New Jersey Devils: 5 Huge Offseason Moves To Get Jack Hughes A Winger

The New Jersey Devils have a lot of pieces in the right places, but they are missing one major piece right now. They don’t have a top-line winger. That goes for the left side and the right side. They’ve tried many different players with Jack Hughes this year. The best linemates he’s had so far were a scorching hot Andreas Johnsson and Jesper Bratt. However, Bratt is perpetually in the doghouse (for seemingly no reason) and Johnsson is ice cold and actually got benched on Tuesday night.

So, the Devils clearly need wingers to help Hughes go to the next level. There is help coming eventually in the form of Alexander Holtz, but his recent struggles in the SHL show it’s unlikely he’s ready to be a 30-goal scorer in the NHL immediately. He is the long-term solution to the Devils’ wing problem, but in the short term, he might be better suited in the middle six.

Jack Hughes needs the New Jersey Devils to find better wingers.

There are other young wingers who make sense. The Devils have tried Yegor Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen. That was at least fun. Theoretically, Kyle Palmieri should fit next to Hughes, but he’s just off right now. Nikita Gusev’s skill should work next to Hughes, but he’s playing worse than Palmieri. The rest of the team’s wingers don’t work with Hughes’ abilities. He needs someone to set up around the net while he skates around two guys to get someone open.

Nolan Foote might fit on Hughes’ right in the long term, but expecting him to fully hit his potential is asking a little too much out of a flawed player. Foote should be a great shooter in the Palmieri mold, but putting first-line pressure right out of the gate could be asking for trouble.

So, the best way the Devils can find a great wing for Hughes is to look outside the organization. They need to add to this roster. The Devils have $38 million in cap space next season. Gary Bettman already said he expects the cap to be flat for four years, so the Devils shouldn’t go crazy, but they need to spend $17.1 million just to hit the cap floor. That’s also not considering the Seattle Kraken taking one of the Devils’ players. If they take P.K. Subban, then the Devils need to find a way to spend $26 million just to get to the floor.

There are wingers out there that the Devils could sorely use. Here are five stars the Devils could target in trades and free agency that would work perfectly next to Hughes.