Jack Hughes will not play for the New Jersey Devils when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, TVAS2, MSG) because of a lower-body injury
The center sustained the injury during a 3-2 overtime win against the Nashville Predators on Thursday after playing three shifts totaling 2:27 in the first period. Hughes, who is on the Team USA roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, left the game with a trainer at 8:27 of the first following a 56-second shift.
Saturday is the first of three remaining games New Jersey will play prior to the NHL Olympic break. Team USA is scheduled to play its first game at the Olympics against Latvia on Feb. 12 (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, USA, CBC Gem, SN, CBC).
“Evaluation yesterday confirmed good news, which is that it’s not anything serious,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said Saturday. “I think we’ll see him on the ice soon.”
After Hughes left the game Thursday, the Devils had just two natural centers in the lineup in Nico Hischier and Luke Glendening. Center Cody Glass, made the trip to Ottawa and will play Saturday; he was unavailable on Thursday because of a lower-body injury.
Hischer, however, did not participate in the morning skate because of an illness and will be a game-time decision.
The Devils (28-24-2) are nine points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
“We believe with proper structure and process, we’re going to be in every game and give ourselves an opportunity to get points in every game,” Keefe said. “We know we put ourselves in a tough spot here but we’ve shown signs of coming back and getting some very valuable points here in the last while to remain in the fight and the effort [on Thursday] reflected the belief the group has.”
Hughes missed 18 games from Nov. 15-Dec. 19 because of a hand injury, the Devils going 8-10-0 in his absence. He has 36 points (12 goals, 24 assists) in 36 games this season, including five points (one goal, four assists) in his past four games.
The No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft has played more than 62 regular-season games once in his NHL career, when he had 99 points (43 goals, 56 assists) in 78 games and the Devils reached the second round in 2022-23.
He missed 25 games in 2024-25, including all five playoff games, after having shoulder surgery on March 5. He was sidelined twice in 2023-24 totaling 16 games before it was announced April 9, 2024, he would miss the final four regular-season games to get shoulder surgery. In his second NHL season, Hughes was placed on injured reserve with a dislocated left shoulder and missed 17 games.