The New Jersey Devils have been unable to escape the injury bug. As it stands, the roster has collectively lost 187 man-games due to injury…and they aren’t even at the two-thirds mark of the season.
Disappointing would be a term that many would use to describe the season thus far. Although nobody wants to hear about moral victories in mid-February, here’s the truth: the need for rookies to step up into elevated roles will do wonders for the future of this Devils’ team.
Luke Hughes
When Luke Hughes stepped onto the ice for the first time as a Devil, the assumption was that he would play in mostly sheltered minutes, with Dougie Hamilton being the team’s primary offensive defenseman.
When Hamilton went down in their Nov. 28 contest against the New York Islanders, the plan quickly changed for the 20-year-old Hughes. In the ten games before that, he had received 19:08 of ice time (on average) per night. That wasn’t bad at all, but a solid chunk of that was on the man advantage.
Since then, his average ice time has increased steadily as Ruff continues to push him and see how he responds. Mostly, it’s been a pretty good response, aside from occasional rookie gaffes that nearly every NHL player endured at some point. He’s only gotten better with each passing game.
In the last ten games, his ice time has jumped to a remarkable 23:41 per game, which has led the team by a wide margin. On Feb. 6 vs. Colorado, Hughes was tasked with facing primarily Nathan Mackinnon’s line and held his own defensively en route to snapping Mackinnon’s 14-game point streak.
Hughes is only 20, and the offensive ability is clearly there. He’s set to be an integral part of this Devils core for years to come. But the opportunity for him to adapt against some of the league’s top talent and learn tough lessons on the defensive side of the puck will pay off big time in future seasons.
Simon Nemec
Unlike Hughes, the 19-year-old Simon Nemec didn’t even make the team out of camp. There was an emphasis on not wanting two rookie defensemen on the blue line, which was understandable with the recent loss of two veterans: Damon Severson and Ryan Graves.
With Hamilton suddenly out of the equation, the Devils were left with little choice. Nemec made his NHL debut on Dec. 1 at home against the San Jose Sharks. The Devils needed to quickly find out whether or not he was capable of filling a prominent role, so he was instantly thrown to the wolves. He played over 22 minutes in his first game. And surprisingly, he responded better than anyone would have expected.
Despite being a teenager, he’s shown an ability to play an effective two-way game and even mix it up when need be. A few weeks ago in Boston, he got into it with Brad Marchand, and the two went back and forth throughout the game.
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His stick play has mostly been phenomenal, and he’s not shied away from getting pucks toward the net…two things that rookie d-men typically struggle with. His 14 points in 32 games would put him on a ~36-point pace over an entire season. And again, he’s one of the youngest defensemen in the entire league. He will only get better from here.
Yes, losing a veteran right-handed shot like Severson has hurt the Devils this season. But Nemec’s ceiling is way higher than Severson’s ever was, and the lessons he’s learning now will benefit the Devils immensely.
Best of all, he’s seemingly been unphased from the beginning. When interviewed after his first-ever period in the NHL, he exclaimed it was “just another game.”
This mindset and attitude are clearly shown in his play, as watching from afar would allow Nemec to easily be mistaken for a 10-year vet. No, he hasn’t been perfect, but no defenseman who’s that young ever will be. What he’s brought to the table so far likely makes the Devils feel very lucky for the future of their defensive corps.
If this is how he’s playing now, how will he perform in his prime? It’s going to be exciting to find out.
Overall Bright Future
With such high expectations to begin the season, many are (understandably) disappointed thus far. But the young defense has continued to improve, to the tune of just six goals against in their last four contests.
If this season were to end up a failure, there’s a lot of reason for optimism in the future, and that begins with guys like Hughes and Nemec improving a ton thanks to their current roles.
p.s…Honorable mention here to Santeri Hatakka. He was called up for seven games in the absence of Brendan Smith, and he notched two assists with an impressive plus-7 rating. He just turned 23 himself.
And Seamus Casey, who is a single point behind Lane Hutson for the NCAA defenseman scoring lead, is still making his way through the pipeline. The Devils will be just fine, even if it unfortunately took this one hiccup year to get there.
