The New Jersey Devils announced Tuesday that star forward Jack Hughes would be shutdown for the remainder of the season and will undergo shoulder surgery.
In a release posted to social media, the Devils stated “In recent conversations with Jack, his family and representatives, the Devils’ athlete care staff, and Devils’ Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jonathan L. Glashow, it was determined that Jack should be held out of game action for the rest of this season and proceed with shoulder surgery.”
“He will undergo the surgery on April 10, which will be performed by Dr. Peter Millett in Vail, Colorado. Hughes is expected to make a full recovery to be available for 2024 New Jersey Devils Training Camp.”
With only 4 games remaining, New Jersey has opted to use an abundance of caution with the former 1st overall draft pick from 2019. Hughes has been playing with an injured shoulder for some time now as the Devils hoped to claim one of the remaining playoff spots in the wide open Metropolitan division.
Currently sitting at 37-36-5 on the year, there’s still a path for the Devils to reach the postseason. However that challenge just became that much more difficult without their leading goal scorer.
Hughes sits 2nd on the team in points with 27G, 47A (74 points), trailing only Jesper Bratt’s 79 point total, albeit in 16 fewer contests. His 1.19 points per game total is a touch off his break out 2022-23 campaign which saw the Orlando native post 99 points in 78 games (1.27 per contest). Although the lingering shoulder injury certainly hasn’t helped his cause any down the stretch.
New Jersey will wrap up their regular season with games against Toronto (twice), Philadelphia, and the Islanders as the race for the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are likely to come down to the wire.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.