Nico in Newark: Devils' top draft pick comes to town

Andrew Gross | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Nico Hischier tours Newark & NYC The Devils' first round draft pick, Nico Hischier, talks about changes that could be coming to his hockey game as well as his life. Monday, June 26, 2017.

NEWARK – Nico Hischier is an old pro by now at moving on to the next challenge in an unfamiliar setting.

The 18-year-old, Swiss-born center, selected No. 1 in the NHL Draft, and the Devils are certainly hoping that worldly experience pays dividends come September at training camp when he tries to make the roster.

“We have a spot for him,” general manager Ray Shero said on Monday when asked about Hischier’s chances of jumping directly to the NHL.

Hischier concluded his whirlwind weekend with an introductory press conference at Prudential Center on Monday afternoon after, earlier in the day, his media tour brought him to Wall Street, a meeting with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and lunch at Hobby’s Deli, where a sandwich was named for the Swiss-born center.

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Hischier, who also attended a Red Bulls’ game on Saturday and took batting practice at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, will return to Switzerland on Tuesday with his family but return for the Devils’ summer development camp in mid-July.

“For sure, after being drafted, it’s going crazy,” Hischier said when asked about the events since becoming the highest Swiss-born pick in NHL history on Friday night in Chicago. “I can’t really believe it. It’s one thing to another. It’s just amazing to be here. One thing that was specially was when I stepped here on the rink. The locker room is cool, too. To be able to do these things is just awesome and I really appreciate it.”

Later, in a quieter setting, Hischier said it had not been decided whether his father, Rino, or mother, Katja, would come to the U.S. with him if he sticks with the Devils this season.

Hischier spent last season, his first in North America, living with a billet family in Halifax, Nova Scotia while playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

He said that experience has prepared him for his next jump.

“It was one step,” Hischier said. “It helps me off the ice as well. You’re more on your own. I had a great billet family, they helped me a lot. They did everything they could but you’re still away from home.”

When he was 15, he left his hometown of Naters to move to Bern, which effectively serves as Switzerland’s capital. There, he lived with his aunt and played on the same hockey team as his older brother, Luca.

“It was hard,” Hischier said. “At the beginning, I missed home a lot. But I found great friends in Bern. And I lived with my aunt and my brother was there was well. I felt quite comfortable. Now, during the summer, I’m more in Bern to train than in my hometown.”

Naters, Hischier said, doesn’t even have its own rink. So, after he learned to skate at age 3, he had to be driven to another village about 15 minutes away to skate.

Much of his athletic success, actually, can be traced back to trying to keep up.

“I was always trying to do what my brother does,” Hischier said of Luca Hischier, 22. “He was stronger and you want to do those things he can. If I didn’t achieve it, I would do it one more time, one more time, one more time until I got it.”

He’s fluent with German, English and French and now equally comfortable in places like his small village of Naters – he estimated the population at 7,000 and described it as “just a quiet area in the Alps,” – and bigger metropolises.

In person, the 6-foot-1, 179-pound Hischier is a mixture of over-abundant smiles that put others instantly at ease and a quiet confidence.

And it’s his personality along with his dynamic play last season both for Halifax and for Switzerland in the World Junior Championships that convinced Shero Hischier was the right fit for the Devils even as the debated raged as to whether Hischier or Winnipeg-born center Nolan Patrick would be selected first.

Shero said he settled, in his mind at least, who he wanted to pick about a week before the draft but did not let any of the other Devils’ executives or staff in on his decision. On Thursday night, he told Paul Castron, the team’s director of amateur scouting, the Devils would be taking Hischier.

And that meant even if the Devils received a trade offer for No. 1, Shero was only going to accept if he thought he could trade down and still draft Hischier.

“I said, Paul, whatever comes our way, I don’t want to leave this weekend without Nico,” Shero said. “Nothing made sense to me without getting Nico.”

At the same time, Shero does not want to be undue expectations – namely living up to what the past two No. 1 picks, the Oilers’ Connor McDavid and the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, have done so far in the NHL – on Hischier.

“What I say is he’ll make a difference,” Shero said. “He’s 18, it’s the upside we see in his game. He’s not coming in to be a savior.”

E-mail: grossa@northjersey.com