Over the past couple of years the New Jersey Devils have had a rough time when it came to players getting injured. Last year the Devils were doing good and just barely clinched a playoff spot. They went up against the Caroline Hurricanes and lost in the first round. That could have been avoided if they didn’t have so many injuries last year.
How Are the Devils Doing & Who’s Injured? The New Jersey Devils are currently 13-7-1 and are sitting 3rd in the metropolitan division, 3rd in the eastern conference and 9th in the league. The devils have 6 players that are currently injured including Jack Hughes, Cody Glass, Brett Pesce, Zack MacEwen, Marc McLaughlin and Jonathan Kovacevic. Initially, the Devils had 9 players injured and the 3 players that just came back include Dougie Hamilton, Evgenii Dadonov and Connor Brown.
Jack Hughes: Hughes got injured on Tuesday November 18 at a team dinner. He accidentally leaned into a glass and it broke causing it to slice his finger open. The injury was labeled as a “freak accident.” Jack is expected to be out for 8 weeks which would make his expected return around January 8.
Cody Glass: Glass got injured when he lost his balance during a forecheck causing him to fall and collide into the boards. The game was against the Chicago Blackhawks on November 12. He is considered to be week-to-week with an upper-body injury and is expected to be back around November 29.
Brett Pesce: Pesce got injured in a game against the Colorado Avalanche on October 26, when he went down to block a shot from Brent Burns late in the first period and never returned to the game. He was later evaluated and his injury is labeled as an upper-body injury, he is expected to miss about a month and is expected to return around November 29.
Zack MacEwen: MacEwen suffered a lower-body injury on November 12 after receiving a hit from Connor Murphy during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks, he was placed on injury reserve (IR) and is expected to miss an “extended amount of time.” This was MacEwens second injury of the season where he previously missed 13 games shortly before returning. Last he was evaluated he was expected to be back November 20 but as of now there is no return date.
Marc McLaughlin: McLaughlin sustained an upper-body injury this preseason against the New York Islanders on September 26 where he got hit behind the net and favored his chest/shoulder area. This caused him to miss the rest of the preseason and the start of the regular season. His injury is classified as an upper-body injury. He is expected to return around November 29.
Johnathan Kovacevic: Kovacevic suffered from a knee injury during a playoff game last year against the Carolina Hurricanes after a hit on his first shift of the opening period. The injury required surgery on his knee and would make him miss the rest of the playoffs and the beginning of the upcoming season. He is expected to return around January 3.
Recent Players that Returned to the Lineup
The New Jersey Devils just had 3 players that were injured return to the lineup. Those players included Dougie Hamilton, Evgenii Dadonov and Connor Brown. Dougie Hamilton suffered a lower-body injury in November during a game against the Montreal Canadians, He was expected to miss at least a week and returned to the lineup November 18.
Evgenii Dadonov suffered from a hand fracture during the New Jersey Devils Season opener against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 9th. He returned to the lineup November 18. Connor Brown had an undisclosed injury and they don’t truly know when the injury occurred but was out since November 1st and returned to the line up November 19.
To start off the new year the New Jersey Devils are looking pretty good with most of their players being healthy. They have some key players coming back in early January and that could help them get back in the win column and put them back 1st in the league.