Things have gone from bad to worse for the New Jersey Devils. After losing superstar forward Jack Hughes to season-ending shoulder surgery, general manager Tom Fitzgerald confirmed on Wednesday that top defenseman Dougie Hamilton isn’t expected to be ready to return from his lower-body injury until at least the start of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“It’ll go into the second round,” Fitzgerald said of Hamilton’s ailment during an appearance on the ‘Krackin’ Canuckleheads’ podcast. “I gotta go back and do the math. It happened this last week. There’s a possibility [he returns]. We’re not planning on it, how’s that? This is what we have.”
Hamilton left a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on March 4 after colliding with Stars forward Mason Marchment in the offensive zone at 18:13 of the first period. He didn’t return to the contest and hasn’t played since.
The 31-year-old could possibly return for the second-round of the postseason, but it’s clear Fitzgerald isn’t confident that will happen even if New Jersey advances to the playoffs and wins Round 1.
It’s a brutal blow for the Devils, who currently occupy third place in the Metropolitan Division. Hamilton leads the blue line with nine goals, 31 assists and 40 points.
“No change in his situation, as far as the information I had from the get-go,” Devils bench boss Sheldon Keefe said on Thursday, per NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale. “That’s really it. With the nature of his injury he’ll do all he can to be ready as soon as he can and we’ll welcome him back and hope to earn the opportunity to play long enough to get him back, but it really hasn’t been on my mind. We kind of turned the page pretty quickly once the injury happened, so you just have to press on.”
Along with Hughes and Hamilton — arguably the club’s two most important players — Fitzgerald announced last week that defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler will miss the rest of the season after suffering a lower-body injury in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 4.
To combat the various ailments, the Devils added defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Dennis Cholowski at the trade deadline, and youngsters Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey are also waiting in the wings.
Still, it’s going to be a serious challenge for New Jersey to remain in the race the rest of the way.
Devils battling to remain in third in Metropolitan Division
Currently 35-25-6, the Devils are six points up on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who occupy the final wildcard berth in the Eastern Conference. New Jersey got a massive 5-3 win over their division rivals on Tuesday, but Columbus still has two games in hand.
The New York Rangers are eight points back of the Devils, but also have a game in hand. After losing two in a row, Keefe’s group has won two straight, and they’re going to need to continue to stringing together wins in the current conference logjam.
The Devils still have a 92.7 percent chance of advancing to the dance as of Thursday, per MoneyPuck, but every game is going to be crucial down the stretch. New Jersey is back in action against Connor McDavid and the visiting Edmonton Oilers at Prudential Center on Thursday night.
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