The Hockey Hall of Famer is also privy to the fact the Stanley Cup Playoffs are a grind and the team that wins 16 games and survives four rounds is usually the one with a bona fide star in the lineup.
"The thing is you have to have your lead horse," Nieuwendyk said. "I think every team that wins the Stanley Cup has a lead horse, and Jack's certainly emerged as that."
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Nieuwendyk would know. He played 1,257 games for five NHL teams, and has won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year, Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs, and three Stanley Cup championships with three franchises (Calgary Flames, 1989; Dallas Stars, 1999; Devils, 2003).
"I'm amazed at the talent level of some of these kids that are coming in the League today and Jack is no different," Nieuwendyk said. "He's fun to watch and is becoming must-see TV like Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)."
For his part, Hughes said he was simply "on a heater" this season in setting records for the Devils. He's hoping for similar results when New Jersey opens its best-of-7 series against the New York Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Prudential Center on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TBS, SN360, TVAS2).
"I mean, obviously all the teams that win have their horses, and we have [Nico Hischier], myself, [Jesper Bratt] ... just a few guys that can really play, and we got a really good, deep team," Hughes said. "We like where we're at, and obviously you need your best players to be your best players.
"I think all of us have to rise up to the occasion and bring our A-games entering playoffs."
Hughes realizes this is the time of season when he'll be judged.
"I've been in the League for four years now so I don't need to test myself anymore," he said, "but playoffs are exciting and more of it is a team thing, so you want to do whatever you can to push the team forward. Your game may shift a bit but, that being said, I don't have all the answers either. I have zero playoff games to my name, so I'll learn and hopefully can go on a big run and get a lot of playoff games into my career."
The 21-year-old set franchise records with 99 points (43 goals, 56 assists) and 34 even-strength goals in 78 games. He scored an NHL career-high nine power-play goals and six game-winning goals, and ranked fifth in the NHL with 336 shots on goal.
Hughes said he's most proud of the 43 goals he scored this season. The last time he scored as many was as a 15-year-old with Toronto of the Greater Toronto Hockey League, when he scored 58 in 2016-17.
"I was never even like a .... even at USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (2017-19), I never scored 43 goals, and I was lighting the lamp there," Hughes said. "I think that was impressive. Just getting hot in that stretch in January and February. Coming into the League, I think everyone knew about my playmaking, but I don't even know if people expected me to score 40, or maybe not as fast. So that was definitely something that probably was the most surprising."
