New Jersey Devils: 3 Options To Replace Nico Hischier For Now
The Devils got bad news about Nico Hischier before he returned from Switzerland.
It’s literally the news New Jersey Devils fans never want to hear. It’s four words that make us all lose hope in a matter of moments. Nico Hischier is injured.
Elliotte Friedman tweeted on Tuesday night that Hischier was going to miss the beginning of camp. He apparently got injured while training in Switzerland. It’s not too serious. Friedman said that Hischier did not get surgery, and at worst he will be out for a few weeks. He might not even miss the beginning of the season. That much hasn’t been clear yet.
Still, the Devils have to come up with a plan. With Jesper Bratt already missing the beginning of training camp (and beyond at this point), losing another franchise piece is just terrible news. The Devils are already in bad shape in terms of talent at the forward position. There were already at least three spots in the opening lineup. Now, there could be up to five. The Devils have enough prospects to fill three spots, but when they have to fill five this team looks pretty rough.
Losing Hischier is arguably the hardest position to fill. The Devils now need to replace their number-one center, even if it’s just a short-term thing. Lindy Ruff is trying to put in a new system, and now his biggest piece is missing. It’s already a weird situation with a shortened training camp, smaller rosters, and no preseason games.
So, one of the biggest decisions of Lindy Ruff’s Devils career comes right off the bat. How will he replace Nico Hischier? Let’s assume the Devils aren’t going to make a panic move and bring in another center. The Devils have some options to fill the spot.
Move Jack Hughes, And Everyone Else, Up One Line
Let’s start with the most obvious choice. Jack Hughes is the two of the “one-two punch” for Devils centers. He was expected to slide right into the second-line center spot in an offense that should work a lot better with his skill set. With a now-NHL experienced Nikita Gusev, a newly-acquired Andreas Johnsson, and a few other supremely skilled options on his wing, Hughes looked like he was primed to come back in a big way.
Now, the pressure is back on for Hughes to step up. The Devils will look to make their 19-year-old top pick their top center a lot sooner than they probably hoped.
Still, putting Hughes there is not where the Devils have an issue. It’s the other three lines where things start to get hairy. The reason the Devils have a shot to be at least competitive has to do with two factors; the top two centers and the two goalies. Taking one of those factors out, and it’s basically up to Mackenzie Blackwood and Corey Crawford to carry the team on a nightly basis.
In this scenario, Travis Zajac has to move up to the second line. Pavel Zacha would likely move up to the third line. Then on the fourth line, the Devils are probably forced to give it to Michael McLeod no matter what. Hey, it’s not a terrible thing to have four 1st-round picks playing center, but Devils fans will tell you, this isn’t the way. It might be the only way, though.
Travis Zajac Takes Back His Spot
Nico Hischier has been the team’s number-one center since his rookie season. He took over that role because the Devils’ number-one center got injured before the season. This sounds familiar, right? Zajac tore his pectoral muscle before the 2017-18 season and was going to miss the first few months of the season. He never got back his top center position that he held for the better part of a decade.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot, and Ruff might go with the veteran to lock down the position until Hischier comes back. That makes a lot more sense if the goal is to allow Hughes to build chemistry this season. He needs to spend some time with the same linemates, and if he drops to the second line a week or two into the season, then it might throw him off.
Instead, the Devils could go to a reliable source of production in Zajac. He has nowhere near the offensive upside that Hischier or Hughes has, but he will play great defense and he can still get 40 points even at his age. Zajac might be motivated to show he still has something left in the tank as he goes into a contract year. That could push him to score more, especially if he’s paired with Kyle Palmieri and Johnsson.
A Wild Open Competition
The Devils might like how their lines look with Hughes on the second line and Zajac on the third line. It definitely makes the forward lines look a lot better, and the depth of the lines look closer to a competent NHL roster when they are strong down the middle. The issue is, who can play on the top line if Zajac and Hughes aren’t replacing Hischier?
Well, the Devils have a LOT of players that can play center. Let’s start with Pavel Zacha. Okay, don’t hang up. Zacha is still a skilled player who just never lived up to expectations. He’s still a quality player. He just never came close to living up to the number-six overall pick distinction. He might be a quality dark-horse candidate.
Ruff could get completely wacky with this pick. McLeod shouldn’t be given a chance based on what he showed the past two years, but he’s a 1st-round pick and somehow Miles Wood ended up on the top line last season.
Yegor Sharangovich has been crushing it over in the KHL, and now he’s back in New Jersey for training camp. Can he really go from an afterthought to 1C in just a few months? Seems like a long shot, but we’re here for any possibility.
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The option we love the most? Jesper Boqvist. The Devils Swedish center/winger was supposed to come on the scene in a big way last season, but things just didn’t click. Then he went to the AHL and dominated. He went to the secondary Swedish league to keep fresh to start the season, and he wasn’t terribly impressive, but he might have been just focusing on staying healthy and knocking off the rust. Now that he’s warmed up, he could lose his mind in training camp and steal the 1C from everyone else trying to take it. There’s an opportunity for a very good Devils prospect. Hopefully, Boqvist comes and takes it.