Hughes needs to stay healthy and on the ice for that to work.
The Devils Sign Nico Hischier to a Five-Year Extension
In his seven seasons in the National Hockey League, Jack Hughes has played 82 games once. That came in the 2022-23 season, when he set career highs in all three offensive categories, recording 99 points (43 goals and 56 assists) over 82 games. That season, the Devils went to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games.
There is no doubt he is one of the most talented players in the NHL when healthy. But over his NHL career, he has dealt with various lower- and upper-body injuries, including three shoulder injuries, two of which required surgery. Then, of course, there was the freak accident where he cut himself at a team dinner this past season.
The Devils offence suffered without him in the lineup, but when Jack Hughes returned from the Olympics, after scoring the Golden Goal to give Team USA its first Gold Medal in Ice Hockey since 1980, he returned a new man.
At one point, he recorded 39 points (14 goals and 25 assists) in his first 23 games back with the New Jersey Devils. Jack Hughes tried his best to get the team back into playoff contention, but it was never in the cards.
And that’s the thing too. He is on such a team-friendly team at $8 million per season that runs through the 2029-30 season. The New Jersey Devils need to have more than two playoff appearances with him on the team. But again, he has to stay healthy and be a contributing factor. There is so much more he can do and be in the NHL.
Jack Hughes’ Scoring Run Fueling Devils Wins and Shifting Game Totals
During an appearance on the SiriusXM NHL Network Radio Power Play segment, Jim Biringer of TheDevilsNation.com was asked about Jack Hughes and whether he can bring his game up to be more consistent night after night.
TheDevilsNation.com Transcriptions
Host: “Jim Biringer always covers the Devils. We appreciate that here on the summer edition of the Power Play on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio Channel 91. What do you make of the offer sheet to Leo Carlsson and its rippling effects? Because I’m looking at good old Jack Hughes, who is an American hero and all that, but I want to know what he does in the NHL. I’m still looking for a high level of consistency from him. I know he’s capable of it.
He’s only 25, and Jim, they’ve got him signed for the next five years at $8 million, which may end up looking like a bargain, and then there’s if he continues on this trajectory, now he’ll be pushing 30. At that point, you’d have to think the re-up will be a lot of money. The economic landscape is going to change considerably.”
Jim Biringer: “Yeah, Mick I mean, you mentioned that the offer sheet for Leo Carlsson, 5×18. I mean, we’ve already really seen it with the defensemen last year, Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe, getting $9 million AAV for the young defensemen.
Jack Hughes Showing He Elevates His Game in Big Moments
We’ve seen what that’s obviously Bo Byram, $12.5 million in Chicago, way out of those leagues. But you see, we’re now with Pavel Mintyukov getting the $7.2 million, Brant Clarke, $7.4 million and now Simon Nemec, $7.25 million in Calgary. I don’t know if the Devils could have paid that. That would have been a nice contract, but they didn’t have the cap space to do it. It’s a changing landscape.
Jack Hughes has to stay healthy, right? I’ve always been on this case. He needs to be healthy; he needs to play consistently; he can’t get injured on the ice or off the ice. He has to stay on the ice.”
Host: “I don’t mean to laugh at it, but there was that weird injury. You’re right. No, you’re right.”
Biringer: “When he’s on the ice, he’s one of the best players in the National Hockey League. What he can do with the skill. My point to New Jersey has been that since the day he got drafted, they need to get him a number-one center or our top-six, forward scoring guy. Me personally, if I was running the team, I’d get him a center and turn him into Patrick Kane, like Chicago Blackhawks did.
Because when he has the puck, it’s hard to take it away from him. He wants to do all the dipsy doodling as a centerman. That’s not how it works in the National Hockey League. You can get away with that as a winger. I think he plays better like that, and I think his faceoffs, if he wants to be a center, have to improve.
But he’s got to stay on the ice, because when he is, the offense runs through him. And maybe that’s something the Devils have to change and figure out a way to have consistent scoring throughout their entire lineup, and just not rely on one or two guys to score.”
New Jersey Devils Need To Prove Offense Doesn’t Run Through Jack Hughes
Again, if you look at Jack Hughes’s performance at the Olympics, he did his damage as a winger. While he is a center and can be that in the NHL, ideally, the Devils would have him on the wing with a bona fide center.
Regardless of the position he plays, if the New Jersey Devils want to go anywhere next season, they need Jack Hughes to remain healthy and on the ice.
