New Jersey Devils: 5 Things We Learned About This Roster In 2020-21

Jack Hughes Is Ready For Superstardom

Jack Hughes did everything this season. He controlled play on the offense. He changed up his game to be very reliable defensively. That showed with him trailing only Mark Stone in takeaways. He took on a bigger role in terms of team leadership despite still being a teenager the entire season. When the team needed a big interview, Hughes was the one who took it (although, he never really gave an answer to anything).

Hughes is this team’s star. He is the building block and the core piece that is going to decide whether this team is a contender one day or a team that is middling until it has to get rid of its best players. Even on a terrible team, there were plenty of nights where Hughes was the best player on the ice. He’s an analytical darling, and he was able to put up some counting stats.

Obviously, there are like six more levels he can go up. He’d be up one level with just a little luck. Jack Hughes hit as many posts as any player in the league. His eight posts were tied with Leon Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon for tops in the league. Look at the other players on this list (Auston Matthews, Brayden Point, Mika Zibanejad, Jordan Eberle, and Sidney Crosby were the only players with seven), this is a superstar list. Hughes just didn’t get the good luck to go along with his bad luck like the other players.

Things will turn around for Hughes. He’s going to be huge for the Devils moving forward, and it’s good to see him become exactly what the Devils hoped for when they took him first overall.