Injuries continue to be the story for struggling Devils squad
Now is supposed to be the time for the New Jersey Devils. Number-one overall pick centers Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier are smack-dab in the middle of their primes. Recent highly drafted defensemen Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec should be coming into their own. Add is some quality veteran pieces such as defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Timo Meier, and this Devils team should be firmly in contender status.
Yet this season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. With 46 points through 42 games, New Jersey finds themselves tied for second-last in the Metropolitan Division. A big part of the problem has been that some of those aforementioned players simply haven’t been available. Jack Hughes missed 17 games after a non-hockey-related hand injury, and Nemec has missed the team’s last 11 games with a lower-body injury, to name a couple. With half a season left, the Devils still have plenty of time to get back into the playoff mix, but they’ll need all hands on deck to do so.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton handed out mid-season grades for the Metropolitan Divison teams, and discussed New Jersey’s injury-fueled struggles.
Tyler Yaremchuk: If I can follow along with the school analogy, it’s an attendance issue for the New Jersey Devils. Jack Hughes hasn’t been available. It’s an unfortunate injury, it’s a freak accident, but every year Jack Hughes needs to go down and miss 20 to 25 games with an injury. Jakob Markstrom, Jake Allen, these guys have been in and out of the lineup throughout the season, and a little bit inconsistent. For the Devils, it’s attendance-based for me.
If they can keep everyone healthy, they probably need to add some scoring. 29th in the NHL (in goals per game), and again that number’s lower because Jack Hughes has been out, but if they add some scoring I think this is a team that we can see peak at the right time. So we gave them a C- for their start to the season.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…