The New Jersey Devils have had a penchant for bad news with injuries this season. Nothing seems to be minor, and even when X-rays come back negative, it's still not enough to avoid games missed.
Evgenii Dadonov is a perfect example of that. The Devils' free agent acquisition was paired with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt to start the year, giving the team a top-six forward they were looking for at a rock-bottom price. He seemed to pair incredibly well with Hughes and Bratt, as his finishing ability and speed were what the team needed.
He didn't last one regular-season game with the pair. Dadonov got hurt in the season-opening loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Right after the game, we heard that X-rays on Dadonov were negative, giving us hope that the injury was minor.
Then, we learned Dadonov had a broken hand. The imaging he got done on the road was not of the quality he could get at home, and the doctors found a small fracture that needed to be fixed. Still, even with the bad news, most thought he would be back in four-ish weeks.
Well, that happened four weeks ago. So, it's time to get an update on Dadonov from Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Evgenii Dadonov remains "a long way away" from a return, per HC Sheldon Keefe. #NJDevils
— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) November 5, 2025
But why? Why is it taking Dadonov so long to return to the Devils' lineup when even the hand injury itself was considered on the minor side of things? This wasn't a full break of the hand.
Could it be the Devils are being extra careful since they had a good start to the season? Going 9-4-0 to start the year brings a little less urgency to things. However, after a disastrous road trip to the West Coast, some might think there's more urgency than their record indicates.
There's no evidence that the Devils forward faced a setback at any point during his recovery. He hasn't even skated yet. It might be just the fact that the bone is taking longer to heal than we expected. The human body is not as easily calculated as we'd like it to be.
The Devils could really use Dadonov back in the lineup, as the team already moved on from the Ondrej Palat top-six experiment. They had Stefan Noesen there the past two games. Dadonov makes the most sense of all the options, but unfortunately, he's not available for the foreseeable future. That's a bummer.