New Jersey Devils: 5 Goals To Achieve For Rest Of Season
By Nick Villano
Solidify A Top Six
Right now, the Devils keep trying out pairings throughout the top six. In fact, different centers continue to play in the top six. The Devils will have Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier play the top two roles when they are available, but they aren’t always available. In those cases, Dawson Mercer fills in.
When it comes to linemates for Hughes and Hischier, it’s been a revolving door of names. Yegor Sharangovich, Pavel Zacha, Janne Kuokkanen, Alex Holtz, Andreas Johnsson, Tomas Tatar, Jimmy Vesey, Nathan Bastian, and even Mercer himself have had time as a winger in the top six. The only one who really established himself was Jesper Bratt, who is by far the Devils best winger. Sharangovich has been good at times, but he’s still a little too inconsistent.
The Devils have to cut their top-six rotation down considerably for the rest of the season. It can’t be a revolving door for Hughes and Hischier. They need to build chemistry. Of course, there will be some things that impact that. There could be different injuries or COVID cases that impact who’s available, but when the Devils have all their options available, Lindy Ruff should know who his top six should be night in and night out.
That’s not where we’re at. We’ll see how the Devils lineup when they return Wednesday night. Right now, the Devils are set up to go with this top six:
Sharangovich-Hughes-Bratt
Zacha-Hischier-Tatar
Bratt and Tatar have been hot as of late. That means it’s up to Sharangovich and Zacha to play up to their talent level to keep these spots. If the Devils can go into the offseason with that top six intact, they will be better off for it.