New Jersey Devils
Why a New Devils No.1 Defenseman is Emerging
In the absence of Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler, Luke Hughes has taken his chance and become the Devils no.1 defenseman.
After injuries to key player after key player, the New Jersey Devils were dragged into the deep waters of the playoff race. For most of this calendar year, the Devils have been fighting to keep their spot as the third team in the Metropolitan division and not sink to the rock fight that is the Eastern Conference Wild Card race.
Fortunately for the Devils, Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier helped prop up the offensive void left by Jack Hughes. However, as the regular season begins to wind down and the team begins to regain some good form, it’s becoming clear that Luke Hughes is the straw stirring the drink.
When Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler both went down with long-term injuries, it was evident that Hughes would need to step up and fill the offensive and defensive holes left by the two of them.
READ: Positive Development on Devils Star Defenseman Injury? | Report
In turn, Hughes has recorded 15 points over the last 13 games while averaging 23:42 of ice time per game, signaling his time as the team’s number-one defenseman has come.
“Yeah, he [Luke Hughes] was excellent,” Sheldon Keefe told the media after the Devils 3-2 shootout win against the Minnesota Wild. “It seemed like any sort of offense we generated he was involved in…We need our game-breakers to beat some coverage and make a play.”
Hughes’s 29:11 of ice time against Minnesota was no accident. It was a masterclass in two-way hockey. He quickly killed any plays in the neutral zone while also jumping up in the play to score his seventh goal of the year on a wicked wrist shot, before later adding his 34th assist on the season after making a textbook stick check at the offensive blue line.
Luke Hughes RIPS one to open the scoring for the Devils 😤 pic.twitter.com/ymLnE2sXHg
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 31, 2025
Dominant performances like these have become a regular occurrence over these last few weeks, and they’ve been much needed. He has eight points over his last five games while playing on the top pair alongside Brett Pesce. Together, that pairing has played over 860 minutes at five-on-five with a positive 52% Corsi percentage.
What makes his performances that much more impressive is that he’s doing them while nursing a lower-body injury. How long this has been a problem is unknown, but it forced him to miss the Devils road game in Winnipeg, and his absence was noticeable. They were quickly dismantled by the Jets in a 4-0 loss.
It’s fair to say the 21-year-old defensive is turning a major corner. With Hamilton and Siegenthaler out, Hughes has stepped up to take on the duties of a number-one defenseman, and he’s thriving. He’s playing major minutes and is drawing the toughest matchups night in and night out, including locking down Connor McDavid in their most recent matchup.
While in the short term, the injuries to Hamilton and Siegenthaler have been to the detriment of the team, perhaps it has provided long-term value to Hughes by giving him to chance to take on a larger workload and prove himself to be the cornerstone of the Devils defense.
The Devils will need his dominance to continue into the playoffs, especially if they face off against the Carolina Hurricanes. As the 2023 playoffs showed us, offense will be incredibly difficult to come by against a stifling Hurricanes team. Head coach Sheldon Keefe will need Hughes to manufacture offense from the backend if they want to have a fighter’s chance at taking down their playoff nemesis.
If Hughes can ride out his stellar play over the next few weeks of the regular season and into the playoffs, it just may earn the pending RFA a hefty contract extension. We discussed a while back what a short-term and long-term extension for Hughes would look like, but with the salary cap going up, he may be able to earn himself a few more dollars.
RELATED: Luke Hughes’ Potential Contract Extension with the Devils Revealed
It would be a good problem for General Manager Tom Fitzgerald to have. Like he did with his brother Jack, Fitzgerald should look toward signing Luke to a max-term extension this summer and tying down the current and future face of the Devils defense.
In the meantime, the team will hope their budding star on the backend can continue to carry them to wins.
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