The New Jersey Devils are so lucky to have Nico Hischier.
The New Jersey Devils undoubtedly made the right decision when they selected Nico Hischier with the first-overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. He is a center that came from the Halifax Mooseheads organization that rose to the top of draft boards with his play in the second half of the 2016-17 season. This included a dominant run in the World Juniors that year for team Switzerland. Since his arrival in the NHL, there is still a lot to work on, but he is certainly one impressive young man.
His all-around game is strong. He is going to be a great player for the Devils on the ice for a long time. That will be especially true when he is pouring out points to go along with his awesome two-way game. Once that happens, we could be talking about a Selke-Trophy level centerman for the Devils.
Well, for as good as Hischier is on the ice, he is a brilliant human being off of it. Over the last week, Nico has participated in his Military Duty for Switzerland. That is notable since he is exempt from his duty because he is living abroad. He still went anyway to participate and that shows how good of a person and leader he is.
It is rare for a player this good and this young to be so good off the ice. Hischier is exactly what you would want in a long term captain. He went back to Switzerland and is participating in military activity even though he doesn’t have to because of his talent for playing a game. Things like this are reasons to be so proud of the kid for many different reasons.
There is little doubt in a lot of people’s minds that he should be the captain one day. There isn’t even a sense of naming someone else in the short term at this point. They might as well just give it to Nico now and let him take over the direction of this franchise on the ice. He is capable of being the face of the franchise. He will be much more noticed when the points come a little bit more frequently but for now, he remains super underrated.