New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes has been on fire in the NHL since winning gold at the Olympics. And yet, the New Jersey Devils are likely to miss the playoffs, and another year of injury trouble played a role.
The New Jersey Devils are playing really good hockey as of late, but they are on the brink of being eliminated from playoff contention.
Since returning from the Olympics, the Devils have posted a 10-7-0 record, yet they sit 10 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. They haven't given up hope just yet, and they remain in the race due to the play of their superstar, Jack Hughes.
Since he returned from scoring the winning goal in the gold medal game for the Americans at the Olympics, Hughes has carried that confidence into the NHL. He entered the Olympics struggling, having recently returned from a hand injury.
With Team USA, the 24-year-old notched four goals and seven points in six games, leading the team in goals and finishing tied for second in points.
Now with the Devils, Hughes has posted 10 goals and 27 points in 17 games since the break. Those marks are among the best in the NHL.
His 27 points rank tied for fifth with the Montreal Canadiens' Nick Suzuki. The only players ahead of him are the Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (30 points), Colorado Avalanche's Martin Necas (30 points), Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid (29 points) and Avalanche's Nathan Mackinnon (28).
His scoring totals would translate to 48 goals and 130 points in 82 games.
He's been the driving force for the Devils, dominating offensively and affecting every shift. His 67 shots on goal rank fourth, and his average ice time of 21:30 is nearly half a minute more than what he's been averaging all season.
The Catch With Hughes
The only fault with Hughes is that he hasn't been able to do it over the course of an 82-game schedule for three consecutive seasons.
In the 53 games he's played in, he's notched 22 goals and 63 points, on pace to finish the season with 25 goals and 72 points in 61 games.
Additionally, Hughes has been able to win his minutes at 5-on-5.
According to naturalstattrick.com, the Devils own 53.51 percent of the expected goals, 55.72 percent of the Corsi-for, and 52.44 percent of the high-danger chances with Hughes on the ice.
Shockingly, they have been outscored 36-41. That is likely due to a .885 team save percentage when Hughes is on the ice.
They are very impressive numbers, considering the cold stretch he faced while the Devils were struggling, and he was still recovering from his hand injury.
Unfortunately for Hughes, freak accident or not, injuries are a recurring trend, and it's one of the reasons the Devils will likely miss the playoffs for the fifth time in his career.
In his seven-year career, Hughes has only eclipsed the 65-game mark just once. In the season he played more than 65 games, he recorded a career-high 43 goals and 99 points in 78 games, finishing eighth in Hart Trophy voting. Hughes did play in all 56 games during the shortened 2020-21 season.
While avoiding injuries can require luck, Hughes desperately needs to find a way to avoid long-term injuries.
One element of his game that he can control is limiting cold stretches. Like every other ultra-talented NHL player, Hughes can go on extended hot streaks, like the one he is now, where goals and points pile up. This isn't Hughes' first hot streak, and it definitely won't be his last, but what Hughes needs to add to his game is finding ways to produce more consistently.
When everything isn't clicking perfectly, the best NHL players find ways to mitigate cold stretches by ending them after a few games or, at the very least, adding in a few secondary assists to help their team.
Hughes did that during the 2022-23 season, but hasn't been able to do that since.
If Hughes envisions himself scoring at a 45-goal, 100-point pace as he did in that lone season, that's what he needs to do: chip in even when your game doesn't feel great.
There's no player more valuable to the Devils than Hughes, and it would be difficult to find many players across the NHL more valuable to their team's success than Hughes is to the Devils. His speed, edge work, stickhandling, vision, and underappreciated shot make him more than a handful to deal with.
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