5 New Jersey Devils Records That Could Be Broken This Season

Jack Hughes rookie points record

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. Jack Hughes is the Devils best newcomer when it comes to overall impact. Hughes immediately fills a position of need at second-line center, he is one of the most talented prospects in the draft in years, and now he’s on the New Jersey Devils thanks to the NHL Draft Lottery.

This isn’t a normal lottery team that Hughes is joining. The Devils have reloaded in the offseason after an injury-riddled year put them towards the bottom of the standings. They have the former MVP Taylor Hall. This team has a pretty deep prospect pool, many of which could be ready to play in the NHL sometime this season. Then, the Devils went and added P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds and Nikita Gusev to give them one of the deepest forward groups in the league. We’re not kidding, maybe outside of the best in the Atlantic Division, there aren’t a lot of teams with as many reliable forwards up and down the lineup.

Hughes will have ample opportunity to rack up points on this team. He’s already showed he can play very well after scoring two goals in his first preseason game. Both were just wicked wrist shots he put past the goalie. That wasn’t even his best asset. Hughes can distribute with the best rookies we’ve seen in a long time.

Scott Gomez currently holds the rookie points record. In 1999-00, he scored 70 points on the team’s second line. That’s a huge ask for Hughes. That Devils team led the NHL in offense.

Still, Hughes can very much surpass 70 points this season if everything goes right. This would need Gusev to play extremely well on his left side and whoever plays on the right side putting together their best season in a while, or possible ever. (Depends on if it’s someone like Jesper Bratt or Wayne Simmonds.) Either way, based on the small sample size we’ve seen, we think that Hughes has the upside to score 75 points in his very first season.