Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year

New Jersey Devils: Pavel Zacha

Those pesky Devils rebounded nicely last season, thanks to the MVP artwork of Taylor Hall, the emergence of rook Nico Hischier and the chemistry each had with linemate Kyle Palmieri, not to mention Keith Kincaid saving the bacon in nets while Cory Schneider continues his slide.

So, you could say the entire team had a bust-out season, wot?

This season, big Pavel Zacha, 21, is going to step into the breach and emerge as the definitive second-line beast. He’s going to track toward getting close to the same amount of ice time, but the 6-foot-3, 212-pound left-shooting center has Marcus Johansson for another year and most certainly will improve upon his eight goals, 17 assists and 25 points over 69 games (which were almost exactly the same totals he had the year previous).

This breakthrough will come thanks to more power-play time, which he should get all the opportunity to do so in this key year for him in his development — and for his financial future because he is coming out of his entry-year contract.

With that kind of motivation, and continued syncing up with his linemates, he should be ripe for the rising up the charts.