Back home after a Saturday night away in Calgary, the Vancouver Canucks will host the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Arena for the Devils’ one and only trip to Vancouver this season.
Tuesday will be the first game where Quinn Hughes has faced off in an NHL game against both of his brothers, but Tuesday is about more than just Quinn, Luke, and Jack. Both teams are looking to pick up much-needed points ahead of the new year and the newest Canuck Nikita Zadorov is hoping to build on his debut with his new club.
Saturday night saw the debut of Zadorov as he matched up against his former team. The big defenceman played 17:35 on Saturday night and his minute-munching helped lighten the load on the Filip Hronek-Quinn Hughes pairing. Hronek played 21:32 while Hughes played 22:40 and the added depth on defence helped the Canucks rotate through the backend's bodies while still playing into the structure that head coach Rick Tocchet and his staff were looking for.
“He did a nice job for us,” said Tocchet on Sunday morning when asked about Zadorov’s debut with the Canucks. “He’s a pretty smart guy. [Adam Foote] and I were going over some system stuff with him and he grasped it pretty good. I think he just wants to get into this. The trade is over, the Calgary [game too]. He's ready to get going here.”
The Devils come to town on a 4-7-0 run where they have been outscored 36-44 but have controlled possession throughout – holding a 58.1% Corsi (control of shot attempts at five-on-five) over the 11-game stretch.
We will see an abundance of star power at Rogers Arena on Tuesday as four of the top 10 points producers will be playing in this game. Jack Hughes is the lone Devil in the top 10. He has nine goals and 21 assists through 17 games and had to miss a handful of games earlier in the season due to an injury. No player has a higher points-per-game rate than Bro Jack this season as he has taken a major step to become a top-tier player in the league.
As for the Canucks’ point producers, J.T. Miller leads the way and sits tied for second in league scoring with 36 points. Quinn Hughes comes in tied with Cale Makar for fifth with 34 points and Elias Pettersson sits alone at seventh with 32 points this season.
Former Canuck Tyler Toffoli is the leading goal scorer for the Devils through 22 games this season. The 31-year-old winger has picked up 12 goals this season and has been a solid winger for Jack Hughes. Hughes has assisted on seven of Toffoli’s 12 goals this season. Hughes and Toffoli will be joined by Dawson Mercer on the top line and the trio has held strong possession numbers this season and controlled 66.6% of the goals scored at five-on-five. They are the trio to watch from the Devils as 22-year-old Mercer is fitting in well on the top line after scoring 27 goals last season.
The Devils have a pair of exciting young defencemen with Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes.
The 19-year-old Nemec made his NHL debut this past Friday and picked up a pair of assists in a loss to the San Jose Sharks. Nemec played 22:38 in his debut and has been one of the top defence prospects around the NHL over the past couple of seasons after he was selected second overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
Luke Hughes was another top defence prospect around the NHL before he made his debut in the show last year. The youngest of the three Hughes brothers, Luke is now 20 years old and has been playing well in his rookie season. Hughes is in the conversation with Connor Bedard and Logan Cooley to be a Calder Trophy finalist this season. He’s picked up three goals and 11 assists through 22 games this season. Hughes will quarterback the first power play unit where his brother Jack has been feasting this season – picking up 14 power play points in the 17 games he has played in. Jack is not the leader in power play points this season, however.
Jesper Bratt has been a point machine this year with the man advantage. He’s picked up 16 points on the power play this season and those 16 power play points tied him with Miller for second in the league. The Devils’ power play has been their biggest strength this season. Their group is clicking at an astonishing 36% through 22 games, which puts them 4.2% higher than any other team in the league.
The Canucks’ penalty kill will be challenged on Tuesday but a focus from the coaching staff will also be to keep their players out of the box and not give the Devils many chances on the power play. Tocchet spoke about being happy with his team’s forecheck on the penalty kill and how they make it tough on the opposition to gain the neutral zone but he wanted his players to key in on doing a better job with their clears – as a puck down the ice give the group 25-30 off the clock and also gives his guys a chance to change and stay fresh.
Pettersson and Miller have been eating up a lot of shorthanded minutes this season but Nils Åman has been making an impact on the penalty kill and receiving a lot more minutes recently. Åman has averaged 1:42 of shorthanded ice time per game in the five games he’s played in this season. His time spent in Abbotsford as a top penalty killer is beginning to shine at the NHL level and he’s taking some of the load off Pettersson and Miller.
There’s a lot of exciting storylines heading into Tuesday night and it’s going to be another fun night at Rogers Arena. Quinn’s two brothers are in town for the only time this season and the Canucks are looking to protect their strong 8-2-1 home-ice record with a strong performance against the Devils.
Game time is 7:00 pm PT and you can watch the game’s broadcast on Sportsnet and listen to the radio call on Sportsnet 650.
