New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes To Wing Officially A Failed Experiment

Following a disgraceful performance at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New Jersey Devils are making lineup changes. The most notable change is first-overall pick Jack Hughes actually being returned to his natural position of center following an experiment at left wing.

This stint started a few games ago. It was the idea of Coach Alain Nasreddine to give this a try as he felt the 18-year-old phenom was struggling with his position and wanted to give him a shot at something different.

It is no secret that Hughes’ stats are rather underwhelming, especially for a number-one overall pick. They decided to give Hughes a shot on the top line with Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri. This isn’t looking entirely at the analytics, but the eye test showed that line played poorly. Even after they switched him to the Travis Zajac line, it did not get any better.

The experiment to try him out on the wing was an absolute failure. He picked up a grand total of zero goals and one assist during his time off of his natural center position. Check out our own Vinnie Parise’s article from just this past week about needing to put Hughes back to center for a little more. Clearly, this was a move that was absolutely necessary.

After what can only be described as a very disappointing trial, we will finally see him back in his “natural habitat” in Thursday’s contest against the Carolina Hurricanes. He will hope to break his scoring drought as his last point was the lone assist during his wing days on February 25, while his last goal you have to go back to February 11 and it was a power play goal.

I am in a relatively fun mood so let’s end this article with a game. Comment or reply on our social media pages if you think Jack Hughes will reach 10 goals on the season. He is currently at seven and there are 12 games remaining. I will say yes.