The New Jersey Devils released a statement that defenseman Luke Hughes is out for 6 to 8 weeks with a left shoulder injury. This post reacts to this bad news.
The headline is self-explanatory. The more is in reference to Josh Filmon being out injured for rookie camp. With respect to Filmon and Utica, this is more significant. This afternoon, the New Jersey Devils announced that defenseman Luke Hughes suffered a left shoulder injury during offseason training and will be out for six to eight weeks. They stated that surgery is not required but they did not state what exactly the injury was. The “earlier this month” is in line with something that has been passing around online: a picture of Luke Hughes at the Michigan-Texas football game in a sling. That game was this past Saturday, so he really did hurt it earlier this month. Texas may be Back and so are injuries undercutting the New Jersey Devils.
Does this mean the Devils should expect to have Luke Hughes return to activity earlier than November 7, which is eight weeks from today? Not necessarily. Amanda Stein, who works for the team, stated on X that “the recovery timeline puts him around early November return.” This makes sense. Even if the injury duration ends before November, Luke Hughes may need some actual conditioning before he is ready to jump back into the regular season.
This is bad news no matter how you cut it. The mitigating factor is that it is now and not later in the season. A mid-season or late season injury would leave the Devils with little time to develop a Plan B. Even so, Luke Hughes missing all of preseason and 13 regular season games in October is Bad. Not having Luke Hughes on the blueline makes the backend less dynamic, less quick, and less offensive. Should Sheldon Keefe introduce a different way of playing defense, there will be less time for Luke Hughes to get up to speed without having some kind of impact on games that count in the standings.
This bad news is multiplied by what Gerard happened to write about this morning. As of this writing, there has been no update about Simon Nemec. Nemec was injured in the second game of Olympic qualifiers for Slovakia. He was held out of the third game by the Devils. What was his injury? It is not known. What is the duration of his injury? It is not known. I suspect we may not get any answers until next week’s training camp opens for everyone. Or until some journalists challenge the Devils organization with a question or two, whichever comes first. It appears that we would not know about Luke Hughes if that photo from the Michigan-Texas game was not spreading around.
In theory, Nemec can step in and do a lot of what Luke Hughes already does. If he is 100% during preseason and is ready to go for the regular season, then the Devils can just have Nemec fill in for Luke Hughes until he returns. He can take his minutes. He can be the defenseman on a power play unit with Dougie Hamilton – another defenseman we have to hope is 100% – taking the other. He can shoulder the load while the Devils bring in one of Jonathan Kovacevic, Nick DeSimone, or Santeri Hatakka to a third pairing. With Luke Hughes out for at least the first month of the season, one of the main training camp battles has become which defenseman will become a regular among those three.
However, if Nemec is not 100%, then the door may be open for Seamus Casey. Kovacevic, DeSimone and Hatakka may be able to fill in the depth minutes that may open up with only Luke Hughes being out. However, all three of those defensemen are not particularly adept at the offensive part of the game. The Devils may not be so reliant on transition play like they were under Lindy Ruff, but today’s NHL game benefits teams who can carry a puck out themselves and be able to make a good pass and be able to join an attack and be threatening. For all of the changes and additions the Devils made on defense, this component was not really addressed. Because they did not need to. They had a returning Hamilton plus Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. With Luke Hughes knowingly injured up until November and an unknown status for Nemec, someone like Casey can provide the offensive skills that the blueline now suddenly lacks. No, you probably would not want Brett Pesce, Jonas Siegenthaler, Brenden Dillon, DeSimone, Hatakka, or Kovacevic to be the defenseman on a secondary power play unit or responsible for moving pucks up and out of their own end to attack. Casey has the potential of doing those things. Of course, that does mean Casey has to earn that consideration through his pre-preseason and preseason games coming up. If he performs, then the possibility of him making the team and getting some games right away will grow.
In light of this bad news, the preseason games will also increase in value in terms of figuring out what they will do in the meantime. Which is far preferable than figuring it out during the regular season. The games in the second half of this month do not count so Sheldon Keefe and his staff can experiment as they see fit. Plan B for Luke Hughes just has to last for five weeks into the season. Unless they collapse entirely, it will not doom the season. And if they do collapse, it will likely be for more reasons than just Luke Hughes having a shoulder injury.
Now I want to know what you think. I did not like the news. I would think you do not like it either. What do you think the Devils should do in the meantime knowing Luke Hughes is out? Please leave your answer in the comments as well as other thoughts about this news. Thank you for reading.