New Jersey Devils: Nico Hischier Poised for Breakout Year
By Kevin Whalen
With a few days before the frenzy that is free agency officially opens, let’s take this time to talk about our other number-one guy, Nico Hischier. In the midst of selecting Jack Hughes and acquiring P.K. Subban, its been easy to forget that we have another superstar on this roster. I’m not saying anyone’s forgotten about our boy Nico, not in the least, but it’s easy to lose sight of how lucky we are to have him.
He has clearly been the better l of the two “choices” in the 2017 NHL Draft at this point. I still think Nolan Patrick is going to be an excellent player for the Philadelphia Flyers. I’m not calling him a bust just yet, but it’s been clear that Hischier has been the better of the two. Nico has seen more playing time than Patrick as well, so you could make the argument that he has simply made the most of his time. With numbers out of the equation, most see a lot more from Hischier’s game than they do from Patrick at this point.
Hischier has also had the fortune of playing with his Swiss national team this past World Championships. We saw him be by far and away the best player on team Switzerland. He had 4 goals and 5 assists in 8 games played, 2 of those goals were game winners.
It’s a great sign to see that kind of production in a tournament against some really stout competition. Which brings me to my most important point on him. He is now entering his third season.
The third season has proven to be a huge growing point for an NHL player. Playing in every game in his rookie year, Nico missed 13 last year due to injury, yet still showed growth as he amassed 47 points, 5 points shy of his full rookie campaign. His face-off percentage grew in year two and had more power play goals. All signs of growth, which is a positive trend toward year three.
We can take a look at some big names’ third year in the league and the majority of them have had a breakout third year. Auston Mathews, Connor McDavid, Artemi Panarin, Jonathan Huberdeau, Gabriel Landeskog, Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin (phew), all of their third seasons became their best to that point of their careers. I see this year working out just like that for Hischier.
As long as the Devils can stay healthy and he is allowed to play with complimentary wingers then this is going to be a huge year for him. Aspects of his game that I see improving are his face-off wins, power play points, and his plus/minus. If those all improve than you will obviously see an increase in overall points, which is what we are always looking to get at the end of the day.
The former number-one overall pick is poised to have a monster, breakout year and will prove to be a much larger part of this team. He will make his line-mates better (whoever they end up being) and he’s going to make leaps in his own game, bringing him into discussions as one of the best players in the league, just wait and see.