Colin Stephenson: Devils' Jack Hughes will remain a thorn in Rangers' side for years to come
The Devils' Jack Hughes celebrates his third-period goal against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There was a lot going on the last time the Rangers saw Jack Hughes. The Devils star was enjoying the post-Olympics glow of having scored the overtime goal to deliver the hockey gold medal to Team USA, and their game was the first after the NHL trade deadline. So Hughes’ USA teammate, Vincent Trocheck, was reintegrating himself to the Rangers’ lineup after not being traded away.
Hughes scored his fourth career hat trick, and second of the season, in a 6-3 Devils win at The Rock in New Jersey on March 7. On Wednesday night he had a goal and two assists at the Garden. The Devils again won, 6-3, and Hughes now has 20 goals in 25 career games against the Rangers. It’s by far the most goals he’s scored against any NHL opponent.
Clearly, Hughes enjoys slaying the rival Rangers.
“Jack’s a good player,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, Hughes’ coach with the Olympic team, said at the Blueshirts’ morning skate Wednesday. “He’s a dynamic offensive talent, and he’s also a guy that I think tends to play his best when the stakes are high. That’s something that I experienced firsthand . . . You know rivalry games are usually more emotional, and that brings out the best in players.’’
On Wednesday, the Rangers, who’d been outplayed all night, had cut their deficit to 4-3 on a goal by Conor Sheary at 9:41 of the third period, and the Garden crowd suddenly was into the game. Then Hughes took a pass from Simon Nemec and blasted a slap shot from the top of the left circle through a crowd and past goalie Jonathan Quick to make it 5-3 at 13:05.
Game over.
“That building was starting to rock when they scored that third one,’’ Hughes said. “So it’s nice for us to turn around and settle the game back down.’’
Hughes, 24, is going to haunt the Rangers for years to come. The Rangers missed out on getting him when they won the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 draft, because the Devils won the No. 1 pick and they chose Hughes over Kaapo Kakko.
The Rangers took Kakko, and for the first two years, the players had similar stats. But then Hughes took off in his third season, scoring 26 goals with 30 assists in just 49 games. Kakko, who played 43 games that year, had seven goals and 11 assists.
From then on, it was no contest as to which team had the better player.
Neither Kakko, who was traded to Seattle during last season, nor Alexis Lafreniere, who the Rangers drafted No. 1 overall in 2020, can match what Hughes has done for the Devils (though Lafreniere has been hot recently, and was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week on Monday for his five goals and two assists in four games last week).
Hughes entered Wednesday with 158 goals and 402 points in 414 career games; Lafreniere had 111 goals and 237 points in 447 games, and Kakko has 81 goals and 188 points in 429 games.
The only thing that has held the speedy Hughes back in his career so far is injury. In his seven seasons, he’s missed games due to injury in all except the 56-game, COVID season of 2020-21. In 2022-23, when he played in a career-high 78 games, he scored 43 goals, had 99 points, was an All-Star, and helped the Devils knock the Rangers out of the playoffs in the first round, when they rallied to win the series in seven games after losing the first two in Newark.
Hughes had three goals and two assists for the Devils in that series, and six goals and 11 points in 12 playoff games overall that season. It’s his only appearance in the playoffs to this point.
Hughes said his injured hand — which caused him to miss 18 games in the first half of the season — is feeling good. He has 18 goals and 54 points in 47 games.
The Devils are healthy now, and have won seven of their last nine games after Wednesday’s win. Realistically, it’s probably too late for them to make a charge and get into the playoffs this season, but as the Rangers retool their roster in the hopes of becoming a Stanley Cup contender again, the Devils are going to be a team they’ll have to deal with down the road.
And Hughes will continue to be a thorn in their side.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
