There is nothing good about this New Jersey Devils season. It’s been miserable from start to finish. Even when they were winning, the team was losing players on a nightly basis, and it always seemed like the other shoe was going to drop. When Jack Hughes got hurt, that shoe dropped. Hard.
Fast forward two months later, and the Devils’ season is on the brink. They just gave the New York Islanders two draft picks and took on the contract of Maxim Tsyplakov to get rid of Ondrej Palat. The expectation is that they make more moves with the space they’ve gained from the trade.
However, after the Devils held Palat out to trade him, they had to play a hockey game. That game didn’t go well.
The Devils lost to the Winnipeg Jets 4-3. They fought back after going down 4-1, but the comeback fell short. Also short was the bench. That’s because Cody Glass got hurt blocking a shot in the second period.
Glass has been one of the few things going well for the Devils recently. His connection with Arseny Gritsyuk and Lenni Hameenaho has been the best thing going for this offense. Heck, Hameenaho scored his first goal at home in this game. It tied the game at the time, but that was the last time the Devils got close to victory.
Losing Glass obviously impacted the lineup. Keefe already has little faith in the bottom six. He barely played Luke Glendening (who was put into the lineup at the last minute because of the Palat trade) and Paul Cotter in the third period.
If Glass is going to be out any amount of time, then this season might be cooked. The initial report is that he wanted to play, but he was held out. That might sound positive, but that could actually turn into something worse.
Glass wanted to try to play at the end of the second; but being so close to the end of the period Keefe elected not to play him.
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) January 28, 2026
Wanted to give it a go, but ultimately in the second intermission did not feel well enough to play.
Further evaluation needed before any update.
As of this writing, the Devils are five points out of the third spot in the Metropolitan Division, which is held by the Islanders and new teammate Ondrej Palat. They are seven points out of second place and nine points out of a Wild Card spot. All of a sudden, the Eastern Conference isn't that close. And the Devils are one of the teams being left behind.
Five points isn't an insurmountable deficit in the standings, but it is getting late in the season. The Devils have just 29 games remaining. They have a few games until the Olympic break. This was supposed to be a season to put the Devils on the map. Instead, it looks like yet another failure.
With Glass out, even if it's short term, there's nothing to fix this mess.