Comparing New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers Rosters
By Nick Villano
The Second Line
We saw the New Jersey Devils second line in action in their first preseason game. Jack Hughes was everything as advertised, and scored the first and last goal in an overtime win against the Boston Bruins. It was one game. We shouldn’t overreact to one game, but what a game it was. Nikita Gusev seemed to have great chemistry with his new teammate. There’s a lot of new on this line. The combined NHL experience of the second line is 125 games. All of that experience is from Jesper Bratt, who is 21 years old.
The Rangers have some questions at second-line center. They will start off by giving the youngster Filip Chytil a chance to take the position. He’s just 20 years old, and he has a lot to prove on the ice. His coach says he looks different this season. On multiple occasions, he was benched for learning purposes. Now, he seems to have figured some things out.
Of course, Kappo Kaako is the second-overall pick that will always be compared to Jack Hughes. They are completely different players, but because the Devils had a choice at the top and they chose Hughes, they’re tied forever. Kakko looks like a scoring machine. He could score 30 goals this season. Hughes was always more of a distributor, but like we said he scored two goals in his debut. These two will be the ones to watch on these lines.
We expected Chris Kreider to get traded this offseason, but it never happened. Now, he’s probably going to play that second line left wing spot.
There are two spots on both of these lines that are rock solid. Then there is the one position held by a young player that we haven’t seen the upside yet (Bratt, Chytil). This one is razor thin, and it could go a number of different ways. Because we think Chytil might be ready to break out, we’re barely going with the Rangers.