At the age of 23, Jack Hughes has been really an impressive performer in his own right and has certainly ignited the New Jersey Devils fanbase this season. However, he will now be out for the rest of the season after coming up with a shoulder surgery this Wednesday. The star is expected to come up with a full recovery in the coming months and will be definitely ready for training camp when it comes up.

Jack Hughes has been an absolute performer for most of the season, effectively carrying the New Jersey Devils to the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. However, since his injury, the team has plummeted back to the sixth seed after a phenomenal start so far. Now it seems that they are back to the drawing board once more and is likely to fall from playoff contention if they continue to lose games.

Selected first overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, Hughes has risen to stardom with the way he has grown in his games, and it seems that he was even poised for a promising run as the MVP this season. However, it seems that Hughes’ big game will now have to be put at a pause for now as he is slated to recover while the Devils try to salvage what is left of what used to be an amazing season so far.

A Big Loss for New Jersey

It can be remembered that Jack Hughes also had a surgery on his shoulder back in April 2024 and went on to miss the final four games of the regular season back then. He would go on to return to the team’s training camp and has not missed a game since. Being injured at this point – a crucial stretch in the season – definitely hurts the Devils’ chances at a massive scale.

"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 said Tuesday, before the extent of the injury was known. "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."

Hughes tops off the Devils in almost every single category this season. He is the team leader in goals, (27), game-winners (7), shots on goal (229) and average ice time (20:54) among forwards. His total of 70 points matches Jesper Bratt for first and is second in assists (43) behind the latter’s 53 total.

Dawson Mercer took over Hughes’ spot in the second line, joining Ondrej Palat and Tomas Tatar to begin the game in Dallas. That game ended up in a whopping 4-3 loss for the team.

Devils Odds Crashing

The Devils opened up the odds of the season at +1300. But after a series of tough losses down the stretch has set them back to the odds of +1700 at worst. Standing at 33-24-6 in the season, the Devils now have a total of 19 games left after Hughes was declared out for the season.

The team still ranks third in the Metropolitan Division and stands four points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are two games less in total played.

The Devils return hom,e on Friday after wrapping up its five-game road trip to play the Winnipeg Jets at the Prudential Center. The team has been 7-7-0 since January 22 and has gone cold at 9-11-3 to start off 2025.