Devils captain Nico Hischier suffers scary facial cut at World Championship

The New Jersey Devils had a massively disappointing 2023-2024 season, and a large part of that was due to the regression of captain Nico Hischier, who is now working on his game by playing in the IIHF World Championships with Switzerland, and he had a scary moment on Monday against Team Czechia when he drove to the net and lost his footing.

On the play, Nico Hischier suffered a face laceration, which was surely a scary moment for Devils fans and anyone watching the game. Luckily, after getting stitches in the locker room, Hischier did return to the ice for Switzerland in the 2-1 shootout win.

After the win over Team Czechia, Switzerland leads Group A of the World tournament with eight points, having two regulation wins and one overtime win. There have no losses as well.

Hischier’s next game will take place next Wednesday, as Switzerland is set to face Great Britain. It will be worth monitoring the status of his laceration and performance in the game, as long as he is good enough to play.

It would be a good reset for Hischier if he can perform well with Switzerland in this event as one of the top forwards.

A big offseason looms for the Devils

The Devils were seen as one of the elite teams in the league last offseason after a trip to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2023. With star players like Hischier, Jack Hughes and others, this was viewed as a potential championship team. The Devils fell way short of expectations, missing the playoffs this season.

Injuries had a lot to do with that, but as mentioned before, Hischier’s slight drop off in production this year was a part of that. In 71 games, Hischier put up 27 goals and 40 assists for 67 points this season, according to NHL.com. That was down from his 80 points from the year before, although not a stark drop off.

Going into next season, New Jersey hopes that Hischier can stay on the ice for the whole year and produce like he did in 2022-2023. The hope also is that a new coach replacing Lindy Ruff rejuvenates the team and that the goaltending and defensive play overall improves.

As far as head coaching options go, it seems that Sheldon Keefe is the top name to watch as of right now. He was just dismissed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, so he might decide to take some time with this decision, but it seems very possible that he will be behind the bench for the Devils next season.

It will be interesting to see the coach the Devils hire, as well as any potential moves they make this offseason to try to rebound from a disaster of a 2023-2024 season.