7 New Jersey Devils Players Who Will Fight For Olympic Spots
By Nick Villano
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.