NHL
Jack Hughes will be re-evaluated in six weeks but isn't expected back on the ice for eight weeks. Ezra Shaw / Getty Images
New Jersey Devils star center Jack Hughes is expected to miss eight weeks after undergoing successful finger surgery, the team announced Saturday.
Hughes sustained the injury at a team dinner Thursday in Chicago in what a league source described as a freak accident. Dr. Robert Hotchkiss performed the surgery in New York, and Hughes will be re-evaluated at the six-week mark.
The 24-year-old Hughes, whose 2024-25 season ended prematurely due to shoulder surgery, has been excellent to start the year. He has 20 points in 17 games and leads the Devils in Net Rating, according to colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s model. Hughes’ absence likely means the Devils will move Nico Hischier to top-line center and shift Dawson Mercer from wing to second-line center.
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If Hughes is down for exactly eight weeks, he will be out until January and miss 27 games.
The current timeline would mean Hughes is healthy before Team USA leaves for the Olympics. Hughes is projected to make the American roster.
The Devils, who play Saturday in Washington, have the Eastern Conference’s best record at 12-4-1. Team president Tom Fitzgerald will have to decide whether Hughes’ injury necessitates an addition on the trade market or if his club can weather the star’s absence.
New Jersey is already without Brett Pesce, Johnathan Kovacevic, Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov, who are on injured reserve.
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Peter Baugh is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in New York. He has previously been published in the Columbia Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star, Politico and the Washington Post. A St. Louis native, Peter graduated from the University of Missouri and previously covered the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Avalanche for The Athletic. Follow Peter on Twitter @Peter_Baugh
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