It is the never-ending story or the song that never ends when it comes to the New Jersey Devils, who continue to deal with injuries to key players in the lineup. Already missing Johnathan Kovacevic, Evgeni Dadonov, Brett Pesce, and Zach MacEwen, the Devils will now be missing defenseman Dougie Hamilton and forward Connor Brown.
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Hamilton was injured in the Devils 4-3 overtime victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. It is unclear where Hamilton actually sustained the injury, but it is believed to be a non-contact lower-body injury suffered in the second period on Thursday. While head coach Sheldon Keefe did not provide an update on Thursday regarding his defenseman’s status, he said only that Hamilton was being evaluated.
However, the New Jersey Devils will be without their defenseman for a bit, as the team hopes it isn’t longer than the projected timeline given by Sheldon Keefe before the Devils game on Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Dougie, it’s a minor injury gonna be by a minimum of a week for him, and then from that point just be a matter of how he’s feeling in terms of like he’ll come back,” Keefe said.
This is a massive blow to the Devils lineup, especially their right side of their defense. Devils President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald did not want to go through the 2023-24 season all over again with young players not being able to develop in the AHL as they adapt to the NHL. Outside of the 1% of players who can come into the league and transition easily, it takes time. The NHL isn’t a developmental league.
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To ask young defensemen to punch above their weight class for long periods of time is not sustainable, especially for a team that has high expectations of making it to the playoffs this season. Thus, Seamus Casey went to the AHL to develop and mature his game. Colton White is expected to give the New Jersey Devils an option on the bottom pair of the defence.
So at some point, the Devils will look to add a quality sixth or seventh defenseman they can trust to log some bottom pair minutes and maybe even more. Kovacevic and Pesce are not walking through that door anytime soon.
The earliest timeline for Kovacevic is sometime in January 2026. Brett Pesce is going to be out for a period of time, given that the MSG Network cameras showed him with a cast on his right wrist. The best-case scenario for the Devils is that Hamilton is out for at least a week.
And for anyone out there who thought trading Hamilton in the summer was a good idea, the New Jersey Devils would not be in the position they are in without him. He has taken strides under new assistant coach Brad Shaw. Not to mention their power play no longer doesn’t have the blast from the blueline that can scare teams.
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Luke Hughes still has issues getting the puck through from the point. That is something he will need to work on. But Hamilton isn’t the only player who will be missing more time. Connor Brown remains out of the lineup.
Again, it is an undisclosed injury; something is clearly off with Brown. He got injured in the San Jose Sharks game and didn’t play in the first two games of the four-game road trip in Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Though he practiced this past Wednesday, he missed the morning skate on Thursday and didn’t play against the Canadiens. Brown is not close to returning to the Devils lineup.
“Connor’s status is unchanged,” Keefe said. “He needs some more time for things to resolve here. We’re not expecting it to be too long, but his return is not imminent at this point.”
This is such a massive blow to the depth of the New Jersey Devils forward group. Brown was playing so well on the third line with Cody Glass and Arseny Gritsyuk before Gritsyuk got bumped up to the second line. Brown has such deceptive speed five-on-five, and brings an element the Devils were looking for on the penalty kill.
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Again, the depth the New Jersey Devils thought they had is being tested early in the season. Maybe, as Brenden Dillon told the media after practice on Friday, the Devils need an exorcism of some sort to chase the evil spirits away.
“We got to sage this place or something,” Brenden Dillon told Amanda Stein of NJD.TV.
The New Jersey Devils look to have that next-man-up, never-quit mentality carry over into every game as they deal with these injuries.
