The New Jersey Devils have had some of the worst injury luck this season. They've already lost Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier at the same time. Timo Meier has been in and out of the lineup. Dougie Hamilton is probably out for the season or at least the regular season. Ondrej Palat is currently out of the lineup. Nolan Foote never even had a chance to make the roster. Tomas Nosek has been on injured reserve for a long time. The injuries keep coming.
Jack Hughes is out again with what looks like a wrist injury. We got no injury update from Lindy Ruff and the Devils on Saturday night, but we did get one from Sportsnet Insider Elliotte Friedman. During his Saturday Headlines segment, Friedman says the Devils are optimistic after Hughes hurt himself.
"The sense is that the Devils are optimistic that this can avoid surgery, and that's the best-case scenario. "Elliotte Friedman
Friedman went on to say this is believed to be an arm injury and not a leg injury, which was made clear when the Devils called this an "upper-body injury." Hughes has been dealing with shoulder issues for most of the season. Many believe it's a reason he went from a Hart Trophy candidate to just a really good player as of late.
The Devils also lost Jonas Siegenthaler on Saturday night, adding to the injury list that's getting too long to count. They also put Meier on IR, which shows that his injury is more significant than we hoped. The season is quickly becoming a nightmare, and injuries are very high on the list of things to blame.
Hughes will hopefully be back soon. The schedule is insane in January, with matchups with the Bruins, Golden Knights, Hurricanes, Stars, Panthers, and two games against the Lightning still coming up before the All-Star Break. The hope is Hughes is back as soon as physically possible so he can keep this team in a playoff spot.