Luke Hughes will make his NHL debut at some point with the Devils having two games remaining in the regular season.
"Luke will play," Ruff replied when asked if Hughes could be in the lineup.
"I know I'm ready," Hughes said. "I feel very prepared to play. I'll be ready if my names gets the call."
Hughes had his first team practice Monday.
"Good practice. A lot of what we expected to see." Ruff said. "A good skater. We had some drills where you really get to watch him. I thought he handled the pace of play. Probably if you ask him he's probably not used to that type of speed, but I thought he handled everything well."
"It was pretty exciting to be out there and learning the systems," Hughes said. "Being out there and getting a good sweat in. I'm happy to be here. The guys have been great. The caching staff has been great. Everybody has been great. I'm happy to be here. It was a good day today."
Perhaps the only downside came at the end of practice. Hughes had to make a puck into the net from the opposite goal line. If he missed, then the team would have to skate the full ice and back. He missed his first two tries. The coaches moved the puck a little closer and to the faceoff dot. Another miss. Then they moved it above the circle, and Hughes scored two in a row from there.
"I felt bad for the guys," Hughes said with a smile. "They had to do a little skate because of that. I owe them one."
Although Ruff said there may have jokingly been a more nefarious reason.
"(Luke) actually told me that he thought the guys were a little out of shape and needed a little extra skate," Ruff laughed. "He missed on purpose. That's what he told me. He told me he's going to keep on missing until the team gets in better shape."
