Devils News
Positive Development on Devils Star Defenseman Injury? | Report
According to one NHL insider, coupled with the news that he’s back on his skates, Dougie Hamilton could return to the Devils sooner than anticipated.
NEWARK—There was some positive development on the Dougie Hamilton over the last few days. A potential return for the New Jersey Devils’ No.1 defenseman is not out of the question.
Dougie Hamilton was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season after he suffered a lower-body injury against the Dallas Stars on March 4th.
READ MORE: Dougie Hamilton’s Season is Over, Devils GM Says
Head coach Sheldon Keefe explained over the weekend that Hamilton is back on his skates and on the ice again. Certainly, that’s a positive for the injury-decimated Devils.
The news got even better when insider, Pierre LeBrun, revealed on Tuesday that the Devils have some hope that Hamilton can return to the team sooner than anticipated.
“Potentially positive [news],” LeBrun explained on the latest TSN Insider Trading. “The Devils had indicated that Dougie Hamilton would not be back for the rest of the regular season, and probably not back until the second-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, if they indeed made it that far. But, he started skating last week. There’s been a bit of positive there. If he continues to progress and doesn’t have a setback, now they’re holding out slim hopes that he could be back before the end of the regular season. Let me stress, ‘slim!’ from the Devils’ perspective here. But, it’s still better than the original prognosis. He has the type of B-injury that has a 4-6 recovery timeline. It’s four weeks on [Tuesday] that he got hurt.”
The Devils are basically locked into third place in the Metropolitan Division and are Stanley Cup Playoff-bound. It’s also very likely they’re going to face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the postseason. Getting Hamilton back would be a big boost to the Devils’ blueline who have been rotating Simon Nemec and Dennis Cholowski of late, both of which haven’t been ideal down the stretch of important games.
It sounds like if Hamilton returns, it will be very late in the regular season, if at all. But, perhaps Hamilton will be back in the first round of the playoffs, as opposed to the original second-round timeline.
Time will tell, but this is certainly welcomed news for the Devils.
In 63 games, Hamilton has nine goals and 40 points this season.
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