The New Jersey Devils have been coy about Nico Hischier for the last 24 hours. There were tweets, Instagram posts, interesting interview answers, and even Lindy Ruff sending an old man wink to make us all wonder “what’s happening next?”. Well, as confirmed by the NHL Network’s Kevin Weekes, Hischier is the next captain of the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils have been without a captain since they traded Andy Greene to the New York Islanders before the trade deadline last season. It was clearly down to three players; Hischier, Travis Zajac, and Kyle Palmieri. Zajac made comments that he thought it didn’t make sense for him to be captain at this point in his career. Palmieri sounded interested, but he’s a free agent at the end of the season. Hischier was always the most sensible pick.
Hischier is now the youngest captain in the NHL. Connor McDavid is the youngest captain to ever get the C in NHL history when he got it at just 19 years old. Hischier is 22 years old, and he’s signed with the Devils for six years after this one. He’s clearly bought into this team, and this could be a good team for a long time.
The Devils have been without Hischier for the first month of the season. It started as a lower-body injury and continued into a stint on the COVID-19 protocol list. The Devils have been very good without him, but they will be even better with him in the lineup. It sounds like that starts Saturday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres.
It’s going to be a lot of fun watching the Devils new captain take the ice. There has been a lot of unhappy situations with the team over the past five years, but this is one of the happier days this fanbase has had in a long time. Nico Hischier is captain, and just about everyone is on board with the decision.