The New Jersey Devils won’t have superstar center Jack Hughes for the rest of their push toward the playoffs and the Stanley Cup.
Hughes underwent season-ending shoulder surgery after tripping into the end boards late in Sunday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Losing him is a monstrous blow to the Devils’ Cup aspirations.
But don’t for a minute think that New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald will sit by idly and allow his team’s Stanley Cup hopes to go up in smoke.
To the contrary – with Hughes’ $8-million cap hit now on the long-term injured reserve, the Devils can use that added space by the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline. That means New Jersey could emerge as a big-time player on the trade front.
Suddenly, any of the centers available at the deadline could find themselves in New Jersey. Fitzgerald has built this team to win now, even if they’re in the early years of their Cup window. Despite the cruel blow of another injury to Hughes – more on that in a moment – the Devils must push ahead and attempt to bring in enough talent to go on a long post-season run.
They now have more than $9.8 million in cap space to spend, and they have three second-round draft picks in 2025 and first-rounders in 2026 and 2027. Fitzgerald has a good amount of assets to work with, whether he can convince the rival New York Islanders to trade Brock Nelson or whether he looks toward the Western Conference and Ryan Donato or Ryan O’Reilly.
In the long term, the Devils have to be somewhat concerned about Hughes’ injury history. The 23-year-old had shoulder surgery last April and missed the final four games of the regular season. He also had an upper-body injury and a shoulder issue earlier in 2023-24, as well as an upper-body injury in 2022-23.
Due to injuries and shortened seasons, Hughes has only played more than 62 games in a season once in his six-year NHL career.
“Jack’s a very important player, so the whole group was feeling for him the other night, myself and the coaching staff included,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters on Tuesday before knowing Hughes would need surgery. “Injuries are part of the game but just the nature of it and all of that makes it tougher and also knowing what he’s been through in the past.”
Given that Hughes is not the most physically imposing NHLer, there has to be a sense of worry about his long-term ability to stay healthy.
Now, don’t take that to mean we believe Hughes is cursed. At the start of Sidney Crosby’s career, he was plagued with head injuries that robbed him of a good deal of time on the ice, and he overcame that misfortune to be a healthy and productive NHLer. That could turn out to be the case with Hughes.
That said, that’s a column for another day. For now, Hughes’ injury means Fitzgerald will get involved with trade talks in a way he really couldn’t before New Jersey announced the news.
Hughes’ absence will hurt the Devils’ chances of being a playoff success, but New Jersey isn’t going to go down without a fight. And that may well change the landscape of the trade deadline picture.
Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
