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With absolutely nothing happening in the hockey world right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’ve decided to take the plunge and write player profiles for each member of the New Jersey Devils.
As was the case when I did them last summer, we’ll be looking at the season they just put together and expectations moving forward.
We kicked things off with Will Butcher. Today we’re moving up front to our Swiss prince, Nico Hischier.
Counting stats: 58 games played, 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists), 18:04 average time on ice
5v5 underlyings: 1.87 points/60, +1.25 CF% Rel, +3.86 GF% Rel, +3.41 xGF% Rel, 99.2 PDO
2019-20 review: On a per game basis, Nico Hischier produced the fewest points of his career (not by much). I don’t think that tells the tale of his season, though. Not by a long shot.
His playing conditions have been absolutely horrendous, to be brunt. He has played for multiple coaches, neither of whom lend themselves favorably to maximizing the potential of top players in the offensive zone. He’s had a revolving door of linemates and been asked to carry an 18-year-old playing out of position for a decent chunk of time. He also *still* didn’t play a steady role on PP1, sitting 6th in average PP time per game even after the forced bump when Taylor Hall and Wayne Simmonds were traded.
Nico matched his best goal pace, shot the highest percentage of his career, and still recorded 5v5 points at a higher clip than numerous stars – Blake Wheeler, Elias Lindholm, John Tavares, Johnny Gaudreau, Claude Giroux, etc. – despite all that’s crumbled around him.
There was also a multi-week stretch where he routinely took over games and was a one-man army of sorts, doing whatever he wanted against any and all competition on a shift-to-shift basis.
That Nico was still productive – and drove play – in such a poor year for the team only provides us with more reason to be optimistic he can turn into a consensus star sooner than later.
Fun fact(s): Nico averaged more 5v5 goals per 60 than high-end finishers John Tavares, Anthony Mantha, Gabriel Landeskog, Rickard Rakell, and Sean Monahan. He was very efficient.
2020-21 outlook: I thought the sky was the limit for Nico in 2019-20. It didn’t necessarily turn out that way because the team was an absolute dumpster fire. That was hardly on him, though.
On top of all that I outlined above, he also had a shockingly poor group of defenders being relied upon to get the Devils out of trouble in their own zone and move the puck up ice. They didn’t exactly do a good job of that, which neutered the team’s ability to get going the other way and create offense.
Provided the Devils make some quality additions – of players entering or in their prime (Nikita Gusev) as opposed to players past or exiting their primes (Wayne Simmonds, P.K. Subban) – I think Nico can *really* take off next season. I'm talking 65-70+ points coupled with quality defensive play and a billion drawn penalties.
The Devils definitely have the assets needed to make big upgrades and get him some help. They just have to go out and do it.
numbers via naturalstattrick.com and hockey-reference.com
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