The New Jersey Devils were decimated by injuries on the back end before and during their Stanley Cup Playoffs series with the Carolina Hurricanes. They entered the series with Dougie Hamilton returning one game after a serious injury, Jonas Siegenthaler on the shelf, and a few players dealing with ailments. Then, Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes went down in Game 1. Johnathan Kovacevic went down in Game 3. And despite Siegenthaler returning during the series, he and Brett Pesce both suffered injuries that limited their abilities during the series.
It was a big reason why the Devils' season ended. And now, we're learning one of the injuries is serious and will keep a player out for part of next season.
The Devils' penalty kill took a real hit when Kovacevic went down, and that was the key to the Hurricanes winning the series. Losing a player like Kovacevic, who is entering a five-year extension after his great first season in New Jersey, is far from ideal. He's a key ingredient to the Devils moving forward, but now the Devils need to find someone to replace him.
The Devils probably can't make certain moves they wanted to make this offseason. Can they really afford to trade away any of their right-handed defensemen if they don't have Kovacevic? Could they move Brett Pesce to the left side to pair with Dougie Hamilton?
The loss of Johnathan Kovacevic complicates the New Jersey Devils' offseason
The good news is Simon Nemec looked like a good or even great NHL defenseman in the playoffs. That's huge for him after a rough NHL season. On top of that, the Devils current roster is stacked with options on defense. There are other injuries, like the one to Brenden Dillon, that could have a lasting impact on this roster, but this is the first confirmed long-term loss.
We also don't know the exact injury to Kovacevic. He's probably dealing with something that's lower body, but the context and the likely surgery he's facing would be helpful in understanding the timeline. Missing the "start of the season" could be a few weeks or a few months. The Devils will obviously treat this differently in terms of roster addition depending on how long Kovacevic is out.