NEWARK, N.J. -- Dougie Hamilton will be out the remainder of the regular season for the New Jersey Devils because of a lower-body injury.
The 31-year-old defenseman left a 4-3 loss at the Dallas Stars on March 4 after getting tangled up with Stars forward Mason Marchment behind the Dallas net at 18:13 of the first period.
Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald suggested Wednesday that Hamilton could return for the Eastern Conference Second Round if healthy and New Jersey advances that far.
“We’re not planning on it, how’s that?” Fitzgerald said during an appearance on the "Krackin’ Canuckleheads" podcast Wednesday. “This is what we have.”
Hamilton leads Devils defensemen this season in goals (nine), assists (31), points (40), even-strength points (25) and power-play points (15).
“No change in his situation, as far as the information I had from the get-go," New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said Thursday, "so that’s really it. With the nature of his injury he’ll do all he can to be ready as soon as he can and we’ll welcome him back and hope to earn the opportunity to play long enough to get him back, but it really hasn’t been on my mind.
"We kind of turned the page pretty quickly once the injury happened, so you just have to press on.”
The news comes six days after Fitzgerald announced defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler will be out the rest of the regular season because of a lower-body injury he sustained in the first period of a 3-2 shootout win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 4.
Siegenthaler had nine points (two goals, seven assists) and ranks second among Devils defensemen with 92 blocked shots and third with 75 hits in 55 games.
Center Jack Hughes is also out for the remainder of the regular season after sustaining an upper-body injury in a 2-0 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights on March 2.
“These guys might be done for the year, for the season, for the regular season, whatever it is, it [stinks]," New Jersey defenseman Brenden Dillon said. "It's a lot of big pieces But, we've understood that we've got to play with even more structure and be even more cognizant of the defensive side for pucks. [Keefe] uses the term, 'cheat for defense,' if that's something that that we as a team have to realize.
"We're missing some big pieces from the 'D' corps so there's more minutes that are going to be getting spread out amongst guys. Some are playing left side, playing right side, different situations. But we've been as prepared as we can be for it and I feel like we've handled it pretty well.”
New Jersey acquired defenseman Brian Dumoulin in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on March 6, and defenseman Dennis Cholowski in a trade with the New York Islanders one day later.
The Devils (36-26-6) are third in the Metropolitan Division, six points behind the Carolina Hurricanes, following a 7-3 loss at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
