The New Jersey Devils are officially underway with training camp starting this weekend. There are some notable things to talk about as far as storylines.
It is the most wonderful time of the year. New Jersey Devils hockey is back. Training camp is underway and the preseason is about to begin. It begins tomorrow when they have a split-squad set with a game north of the border against the Montreal Canadiens and then at home against the Boston Bruins. There are some notes from training camp that stick out as something to talk about with ourselves.
The reports out of camp are that Nico Hischier has put on some weight. He was never an extremely small guy, but he also wasn’t a huge player. He definitely had the look of a player who could still put on some muscle, which could propel him from a great player to an elite player. He is so good in all three zones and having a little more weight will make the dirty areas of the ice a little easier to handle. This is the year that Hischier could start to be recognized as one of the best two-way players in the NHL.
Taylor Hall is back on the ice with New Jersey after missing the last four months of the season with a lower-body injury. The videos of him skating and handling the puck clearly show that he is the best player out there but he still claims there is some rust to shake off. That seems natural when you miss as much time as he has missed, but in a contract year we can expect Hall to have a monster season.
This is Jack Hughes‘ first ever NHL training camp. In his post-practice media scrum, he told everyone how tough it was and that a John Hynes-led practice is very intense. Hughes is going to be under a microscope all camp long and as the number one prospect in the world, the Devils are lucky to have him.
Jesper Boqvist is bursting onto the scene quickly. He looked amazing and was perhaps the best player in the 2019 Prospects Challenge. Then, in training camp, he carried it over. He has guys like Taylor Hall, a Hart Trophy winner, praising him and his game. It isn’t a lock that he makes the team but it is either here or Sweden for him. If he keeps this play up and gets reps with a center like Hischier, Hughes, or Travis Zajac in the preseason, he has a really good chance.
Ty Smith is either playing for the New Jersey Devils or the Spokane Chiefs in 2019-20. He almost made the team last season and was one of the final cuts, so it is going to be interesting to see if he is over the hill this time around. He is likely going to make the team and he is just getting started. He scored in a scrimmage during practice, so it appears that the rust he showed in the Prospect Challenge is shaken off.
The stories will keep coming all preseason long, but these are the fun ones to keep track of as we roll through September into October. There is more hype right now around the upcoming Devils season than there has been in many years. This might be a really good year.