The injuries continue to pile up for the New Jersey Devils, this time to another defenseman against the Montreal Canadiens.
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Dougie Hamilton left the second period of the Devils’ game with an undisclosed injury. Hamilton took just one shift in the middle frame, before he exited at around the five-minute mark.
He did not emerge from the Devils’ locker room for the third period, and his night ended with 10:09 time on ice, and one shot on goal.
After the Devils defeated Montreal 3-2 in overtime, Sheldon Keefe did not have an update on Hamilton’s status. The Devils coach wouldn’t disclose if it was an upper or lower-body injury, either.
Keefe explained Hamilton will be re-evaluated on Friday to get a better sense of the injury.
According to Ryan Novozinsky, Hamilton is dealing with a lower-body injury.
The Devils are already dealing with a handful of key injuries. They started the season without the services of Johnathan Kovacevic, who had offseason knee surgery and isn’t expected back until at least the New Year.
Brett Pesce was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, retroactive to October 26th, and isn’t expected back for a few more weeks.
Hamilton’s injury is untimely, with so many key Devils already missing from the lineup.
In the forward group, Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov remain sidelined. The former is close, but the latter is not.
Coming into Thursday night, the Devils man-games lost total was up to 69.
Hamilton is having a rebound season after a down year in 2024-25. He’s scored four goals and seven points through 13-plus games this season. However, his defensive game has taken strides the Devils perhaps didn’t expect this season.
The Devils star defenseman has seen a bit of an unlucky streak of injuries in the last few seasons, missing 62 games in 2023-24, and 18 games at the end of 2024-25, and watching from the press box for during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Now down Pesce, and potentially Hamilton for the next little while, the Devils are down to four regular blueliners. Said defenders include Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, Brenden Dillon, and Jonas Siegenthaler.
