New Jersey Devils Players Who Would Do Well In Skills Competition

Nico Hischier is the only player on the New Jersey Devils to make the All-Star Team. If the Devils held their own All-Star Team, who would do best in the separate Skills Competitions?

The New Jersey Devils have been relegated to the same area of the All-Star Skills Competition every single season. The last three All Stars were Brian Boyle, Kyle Palmieri and Nico Hischier. Ironically, they were all replacements for injured players. The NHL ended up putting those players in the accuracy shooting competition.

What if the Devils got to play their own All-Star Skills Competition? Who would be the best for what?

Some of them appear obvious, while other not so much. There is a ton of talent on this Devils team, despite the results not working out on the ice. A lot of the Devils issues came from defensive lapses and goaltending issues. There’s also the coaching issue.

The good thing about the skills competition is it only deals with skills. This team has a lot of skill, despite what the standings say. Let’s try to decipher who would be best for each competition.

Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater: Jesper Boqvist

Alright, so this one seems like it obviously should be Miles Wood, and that’s who we picked last year. However, when thinking more about it, fastest skater is more than just skating in a straight line. If he was skating from one side of the rink to the other, Wood would be the pick, however we need someone who isn’t going to completely wipe out. Jesper Boqvist would be a better pick. He’s extremely fast, yet he’s got the agility to make those turns with quickness.

Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting: Kyle Palmieri

Kyle Palmieri is shooting at the best clip of his career. Right now, he has a 15.5% shooting percentage. That’s more than two percent more than any other year in his career. For one, we’d like Palmieri to shoot more, but either way we need to feed off this hot streak. Palmieri needs to see if he can do better than his 20.2 seconds from last season. Only Auston Matthews put up a worse time. We think Palms would be able to cut at least five seconds off that time.

Next. Devils Top 25 Prospects. dark

Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot: P.K. Subban

This one was the easiest one. P.K. Subban is a joy to watch, especially when he pulls up his stick to put a rocket towards the net. Subban has gotten in second place multiple times. He hit more than 102 mph when he lost to Shea Weber one year, then another year he lost to Alexander Ovechkin. Either way, he’s by far the hardest shot on the Devils.

Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars: Nikita Gusev

This one is brand new to the All-Star Game festivities, and what better than the guy who’s playing his first season in the NHL. Nikita Gusev is a trick shot dynamo. The Russian dynamo is good enough to be on Dude Perfect. The basic premise of this competition is putting players on an elevated platform to hit shots from crazy angles and lengths. We’ve seen Gusev score while looking in a completely different direction. He would ace this competition.

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