The New Jersey Devils went from no center depth to immense center depth seemingly overnight. Now that we know this is true, the Devils should use that to move some to the wing.
Jack Hughes is coming to the New Jersey Devils. It’s just a fact at this point. He just broke the record for points in the U18 tournament, a record once owned by Alex Ovechkin. There’s zero doubt for me now that Hughes is the pick, and you allow your rival the New York Rangers get the consolation prize in Kaapo Kakko.
That will give the Devils a one-two punch of Hughes and Nico Hischier for a very, very long time. That helps the Devils in a huge way because number-two center was one of their biggest needs, mostly because Pavel Zacha just never worked out in the role. Another reason is 2016 1st-round pick Michael McLeod still feels like he’s not entirely ready for the NHL, especially at center.
With the Devils still paying Travis Zajac for two more seasons, and having someone like Kevin Rooney who looks the part of a fourth-line center, it’s likely time for the Devils to move both Zacha and McLeod to the wing.
Ray Shero and John Hynes are usually on the same page about things, and most decisions feel like a collective. One thing they’ve done well in some situations is getting the best out of certain players. They learned how to use Will Butcher perfectly in his rookie season, and they knew for him to grow they had to do a trial by fire last season. He’s a much better defenseman in his own zone because of it. Same goes for the aforementioned Rooney. They found ways to get the best of his abilities. The list goes on, Nico, Kyle Palmieri, Jesper Bratt, Blake Coleman, they will take your talents and build them up.
The same hasn’t been true for Zacha and McLeod. We all remember McLeod’s debut where he was give a total of 336 seconds of ice time. (5:36 for those who hate math.) It wasn’t nearly enough, and he was immediately sent back down to the AHL. Then, when he was forced to return to the main roster because just about everyone was injured, he never found his fit, although the defense end of his game was quite good.
McLeod definitely got better as time went on. He had two assists in his last three games, but he’s still waiting for his elusive first NHL goal. It’ll come, but maybe if we take the responsibilities of being a center (which they did at times during last season), then he could thrive offensively.
Zacha was having a dismal season at the start, to the point he was sent down to the AHL for the first time in his career. He proved during his short stint that he was much better than a minor league hockey player despite the issues in the NHL. He scored five assists in four games. His skills showed when playing among boys.
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Zacha was on another level when he returned from injury on March 21st. Maybe he was given more time to go over tape with coaches and could identify issues on the ice without playing on it. Who knows. What we do know is he had a point per game until the end of the season after his return.
We saw when Zacha was told on the power play to just get in a position to get open and shoot the puck, he was really good at it. He could always find open space when teams were focusing on the puck. Let him do that throughout the game.
This just seems like the best move for the player and the franchise. McLeod is actually really good at faceoffs, so that would hurt a little bit (he went 53% this season). However, Zacha was average at best in the faceoff dot, so losing him there is not a big factor.
Just let McLeod and Zacha be great, two-way wingers. This will likely help them in scoring, and in their overall hockey sense. This could turn around both of their careers.