One of Miles Wood's goals over the summer involved working on his hands and stick work with the puck. But there's a caveat to that: Wood's hands were never that bad.

On the contrary, the Devils forward believed his hands have always been decent. When he hears he has bad hands, he just laughs a little to himself. There's just a difference between good and NHL good.

"You guys probably won't think this is true, but I've always had good hands. In high school I had good hands, college I had pretty good hands, but making that step from college to pro is a huge step," Wood said. "It took me two years or so to learn how to use the hands here."

From a very small sample size of two preseason games and one regular season game so far in 2018-19, Wood appears to have made strides in that aspect of his game. Along with skating with his usual blazing speed, he's made quick, nimble plays with the puck on his stick.

He picked up two assists in the Devils' season-opening 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Sweden. That served as the second two-assist game of his NHL career.

"Overall my hands still aren't perfect, I still have room to grow," Wood said. "People say I don't have good hands, and but I just kind of laugh at it, because I think I do. I just learned how to use them now."

His two assists in the opener both went to goals by center Travis Zajac, who has skated on the same line with Wood since the forward entered the lineup late in Devils training camp.

The two, along with right winger John Quenneville, have built a quick rapport, and Wood credited Zajac for that quick transition.

"He's so easy to play with. He's the smartest player I've ever played with in my life," Wood said. "He's so talented. People don't see that around the league, but he's one of the most talented players I've ever played with. On top of that, he's such a great guy to play with. he's easy, he's nice, he tells you what to do, tells you work on this, where I'm going to be next time, stuff like that."

Along with his offensive contributions, Miles Wood's defensive work and his play without the puck have caught the attention of Devils coach John Hynes.

"He definitely looks more mature in the sense that his play without the puck has been good, too," Hynes said. "Defensively he's been excellent. D-zone coverage and coming into d-zone coverage. Those were situations he struggled with a little bit early last year.

"But his puck play is very good. He's fast, but he's not hurried. He's certainly worked on his hands and his stick skills this summer, which is something that he needed to do, and it looks like he put some time in this summer to help himself become a better player."

Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook.