This has been a season of ups and downs already, but one of the bigger highs has been the combination of Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer.
We all knew that this season was a big one for Dawson Mercer. With his third NHL season’s downturn, a rebound was very much needed. If he could rebound and show that he is improving, there would be no question that he could end up as a staple top 6 forward on this team for a long time. If he continued to show that his game had stagnated, however, his future might be relegated to bottom 6 duties on the New Jersey Devils, or elsewhere.
To give him the best chance at success, Sheldon Keefe decided to put him on a line with the one player on the team who would most likely bring out the best in his game: Nico Hischier. Yes, I am sure that playing with Jack Hughes would have also helped, but if we want to talk about players who make those around them better, the list starts with Nico. If Mercer still showed mediocre play and performance alongside Hischier for an extended time, that would say everything about where his game was headed.
Well, so far into this season, the pairing of Nico and Dawson has not only worked for the latter, but it has worked wonderfully for both of them. Nico is playing perhaps the best hockey of his career to start this season, and Mercer is along for the ride and performing much like we expected him to last season. The two have had a couple of different guys as the third on their line. It has swapped mostly between Timo Meier and Tomas Tatar, but those two have been a lock together, playing together for 147 minutes through the first 13 games at 5 on 5. That is huge, considering Nico has only 27:37 of 5v5 play without Mercer, and Dawson only has 33:54 without Hischier. In fact, they have been on the ice together more than either one of them has been on the ice with Jacob Markstrom, who plays the entirety of the game every time he suits up.
And their numbers together are quality. When together, the two generate a 53.62 CF%, a 54.55 GF%, and a 54.16 xGF%. These pair with an even higher 60.38 HDCF% despite only having a 42.24 offensive zone faceoff percentage when together. They take the majority of faceoffs together outside the offensive zone but dominate in possession, expected goals, and high-danger chances. You can’t ask for more from a pairing. And, of course, this has all translated into plenty of points, Hischier absolutely crushing it with 10 goals and 5 assists through 13 games, and Mercer holding his own with 7 points of his own. After how he performed last season, generating over a half point per game is great for Mercer and shows definitive growth. And if you think Mercer is simply riding Hischier’s coattails, he currently has a 60.71 CF% and a 60.95 xGF% when WITHOUT Hischier. Those numbers are clearly better, but they also come with a small sample size of nearly 34 minutes, so having the numbers he does through 147 minutes of 5v5 ice time with Nico is more impressive given the amount of game time that takes into account. But still, he has been no slouch on his own either.
This season, we have already seen plenty of ups and downs from this team. It already feels like a rollercoaster and it is only the beginning of November. But one of the high points, without question, has been the combination of Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer. Yes, the highest point of the season has to be Nico’s performance so far. He is on pace to win the Hart Trophy at this rate, never mind the Selke. But seeing him play well with Mercer, and seeing Mercer bounce back after the subpar season he played last year, has been a real breath of fresh air as well. He is someone the Devils want to have involved in their current and future plans in a big way, but he needed to prove this year that he was worthy of being involved in said plans. And so far, playing with the beast that is Nico Hischier, he is doing just that. Let’s hope these two continue to beat up on the competition as the season goes on.