A Season Hanging in the Balance: Why the New Jersey Devils’ Health Crisis and a Rookie Breakout Are Defining the Franchise’s Future. The Devils did not play last night, but they have a game tonight, February 3, 2026, at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

Upcoming Schedule

The Devils are playing their final few games before the 2026 Winter Olympics break, which begins on February 6. 

• Broadcast Info: Tonight’s matchup will be televised on MSG Sportsnet and is available for streaming via the official NHL Gamecenter.
• Last Outing: The Devils’ most recent game was on Saturday, January 31, where they lost 4–1 to the Ottawa Senators.

The New Jersey Devils entered the heart of winter believing they were finally positioned to turn elite talent into sustained contention. Instead, as the Metropolitan Division tightens and every point becomes magnified, the organization finds itself navigating a season that now feels dictated less by tactics or matchups and more by medical reports and lineup availability.

With 28 wins on the board and buried in the traffic jam of the Metropolitan race, the Devils are living in the NHL’s most uncomfortable reality: close enough to the playoff picture to justify urgency, but far enough away that even a small stumble can turn into a season-defining slide. In that narrow space, injuries have become more than an inconvenience. They are actively reshaping how this roster functions, how management evaluates its options, and how the future of this core is being accelerated in real time.

No player symbolizes that tension more clearly than Jack Hughes.

The Devils escaped their latest outing with an overtime win against Nashville, but the result felt secondary once Hughes quietly disappeared from the bench. His night lasted just over two minutes across three short shifts. A test skate teased a return. It never came. By the time the game ended, the concern had already shifted from the scoreboard to the training room.

Postgame confirmation that the issue was lower body — and not related to the hand injury that derailed much of his season earlier — offered limited relief. Imaging was scheduled. His short-term availability remained uncertain. And for a team already operating with razor-thin margin, uncertainty is almost as damaging as a confirmed absence.

This is not simply about missing a star. It is about losing the structural centerpiece of how the Devils generate offense, manipulate defensive matchups, and break pressure at even strength.

Since returning from his finger injury, Hughes has produced 16 points in 19 games. On paper, that is respectable production. On the ice, the difference has been visible. He has not consistently played with the same explosiveness through traffic or the same confidence in tight puck battles. Even so, his presence alone changes how opponents deploy their best defenders and checking lines. The Devils’ lineup is constructed around that gravitational pull.

Without Hughes, the center depth chart becomes alarmingly thin. Nico Hischier remains the lone proven two-way pivot capable of absorbing top competition. Dawson Mercer, Paul Cotter and Luke Glendening can fill minutes, but asking that group to shoulder extended matchup responsibility against playoff-caliber opponents is a dangerous gamble — particularly on the road.

That concern is amplified by the status of Cody Glass, who has quietly become one of the Devils’ most stabilizing forwards over the past several weeks. Before a leg injury suffered on a blocked shot, Glass had delivered six goals and nine points over a nine-game stretch, while providing reliable defensive structure and forecheck pressure in the middle of the lineup. His potential return helps. It does not solve the problem created by a missing Hughes.

The calendar only sharpens the anxiety.

With just a handful of games remaining before the Olympic break, the Devils realistically cannot climb back into a secure playoff position before league play pauses. The window to stabilize their season is now. Dropping games while icing a depleted lineup risks turning a precarious race into a statistical long shot.

That context also reframes the organization’s recent roster move.

General manager Tom Fitzgerald finally made a decisive in-season adjustment, sending Ondrej Palat and draft capital out in exchange for Maxim Tsyplakov. The transaction did more than add a physical winger with legitimate scoring touch — it removed a burdensome contract and cleared meaningful cap space for future flexibility. From a long-term roster construction standpoint, it was a logical and necessary correction.

But timing matters.

Cap flexibility only becomes a competitive weapon if the roster can actually support an aggressive push. If Hughes is sidelined for multiple games and the Devils limp into the break shorthanded down the middle, the incentive to leverage newly created financial room for short-term reinforcements becomes far more complicated. Mortgaging future assets for a late-season charge makes little sense if the lineup cannot realistically sustain it.

And this is where the Devils’ injury problem becomes truly systemic.

Jack Hughes is not the only missing piece.

On the blue line, Luke Hughes’ shoulder injury removed the one defenseman on the roster capable of consistently transforming defensive recoveries into controlled exits with speed. His skating allowed the Devils to bypass forechecking pressure and compress the neutral zone before opposing structures could reset. Without him, New Jersey’s transition game slows noticeably.

The ripple effect has been immediate. More responsibility has fallen onto Dougie Hamilton and Simon Nemec to create offense from the back end. Both can distribute and activate in-zone. Neither replicates Luke Hughes’ ability to transport the puck under pressure. That gap has subtly altered how the Devils attack, often forcing more reliance on chip-and-chase entries and extended zone time rather than clean rush opportunities.

Ironically, Jack Hughes had already begun to compensate for that structural loss by rotating deeper into breakout sequences and supporting defensemen near the points. With both Hughes brothers unavailable, even temporarily, the Devils lose two of their most efficient puck movers in different layers of the ice. That is not a coincidence. It is a tactical vulnerability.

Against opponents still fighting for postseason survival, such as Ottawa, that weakness becomes magnified. These are not low-stakes games. They are four-point nights. Lose one, and the damage extends beyond the standings — it reshapes the psychological margin for error inside the room.

Yet, buried inside this frustrating season, a genuine bright spot has emerged.

Lenni Hameenaho is not saving the Devils’ campaign. That burden would be unreasonable for any rookie. What he is doing, however, is providing a rare and meaningful glimpse into what this organization’s next competitive iteration may look like.

Called up only weeks ago, the 2023 second-round selection has played with a maturity that belies his limited NHL experience. His early production — two goals and two assists in seven games — tells only part of the story. What stands out far more is how consistently play tilts in the Devils’ favor when he is on the ice at five-on-five.

In controlled possession metrics and quality scoring chance generation, Hameenaho has already driven results at a level typically associated with established middle-six forwards. His expected goal share has remained north of sixty percent across multiple games, even as his deployment has grown more demanding with each passing night.

Sheldon Keefe’s usage tells the deeper story.

Hameenaho has not been sheltered. He has faced top-six forwards. He has drawn difficult defensive matchups. He has been placed alongside both young linemates and veteran centers. And in several instances, he has been tasked with absorbing minutes against opposing first lines, not merely surviving them.

In his NHL debut in Calgary, Hameenaho held his own against Nazem Kadri in extended five-on-five minutes, driving play decisively in New Jersey’s favor. The following night in Edmonton, he recorded a perfect expected goal share during his ice time — an extraordinary statistical outlier, regardless of competition level.

The real statement came in Vancouver.

Matched frequently against a Canucks top line featuring Brock Boeser and Filip Chytil, Hameenaho not only survived the matchup but dominated it territorially. He recorded his first NHL goal and assist in the same game, while finishing with the strongest overall performance on the Devils’ bench. It was the type of breakout game that alters internal perception of a prospect almost overnight.

Even when the results became more mixed — as they did against Seattle and Winnipeg — the trust from the coaching staff never wavered. Against the Jets’ elite top line anchored by Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, Hameenaho experienced his first truly punishing assignment. The raw possession numbers dipped. The context, however, was revealing. A rookie winger was deployed directly into one of the league’s most dangerous matchups, with last change available. That is not accidental.

The trend continued against Nashville, where Hameenaho again drew a difficult blend of top-line forwards and a premier defensive pair. While some of his individual matchups proved challenging, his overall on-ice impact rebounded sharply. He finished the night as one of the Devils’ most effective players at even strength.

The reality of rookie development finally surfaced in Ottawa.

Facing another elite forward group, Hameenaho struggled along with the rest of the lineup. The Devils were collectively overwhelmed. His metrics dipped into the red. That is not unusual. It is development.

What matters is the larger pattern.

Across seven games, Hameenaho has demonstrated strong puck support, intelligent spacing in the offensive zone, and a surprising level of composure under forecheck pressure. His playmaking instincts fit seamlessly within the Devils’ speed-based attack identity. Just as importantly, he has shown he can remain defensively responsible while still pushing pace — a combination that earns ice time quickly in Keefe’s system.

For a team whose current roster has underperformed relative to expectations, Hameenaho’s emergence is quietly reshaping internal optimism about the near future. It is one of the few developments this season that meaningfully strengthens the long-term outlook without requiring projection gymnastics.

For Devils fans following the organization’s broader trajectory, this kind of development is central to the franchise’s next competitive cycle — a cycle chronicled throughout Explore New Jersey’s in-depth New Jersey Devils coverage, which continues to track how young talent is reshaping the club’s identity and future direction.

That future, however, cannot fully materialize until the present stabilizes.

The Devils’ biggest challenge is no longer tactical alignment or lineup chemistry. It is durability. Freak injuries, blocked shots, and awkward collisions have accumulated into a season-wide structural issue. When a roster is built around speed, puck movement, and layered support through the middle of the ice, losing multiple high-skill transition players simultaneously is more destabilizing than losing a single top scorer.

Jack Hughes remains the hinge point.

Whether he misses one game or several, the next stretch will reveal how resilient the Devils truly are without their offensive engine. Asking Nico Hischier to carry matchup minutes, defensive responsibility, and scoring burden simultaneously is a recipe for exhaustion over time. Asking a thin center group to replicate Hughes’ impact is simply unrealistic.

At the same time, the continued integration of Lenni Hameenaho offers a compelling reminder that the Devils are not devoid of upward momentum. The organization’s player development pipeline is delivering. The question is whether the current season can survive long enough for that progress to matter in the standings.

If both Hughes brothers remain sidelined for any meaningful stretch, the consequences extend well beyond a few lost games. The Devils’ transition structure, matchup flexibility, and scoring depth would all be compromised simultaneously. In a conference where playoff races routinely come down to one or two points, that combination can quietly erase months of work.

The season is not over.

But it is balanced precariously on health, timing, and the ability of a young roster — now leaning heavily on both its franchise star and its newest rookie revelation — to navigate one of the most unforgiving stretches of the NHL calendar.