Some facts don’t become obvious until you really take a look at them. That’s the case with the New Jersey Devils. There has been no reason to really take a look at them from a rankings standpoint because the team hasn’t been competitive. They were fighting to stay out of the Metropolitan Division’s basement last season, so who cares where their roster stands?
Well, with Tom Fitzgerald finally gone and Sunny Mehta in charge, anything is possible. Now, we can take a look at the Devils and have a real conversation about their ceiling. At least, as long as Jack Hughes stays away from the steakhouse this year.
Speaking of Hughes, it’s not a surprise that the Devils move with him. If Hughes is going, the Devils are winning. If he’s injured, then the Devils are losing. That’s how it’s been for four years now.
The one season that Hughes was fully healthy in the last four seasons, they were so good they broke their franchise record for standings points in a season. Even last season, when Hughes was playing without a cast, the Devils were rolling. When Hughes got hurt, the Devils were 12-4-1. From their Olympic return to the end of the season, the Devils were 14-10-1. Together, that’s 26-14-2. That’s a 105-point pace, which would have been good for second in the Metropolitan Division.
Someone who hasn’t had to worry about injuries as much is Nico Hischier. He played all 82 games last season, but his numbers were not where they should be. He was incredibly unlucky on the offensive side, and he was asked to take on a lot of the defensive responsibilities, which was a very strange way to treat an offensively gifted line of Hischier-Timo Meier-Dawson Mercer.
That said, this is still the best one-two punch in the Metropolitan Division. That’s not a surprise. What is a surprise is that both Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier would be the number-one center on just about every Metro team.
The New Jersey Devils have the two best centers in the Metropolitan Division
There are two options that could make an argument. There is no center on the Rangers, Capitals, Flyers, Blue Jackets, and Islanders who is in the same conversation as Nico Hischier or Jack Hughes. There could be an argument for Sidney Crosby or Sebastian Aho.
However, Crosby is finally starting to show a little bit of his age. Aho and Hischier can be interchangeable depending on the week. The Hurricanes just won the championship, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Still, the Devils are in an incredible position going into the 2026-27 season. They have, at worst, two of the top three centers in the NHL. In reality, Hischier would probably play first line for every other team in the Metropolitan Division.
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