New Jersey Devils Shouldn’t Separate Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier
The New Jersey Devils have some big lineup decisions to make this upcoming week. One thing they must consider is separating Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier.
New Jersey Devils forward Nikita Gusev is making things really hard for the team’s coaching staff as they wind down the preseason. He has scored in pretty much every role he has been given so far. He found instant chemistry with both Nico Hischeir and Jack Hughes at different points in the preseason, proving that he can probably just be good no matter which of the two is his center.
He is a left-wing, much like his new teammate and former league MVP Taylor Hall. One of them is going to play with Hischeir and one of them is going to play with Hughes.
Hall and Hischier have been the duo on the top line pretty much since Nico was drafted first overall. The question is whether or not they should separate these two now and see how that works as far as creating two scoring lines.
The answer to that question is a big no. Not that it cannot be done in the future for a multitude of reasons, but it doesn’t seem to be the right move right now. Whatever line has Taylor Hall on it is the line that is going to have the toughest defensive matchups. Hall is the center of every team’s gameplan when they play the Devils and Hischier is more equipt right now to take on that role as the number one center. Hischier is also capable of creating offense at an elite level and his breakout year is imminent.
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Gusev is going to score no matter what line he plays on. It makes sense to keep Hughes with him. There are three right wings (Kyle Palmieri, Wayne Simmonds, Jesper Bratt) that will fight for those two lines and the third will play on a really solid third line. Keeping Hischier with Hall is the smart move because they have already proved that they can create and defend at even strength in real games, so they should be afforded the opportunity to continue that.
It is a good problem to have, because if Hughes plays well in his rookie year then you can argue that the Devils have some of the best center depth in the entire National Hockey League. Hischier matched up with Hall is something that everyone should be excited to see and part of it is because the favorable matchups for Hughes will definitely benefit him.
It won’t be terrible by any means if they are separated because Hughes and Hall would be very dynamic together and Hischier playing with Gusev would be elite as well. The Devils have a lot of depth up front and lots of them can score, which is super exciting for all Devils fans because it is something they haven’t seen in a long time.