The New Jersey Devils have a strong presence at Michigan

The New Jersey Devils are one of the best teams in the National Hockey League. They head into the weekend with a record of 19-4-1 which is good enough for first in the whole league. Only a few teams can claim that they have had the same kind of success this year.

With that said, they also have some awesome prospects to be excited about as well. Everyone knows about Simon Nemec who was the second overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft but there are plenty more where that came from.

In fact, Nemec isn’t even their number one prospect right now in the eyes of most people. That distinction belongs to Luke Hughes who is currently a defenseman for the University of Michigan. Of course, he is the younger brother of New Jersey’s star Jack Hughes.

The hope is that Luke becomes as productive in the league as his two brothers Jack and Quinn who are both amazing. Like Luke, Quinn also attended Michigan but he is the only one that isn’t in New Jersey’s organization as he is with the Vancouver Canucks.

The New Jersey Devils have a big-time presence at the University of Michigan.

The youngest Hughes isn’t the only New Jersey Devils prospect at Michigan either. In fact, there are three Devils just on Michigan’s blue line. Hughes is joined on the team by fellow Devils Ethan Edwards and Seamus Casey.

Edwards was taken by the Devils in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He certainly leans more on the defensive side of things rather than worrying about joining the rush but sometimes that is good from certain guys.

His partner is Casey who was taken by New Jersey in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft. He is certainly a defenseman that likes to help create offense which has really been taken to another level so far this year.

Luke Hughes scored against Wisconsin on Friday night at 14:01 of the first period. It was a very nice goal where he one-timed a nice pass past the netminder for a 2-0 Michigan lead.

Later in the game, projected 2022 NHL Draft pick Adam Fantilli scored a goal and both Hughes and Casey picked up the assists. It was really cool to see this future NHL star score a goal assisted by two Devils defensemen in the NCAA.

Without guys like Owen Power (Buffalo Sabres), Matty Beniers (Seattle Kraken), and Kent Johnson (Columbus Blue Jackets) this year, Michigan isn’t as strong as they were last year but the Devils there are still making a marvelous impact. Hopefully, they are all able to play in the NHL someday.