The Devils Just Got The Worst Possible Injury Update About Star Center Jack Hughes

If you're friends with a New Jersey Devils fan, send them your condolences because they just got hit with the worst possible news: superstar Jack Hughes is out for the season.

Hughes — who is tied for with Jesper Bratt as the Devils' scoring leader — got tangled up with his 4 Nations Face-Off teammate Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights and went hard into the boards on Sunday.

It was apparent immediately that there was a problem.

It was clear that Hughes hurt his shoulder on the play, but it wasn't clear how badly he had hurt it or what specifically was wrong.

Hughes was not in the Devils lineup on Tuesday against Dallas and at the time, head coach Sheldon Keefe did not have a definitive update on his situation.

However, on Wednesday, the team announced that after some deliberations with his family and the Devils medical team, the decision was made for Hughes to undergo surgery on his shoulder.

That surgery was successfully completed by Dr. Peter Millett at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado with the team saying that Hughes will make a full recovery and is expected to be ready to go for the start of training camp.

Translation: his 2024-25 season is over.

This is a major problem for the Devils. As I mentioned, Hughes is one of the team's leading scorers and, as it stands, New Jersey is in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a four-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team that has been playing really well as of late.

Some other players will need to pick up the offensive slack. There are still some offensive weapons in the lineup, like the aforementioned Bratt, captain Nico Hischier, and winger Timo Meier, but Hughes is a big piece of the puzzle.

Hopefully, for the Devils, a player like Dawson Mercer or Paul Cotter will rise to the occasion and take advantage of their opportunity.