Hischier's Impact On and Off the Ice | FEATURE

On Feb. 20, 2021, Nico Hischier was named the 12th Captain in New Jersey Devils history. At only 22-years-old in his fourth season with the franchise, Hischier jumped into this new role, looking to lead his team back to success while building a strong culture.

Three years later, Hischier has seen significant progress with his team. New Jersey returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2018 where they beat their rivals, the New York Rangers, in seven games before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Second Round.

In addition to the team success during the 2022-23 campaign and playoffs, Hischier also had a huge season which helped the Devils pick up 112 points, a 49 point increase from their previous year. Whether it was finishing the season with new career-highs in goals (31), assists (49) or points (80), or being a finalist for the Selke Trophy, which goes to the league's best defensive forward, this year showed Hischier's giant impact on the ice.

Being a Captain, one must lead by example on the ice, but Hischier's impact off the ice as the Devils leader was another strong point from this year.

"He's been unbelievable," Jonas Siegenthaler shared about his fellow countryman following the Devils season. "He's still young and I think there's still potential for him to grow. He's doing so much for this team, he holds everybody together. I think he's the perfect fit in here to be Captain and he can still grow. I think he's going to be a tremendous leader as he is already."

"Maturity, he showed a lot," Erik Haula explained about Hischier's impact this season. "He had an amazing season. He plays against the top players, he's able to do the job, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his game and I'm lucky to have him as a teammate."

A big area of growth for the Captain was relying on veteran players to take on some of the responsibility for the whole team which wasn't as much of an option in years past. The Devils had several key players added this season to help including Ondrej Palat, Brendan Smith, and Erik Haula.

"I think (Hischier) hasn't taken the whole world on his shoulders this year, he had a lot of support," Ruff explained. "I think the fact is as a young captain, I think he took too much on when it came to fielding responsibility. I think he was able to put some of that away and rely on the voices of other guys at the same time."

Smith saw the growth of Hischier and how working with the veterans helped the Captain and the club take another step this season.

"You have a young Captain in Hischier and there's so much untapped potential," Smith explained. "We're getting close. So I think guys like Palat, even Haula and the older guys trying to help these guys go through it, it was a very successful year in my book."

For Hischier, the 2022-23 season was a special journey between breaking franchise records and putting up his best numbers to date. As the Captain, he was proud to be the one leading this team.

"Right now this team did it," Hischier shared during his season exit interview. "This is going down in history for New Jersey. This team will always be special and be rememberable. So I'm just proud to be able to lead these guys, trying to do my thing every day, and just help the team out off and on the ice as much as I can."