New Jersey Devils: Recapping Jack Hughes At IIHF World Championships

Likely first-overall pick Jack Hughes is done playing competitive hockey until the NHL Draft. How did the most likely next New Jersey Devils player perform on the worldwide stage?

Can we just say we’re glad it’s over? It’s honestly been the most exhausting IIHF World Championships in New Jersey Devils history. It’s also probably the one we watched the most. That’s because we watched as Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko played against NHL players.

It was an intriguing tournament, especially to start. Kakko was absolutely electric, while Hughes was put in assignments. That means Hughes wasn’t necessarily put in scoring opportunities, while Kakko got first-line minutes.

Still, we have a good taste in our mouths at the end of the tournament. Things looked bleak for a moment there, well about as bleak as it could be. We didn’t expect a ton from Hughes on what looked like a stacked USA team. Unluckily for all of us Americans, Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill was the head coach of Team USA. He made some mistakes with how he handled Hughes, but maybe that was on purpose.

He played seven games, mostly as the bottom line center. Through his first six games, he had just one assist. He had some pretty plays, but without power play time or much offensive time, so his just wasn’t getting many statistics.

He wasn’t even getting that much time on the ice. He was playing less than 10 minutes for most games. Even the best NHL players would have trouble playing that kind of timing as a center. It’s hard to get momentum on a game-to-game basis.

It all came to a head when Blashill made Hughes a healthy scratch against Canada. This was a questionable decision for any coach to make, but it just seemed like Blashill was leaning on NHL players that were already worse than Hughes. That’s when the Americans were shutout against the Canadians.

Hughes was in the lineup for the next game, a do-or-die situation against the Russians. Dylan Larkin was out of the lineup, so Blashill didn’t have his most responsible Red Wings on the roster anymore. That gave Hughes the opportunity he needed all tournament long.

Hughes played his best game of the tournament in their last game, when they had everything to lose. He was moving the puck better than most other players on the ice, and ended up with two assists. He won player of the game honors for the Americans.

Team USA was a major disappointment in this tournament, and a big reason for that was because of coaching, but we come out of this tournament happy overall with what we saw from Hughes. He can skate with NHL players. He does get hit, but he immediately gets back up. Hughes showed that the speed and physicality of the NHL game won’t be too much for him.