7 New Jersey Devils Players Who Will Fight For Olympic Spots
The NHL announced on Friday they were officially going to Beijing to take part in the 2022 Olympic Games. NHL players have been waiting for this announcement, and now we get to speculate which New Jersey Devils players could represent their country in the Olympics.
There aren’t a lot of Devils players that are absolutes. There is one, and then a few players who will be fighting for roster spots. However, most of those players are still young and will have more chances to make future Olympic rosters. The rosters for Team USA and Team Canada are stacked, but if the Devils can stay healthy, they could have a few players slip in.
The Devils missed out on the 2018 Olympics. There were a few players who missed out on their last chance to represent the Devils overseas. That includes Kyle Palmieri wearing the Team USA jersey one last time, Pavel Zacha spending his first Olympics representing the Czech Republic, and of course, Taylor Hall would have been a shoo-in to make the Olympic team for Team Canada in the middle of his MVP season.
Which New Jersey Devils players deserve to go to the Olympics?
That won’t be an issue in 2022. The Devils players will have all the opportunities to make the Olympic team just like every other team in the NHL. This is a decision that was celebrated by all players. Even the ones who aren’t going to the Olympics this year will still love seeing their teammates in Beijing. The Devils have players who deserve to make the team and others that just deserve a shot. Here are seven players who deserve a shot to make their respective country’s team.
Nico Hischier – Switzerland
Let’s start with the obvious. Nico Hischier is going to be the first-line center for Team Swiss at the 2022 Olympics barring an injury. Hischier is a very good player and deserves the honor, but it is also for lack of depth in Switzerland down the middle. Behind Hischier, the best centers that represent the country are Pius Suter and Gaetan Haas. One wasn’t even given a qualifying offer by the Chicago Blackhawks and the other spent two seasons in the NHL before going back overseas.
Hischier went through a nightmare season in 2021. He started the year with a major leg injury. When he was finally ready to return, he got COVID-19. Then, when he was finally in ice shape, he played five games before he was hit in the face by a deflected P.K. Subban slapshot. That broke his jaw and forced him to miss more than a month.
He had to wear a cage for the rest of the season to protect the surgically repaired jaw, and that obviously impacted his play on the ice. Hischier finished the season with 11 points in 21 games. It’s not great, even for an injury-riddled year. There was some chemistry building with linemates Zacha and Jesper Bratt, but the Devils aren’t relying on just that this season. They brought in some upgrades on offense and defense. That should help Hischier build some confidence in his game before heading to China for the Games.
Dougie Hamilton – Canada
This one comes with some… complications. The Athletic’s predictions call Dougie Hamilton “always controversial”. This narrative seems to be entirely media driven, but the first-year New Jersey Devil is looking to prove he deserves the contract he got as one of the best defensemen in the NHL. If he plays like a $9 million player, it will be impossible for Canada to leave him off the roster.
If Hamilton comes in as a leader for the Devils, Team Canada would love to have him on the roster. We’ve addressed how Hamilton can change the narrative before. The right-handed defenseman could come to the Devils and lead a young roster to new heights. That would make the narrative surrounding Hamilton turn to his on-ice play. Maybe he just needed the right situation. It seemed like he avoided the drama while he was in Carolina. It could be as simple as growing up, or it could be that he found a situation where he fit and grew as a player thanks to it.
Hamilton is years removed from the Boston Bruins trading him away to the Calgary Flames. When the Flames traded Hamilton to the Hurricanes, it was considered a huge deal involving former top-five pick Noah Hanifin. Now, he’s a star defenseman considered by some as one of the best in the league.
He will have a crazy amount of competition on Team Canada. Cale Makar, Alex Pietrangelo, and Aaron Ekblad all play the right side for the red and white. However, if Hamilton proves he is what the Devils think he is, it will be impossible to keep him off this roster.
Mackenzie Blackwood – Canada
The goalies for Team Canada will be the most interesting position battle in all of the Olympics. Who starts? Who are the two backups? Should Team Canada go for championship experience, or should they opt for the young future stars that could dominate now?
Mackenzie Blackwood would be the latter option. The 24 year old has been the Devils starter for a few years now, and he’s been wildly inconsistent. But there is a good reason for that. The first year Blackwood was a pro, he was pretty good for the Albany Devils. Then, when the team moved to Binghamton, Blackwood struggled mightily. That was, ironically, until he was an emergency call-up for the New Jersey Devils. Then he dominated.
Last season, Blackwood struggled again, but he said he had a very hard time returning to form after his COVID-19 diagnosis. That’s understandable, and he was dominant before that happened. He made it three games before getting sick, but he had a .947 save percentage in those three games.
This season, Blackwood has everything to prove. The Devils got a legitimate backup in Jonathan Bernier to take some pressure off Blackwood, but he could also be the starter if Blackwood does struggle. Blackwood is also trying to prove he deserves a spot on Team Canada. Right now, the best Canadian goalies are Carey Price and Marc-Andre Fleury. Both have been known to have a down season, so they could lose their spots as Canada’s starter and backup. Jordan Binnington is there two and has a Stanley Cup under his belt, but he hasn’t been that dominant starter since. Carter Hart is a bounce-back candidate, but he was really bad last year. There are other options, but there’s a clear top five and Blackwood is in it.
Jack Hughes – USA
Jack Hughes was on the cusp of becoming a superstar multiple times last season. He was so close to breaking the glass ceiling, but issues with teammates inconsistency and then the COVID outbreak always put a pin in those plans. Now, those issues should be behind the Devils. Hughes has everything in front of him to take a year three jump into the upper echelon of NHL players.
The center position is pretty stacked for Team USA. Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel (if healthy) are a clear one-two at the top of the lineup. After that, it will be a competition for very different types of players. Joe Pavelski and Dylan Larkin were given the other two positions in The Athletic’s piece, and then Brock Nelson was used as an extra. There is a world where Hughes flies right by all of them and takes a top center position. If Eichel isn’t healthy enough for the Olympics, Hughes should be a shoo-in. J.T. Miller is another player who will be fighting to make the roster. Team USA has options.
Former Devils head coach John Hynes is an assistant coach on Team USA. That could help or hurt the Devils in their quest to get Hughes on the Olympics roster. That experience playing with some of the best players in the world will only help the 20 year old develop into the superstar we all think he can become.
This will have to do entirely with what Hughes does at the beginning of the season. He needs to lift his teammates to be better like he did at the end of last season with Yegor Sharangovich (upsetting Belarus didn’t qualify so he’s not on this list) and Janne Kuokkanen.
Tomas Tatar – Slovakia
This is another lock. Tomas Tatar is going to be one of the top players on an undermanned Slovakia team at the Olympics next year. It’s still a good experience for him to lead a roster of underdogs. He is going to be a leader on the Devils as the oldest forward on the team. It’s not like he’s that old. He’s only 30 years old, but like on the Devils, Team Slovakia needs a leader, and Tatar can play that role.
This isn’t breaking any ground here. Tatar is going to play first-line left wing with the rest of his Slovakia teammates. The next question concerns who else gets to play on the first line. Marek Hrivík of the KHL is expected to be the first-line center. There’s not much depth beyond that.
The only real NHL players on Team Slovakia are Tatar, goalie Jaroslav Halak, and defenseman Eric Cernak. That gives the Slovaks a legit NHL player at each major group. The rest of the team will look up to those three players to lead them.
Tatar still has a tall task. He needs to keep his team competitive despite the rest of the NHL’s stars being on the other teams. It will be fun to see how he responds.
Pavel Zacha – Czech Republic
This one might be surprising to some, but Pavel Zacha is basically a lock to make the Olympic roster barring injury next year. The Czech team isn’t down to few NHLers like other teams. The combination of David Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl, and Jakub Vrana is going to be a very interesting first line. David Krejci and Jakub Voracek provide some veteran leadership.
On the bottom six, the talent drops off. There are some fun players like Filip Zadina and Martin Necas who should make the roster, but it’s clearly a dropoff. Zacha provides the two-way forward that teams need to compete in the Olympics. The style of play that will be in the Olympics next year will be very, very fast. Teams like the Czech Republic will want someone with experience in that type of system who can play defense while doing it. Lindy Ruff’s system is similar to the one used overseas, and the Czech coaching staff could use that to their advantage with Zacha.
Zacha can play both center and wing, which will give the Czechs someone who gives them flexibility. Zacha broke out last season offensively, but he needs to really take a step in the right direction in order to be a lock for this team. The Czechs have talent, and there are some young players looking to prove themselves, so Zacha needs to stay ahead of them all season long.
Jesper Bratt – Sweden
There are a few other players that will be on the cusp of rosters like Jesper Bratt will be with Team Sweden. Janne Kuokkanen will hope to make Team Finland. Marian Studenic is looking to make Slovakia (and he probably could if things go right for him). Bratt is the most intriguing because he could break out this season into a really good player, and the Swedes have a legitimate shot at gold in China.
Bratt would be looking to crack the bottom six. The top six wingers are pretty well established. Elias Pettersson (who would move from center), Elias Lindholm, Gabriel Landeskog, and William Nylander seem pretty locked in the top six. Bratt will have to compete with players like Patric Hornqvist, Andre Burakovsky, Viktor Arvidsson, and Mikael Backlund for the final spots on the roster. Bratt is a long shot right now, but if he can improve his finishing ability this season, he has a legit shot to be on this team.
Bratt was good at some things last season, but his offense just wasn’t there. He took 101 shots last season, and he only scored seven goals. The season prior he took the exact same amount of shots and scored 16 goals. So, what happened? Part of the story comes down to bad luck, but that’s not the entire story.
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While Bratt himself had the same amount of shots in 2019-20 as he had in 2021, his quality of chance was much different. His line had 168 high-danger chances in the previous season, while only hitting 129 HDCF last season. This came in about 100 fewer minutes, but the point still stands. At all strengths, Bratt’s line had 2.8 high-dangers chances per game in 2019-20. That dropped slightly to about 2.68 last season. It’s not that concerning, and his 6.8 shooting percentage shows a bounce back is more than likely. That could be enough to get him on Team Sweden.