Although the 8-12-3 Devils aren’t winning much, head coach Lindy Ruff is seeing silver linings in the NHL’s youngest team.
Lots.
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When Ruff was asked if there were any pleasant surprises after Saturday’s morning skate in Newark, he started rattling off the names of a bunch of his young forwards — Jack Hughes, Janne Kuokkanen, Mikhail Maltsev, Yegor Sharangovich and Mike McLeod — before singling out winger Miles Wood.
“Probably the guy that has surprised everybody the most would be Wood,” Ruff said. “He’s not the youngest, but he’s not definitely old. Wood has been able to produce, score a lot of goals and be a guy that we’ve been counting on sometimes with his energy, sometimes as a guy that shuts down the other teams’ top line.”
The 2013 fourth-round draft pick is one of the most experienced Devils with 291 career NHL games, but he’s just 25.
The 6-2, 195 pounder who has speed, skill and grit in his game already has a 19-goal season on his resume. Thus far this season, his play has been at a higher and more consistent level with a team-high eight goals and 12 points (with a minus-1 plus-minus) in 23 games heading into Saturday night’s match at Prudential Center against the New York Islanders.
That’s a 28-goal, 42-pace for an 82-game season and a nice improvement from last season when Wood contributed 11 goals and 23 points in 68 games with a minus-19 that was fourth worst on the team.
Wood has cooled off after starting this season with three goals and four points in his first two games, but his five goals and eight points over his last 20 are solid production.
His speed and skill showed up two games ago when he took a third-period pass off a rush from linemate Jester Bratt and wristed a perfect short side top-of-the-net shot past Washington Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek. That snipe cut into a 4-1 deficit and ignited a Devils comeback that led to a well-earned road point in a 5-4 overtime loss.
Impressively, Wood has been looking good playing up and down the lineup. He’s been at right wing and left wing. He started the season on the fourth line, but since has played on the first, second and third.
He’s also jelled with a bunch of different linemates. In the Devils’ last game, a 5-3 loss to the Isles on Long Island, he played second-line right wing with Mikhail Maltsev at center and Bratt at left wing.
“In my eyes, he’s probably the guy that surprised me the most and where he’s got his game,” Ruff said.
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