Jack Hughes will be in attendance for 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend but will not take part in NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), nor the 2024 Honda (U.S.)/Rogers (Canada) NHL All-Star Game on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; SN, CBC, TVAS, ABC, ESPN+).
The New Jersey Devils center will be replaced on the roster by by Devils forward Jesper Bratt and by New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal for NHL All-Star Skills.
Hughes is week to week with an upper-body injury after the center fell awkwardly on a rush late in the third period of a 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 5. Hughes is second on the Devils with 45 points (15 goals, 30 assists) in 32 games this season, trailing Bratt (50 points; 19 goals, 31 assists in 47 games).
Hughes is still slated to in be in Toronto and will join his brother, Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, as co-captains for Team Hughes, with Grammy Award-winning musician Michael Bublé as its celebrity captain.
"He’s excited to be part of the festivities, the captain picking his squad," Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald said Tuesday. "He’s in a good place mentally. He feels good physically. He’s improving every single day, and that’s the most important thing. Time frame-wise, I don’t have a time frame.”
Barzal, second on the Islanders with 51 points (13 goals, 38 assists) in 48 games this season, will take Jack Hughes' place as one of the 12 participants announced earlier this month for the NHL All-Star Skills.
New Jersey (24-20-3) is sixth in the Metropolitan Division and has gone 3-6-1 in 10 games since Hughes was injured. The Devils, who next play Feb. 6 when they host the Colorado Avalanche, are also without defensemen Dougie Hamilton (pectoral), Brendan Smith (knee) and Jonas Siegenthaler (foot), and forward Tomas Nosek (foot).
“We can’t be the same team with Jack Hughes in the lineup as we are without him,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got to manufacture goals a certain way.”
