First of all, you need to know that Jack Hughes wanted nothing to do with this story.
But, because he’s as good a young man as he is a hockey player, he felt compelled to do his part. It’s just that when he looks at his NHL career so far, he’s not the least bit satisfied. He wants to shift the focus from himself until he feels he deserves the attention. So, when a chronicler approaches him with an angle about him being on the verge of greatness at the same time other players are laying their bodies on the line to try to win a Stanley Cup, Hughes gets a bit uncomfortable.
So, in the end, he agrees to answer a couple of questions via email. There has been a continual cycle of focus on Hughes since he was about 15 years old, and now he wants to start proving he’s worthy of that buzz. The time to talk is over. He must now begin to show some things. “I haven’t done a ton in this league just yet,” Hughes said. “You watch all these playoff hockey games going on, with guys putting it all on the line, battling and doing what it takes to advance. That’s where we all want to be as a team, what our young group
really wants to get to.”
New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald is informed of this, and, of course, he’s thrilled.
Having a star player with that attitude makes people like Fitzgerald sleep much better at night. Fitzgerald has watched Hughes progress through his first three NHL seasons, seeing enough after two-plus seasons to sign him to an eight-year extension worth $64 million, which kicks in this fall. “That’s a proud moment,” Fitzgerald said. “It
really tells me what his priorities are. I’ve known that about Jack for a long time.”
A lot has changed in the three years since the Devils selected Hughes No. 1 in the 2019 draft and he became the first player to make the jump directly from USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program to the NHL. The steep learning curve in Year 1 was entirely predictable. Hughes came into the league the way most 18-year-olds not named Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid do, thinking they know what it takes to play in the best league in the world before discovering they still have much to learn. He took steps in his second year, giving more frequent glimpses of what kind of player he could be.
Then came this season, when Hughes showed the world he has the skill set and the mentality to be among the NHL’s elite – when he’s not injured. If 2021-22 taught us anything, it’s that Hughes is on the precipice of breaking out as a major NHL star.
All he has to do is stay healthy. Injuries bookended Hughes’ season – a dislocated shoulder in the season’s second game kept him out of the lineup for six weeks and an MCL injury shut him down with 13 games remaining. But in between, Hughes shone. His 26 goals and 56 points in just 49 games put him in the top 25 in the NHL in points per game (1.14).
Of the 137 players who scored 20-plus goals this season, only Evgeni Malkin, Evander Kane and Nikita Kucherov played fewer games than Hughes. He began cashing in a lot more on the opportunities his speed and skill created, and his confidence soared. “And it was like, ‘Whoa, this kid is special,’ ” Fitzgerald said.
This is nothing Hughes hasn’t been hearing since he was a kid. And because he’s surrounded by supportive people, in his parents and his brothers Quinn and Luke – you may have heard of them – he has a very interesting blend of self-confidence and humility. Hughes knows how good he is, and he’ll tell you honestly if you ask him about it. But the fact that he’s adamant that now is the time for him and the Devils to make serious inroads is an indication that this is a young man whose feet are planted firmly on the ground.
“We want to be better in the standings, obviously, we want to be playing important hockey,” Hughes said. “It’s really hard to win in this league.”
Yes, it is. This is a league where only half the teams qualify for the playoffs and, if that’s not enough, the Devils play in the group-of-death Metropolitan Division in the bigger group-of-death Eastern Conference, where each team that made the playoffs this season had more than 100 points. The Devils are not there yet, and they still have a way to go. Since Hughes joined the NHL, the Devils have finished eighth and seventh in the Metro, with a seventh-place finish in the makeshift East Division between those two seasons. The reality is the Devils haven’t been close. But they are continuing to build, and Hughes is emerging as the centerpiece of the foundation. This season was an enormous step forward for both Hughes and his young teammates. With an average age of 26.0 years old, the Devils were the second-youngest team and the third-least experienced in the NHL. A major breakout season for Hughes would be both welcomed and expected. For Fitzgerald, it’s all about how a player has the capacity to make his teammates better, and, in Hughes, he sees a player who does that.
“You can see how he’s elevated his linemates,” Fitzgerald said. “(Yegor) Sharangovich has become a 20-goal scorer. Can he get to 30 playing with Jack? (Dawson) Mercer, if he stays and plays with Jack, what can he do? (Alexander) Holtz, we expect Holtz to score goals. Can Jack’s game help elevate Holtz into the 30-plus goal-scorer we think we have? I saw it with Sid (Crosby, when Fitzgerald was an assistant GM in Pittsburgh). Pascal Dupuis scored 20 goals with Sid, and (Colby) Armstrong played with Sid, and he raised everybody’s game up. And I’m hanging my hat on Jack and Nico (Hischier) being able to elevate their linemates to another level.”
(And just imagine the points New Jersey native Johnny Gaudreau could put up next season playing on Hughes’ port side. You still there, Tom?)
In reality, Hughes isn’t experiencing anything unique when it comes to the development of a No. 1 pick. The reason they go so high is that the team that acquires them, in almost all cases, has earned that right by being a bad team. The Devils are well-run, young and have lots of good picks and prospects on the way. It should be exciting to see how this all plays out, particularly with Hughes entering his prime and poised to make a big breakthrough. “It was a tough first three years for me and the team with the adversity, but I hope the next three years has more excitement and more wins,” Hughes said. “No one in our group likes losing. We want to be playing the important hockey we’ve been talking about.”
