Pucks and Pitchforks
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New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Poised To Turn Around Bad Seasons

By Nick Villano

MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 16: Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning goal on overtime against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 16, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 16: Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning goal on overtime against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 16, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
(Photo by Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Nico Hischier

Nico Hischier has sneakily had a bad offensive season. He’s on pace for just 40 points, by far the worst of his career. He has the same amount of points as Jack Hughes, who is in his rookie season. Hischier was supposed to have a major breakout year, but instead he’s taken a while to get going. He scored zero goals in October while the Devils were losing just about every game. Meanwhile, November has been better, but it’s far from a breakout.

Like Palmieri, his underlying numbers are pretty good. He’s got the second best CF% at 5v5 with 51.07%. He has an 8.3 shooting percentage, the worst of his career so far. What he needs to do is get more shots on goal. Right now, he’s only averaging two per game. He needs to get that closer to three or four per game if we’re going to see the breakout we all hoped for.

That’s a pretty simple fix. The Devils just need to coach Nico Hischier to be more aggressive. He’s been too passive, and with Hall shooting the puck at a ridiculously low 2.8 percent, Hischier has to step up and take those shots while Hall is snake bitten.

We expect Hischier to play first-line minutes for most of the season, if only because his defensive acumen allows Hall and Palmieri/Jesper Bratt to excel in a scoring role. That in turn puts Hischier in a scoring role himself because once they get in the zone, he can just set up shop in a high-scoring zone and eventually get a few easy goals to get going. Hischier is playing well in plenty of phases, but we really needed him to contribute more offensive than he was. That’s why he was just given a seven-year deal worth more than $50 million.

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