"“I’ll 100% do whatever I can with the training staff to be ready for game 1.” — Nico Hischier"
Nico Hischier’s injury is the biggest story of the New Jersey Devils offseason. Hischier is key to whatever the Devils can do this season. If he’s actually going to miss time this season with his lower-body injury, then the Devils don’t have much of a chance in the division of Hell they are facing.
However, it sounds like Hischier at least sees a light where he can make it in time for opening night. The Devils have center depth this season but nowhere near enough to replace someone of Hischier’s caliber. He’s so good at both sides of the ice that replacing him on this team would take two players. He can’t be replaced one for one by Jack Hughes because the defense of that line would plummet. He can’t be replaced by Travis Zajac because the offense of that line would plummet. The Devils would probably be better taking a shot on a player like Pavel Zacha or Jesper Boqvist and hope a miracle happens and they got ridiculously better over the offseason.
Hopefully, Hischier is fine on day one like he says he hopes he is. That would eliminate a lot of problems for the Devils moving forward.