Progress Through Pain: New Jersey Devils Produce Four 20 Goal Scorers

This has not been the season the New Jersey Devils hoped it would be. New Jersey will miss the playoffs for the ninth time in the last 10 years. The Devils only playoff appearance in that stretch was a five-game series loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018. And since that time the Devils have been going backwards and not forwards. Until this season.

And while there has been a lot of pain this season for the New Jersey Devils, mainly not making the playoffs again, through that pain there has come progress. And that progress has been the fact the Devils will produce four 20-goal scorers for the first time since the 2011-2012 season. During that remarkable season, Ilya Kovalchuk, David Clarkson, Zach Parise, and Patrik Elias all recorded 20-goal seasons. It was the norm during those winning seasons to have multiple 20-goal scorers.

But prior to this season, the Devils had one or two at most in a season. This is progress because the players that are supposed to take the next steps are. Entering the season, the Devils hoped for one or two guys to produce 20 goals. But as the season started to wind down you could see there was a chance to get four players there. Nobody saw that coming or expected this. Which is a good thing as the team is progressing the right way. Maybe not the way many expected, certainly not under this coach, but it is progress.

New Jersey Devils Have Four 20-Goal Scorers in 2021-22

Jack Hughes, who is lost for the season leads all players with 26 goals. Right behind is Jesper Bratt with 25 goals followed by Yegor Sharangovich with 24 goals and Nico Hischier with 21 goals. Most knew Jack Hughes was going to be a dominant player in the league and if it was not for the injury bug, his goal total would be a lot higher. Hughes has the potential to hit the 30-goal mark.

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This is a breakout season for Bratt in terms of points and goals. And the season is still not finished, so he could have the most goals on the team when the final horn sounds at the season’s end. It will be interesting to see what he commands this offseason. The Devils have a tough decision to make with Bratt. Do they sign him long-term for high value or do they decide to make Bratt prove it again with a shorter-term deal?

Then there is Yegor Sharangovich. Many wondered how Sharangovich was going to follow up his rookie season where he produced 30 points (16 goals and 14 assists) in 54 games. If you project those stats into an 82-game regular season, Sharangovich would have put up back-to-back 20-goal seasons. It was not easy for Sharangovich, as he got off to a slow start.

In the first half of the season, Sharangovich just put up eight goals. However, in the second half of the season, Sharangovich has exploded putting up 15 goals. And the season is far from over. This is a great progression for a player that has just come over to the NHL from Russia.

Finally, Devils captain Nico Hischier. Hischier just recorded his second 20-goal season of his career and his first season was his rookie season. The captain of the New Jersey Devils continues to take the next step in his career with the Devils. Following his rookie campaign, Hischier just came up short of hitting 20 goals. If not for injuries and a shortened season, Hischier could be looking at multi-20-goal seasons.

The Future Looks Bright

And if you look at the ages of Hughes, Bratt, Sharangovich and Hischier they are all in their early 20s, which bodes well for the future of the Devils. Especially if they all can continue to produce at this rate.

“You have to score goals to win games,” Hischier said. “It’s good that we can produce and we know it. It’ll just help for the future.”

That future is bright with this core group of players remaining on the team. The Devils have a good foundation to build around as every player wants to be a part of the process to turn this team around.

“You want to be a part of (the future here). I think everybody in here wants to be a part of it,” Hischier continued. “Every player, including me, wants to get better every year. That’s the goal.”

Each year the team needs to show the progress that comes through the pain for the New Jersey Devils. This year was a stepping stone to what is to come. New Jersey must build on it next season or else what they did this season means nothing.