Well, that’s one way to shake up an ordinary Friday night. Similar to Friday, January 24th and Friday, January 31st of this year, Friday night, December 12th, is now known for being the night of one of the biggest blockbuster trades in recent NHL history. 

The Vancouver Canucks traded their Captain and arguably the best defenseman in franchise history, Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild for center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, forward Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round draft pick. The trade sent shockwaves across the entire league, especially in New Jersey, where the Devils were hoping to unite Hughes with his two brothers, Jack and Luke. 

Saturday afternoon, at Prudential Center, the Devils hosted the Anaheim Ducks in the first game of a weekend back-to-back and with the game came more injury news for the home team. Simon Nemec joined the list of injured Devils after being hurt during Friday’s practice. According to Head Coach Sheldon Keefe, “It’s still being determined, but it’s not day-to-day.” So, that’s Nemec, Arseny Gritsyuk, Jack Hughes, Evgenii Dadonov, Jonathan Kovacevic, Zack MacEwen and Brett Pesce who are currently out injured. Plus, Timo Meier was placed on the non-roster list as he continues to deal with a family health matter.

Through that lens, the Devils’ 4-1 victory over the Ducks was rather impressive as the team managed to dig down deep and found a way to win despite its bad injury luck.

Jake Allen drew the start in net for the Devils and stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced. On the other side, Lukas Dostal was activated from IR in time to draw the start in net for Anaheim. In his first game back, he allowed three goals on 21 shots faced. 

“You can feel good going into any game,” Stefan Noesen said after the game. “Having a process and sticking to it, thought we were really good defensively and that kinda led to our offense. The simplicity of the game, the shots, the tracking back, the reloads, the staying on the hunt, staying on the puck. Obviously, what we’re capable of.”

With the Garden Staters missing so many players, it’s logical to assume reinforcements will be coming through the door to help stabilize the team. However, as seen with the Quinn Hughes trade, it’s not that easy. Rumors suggest the Devils are interested in Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly, and Nazem Kadri. Well, there’s no guarantee the Devils have the pieces necessary to acquire any of those players. Right now, there are many questions and very few answers in New Jersey. But a win like this one against Anaheim certainly helps. 

The first period began with the Devils not allowing the Ducks to register a single shot on goal for nearly the first 11 minutes of the game. Then they surrendered a goal to Troy Terry on a snapshot that beat Allen with 13:18 gone by. Stefan Noesen tied the game 1-1 with a goal off a nice backhand pass from behind the net by Juho Lammikko at 16:09. Then, 13 seconds after Noesen’s goal, Dougie Hamilton was sent to the box for high-sticking Cutter Gauthier. New Jersey successfully killed off the penalty but managed little else in the period. However, they didn’t give up anything either, which was a good sign.

Outside reinforcements would almost certainly mean some of the current Devils would be shipped out, and that could have an adverse effect on the team’s focus. 

“When things like this are going on, you do your best to shut it out,” Keefe explained before their game against Anaheim. “You try to keep the focus on what’s going on. But for those who may be involved, you can’t help but think that it’s a factor. I think you just press on here now and we try to keep the focus on what’s going on here, ’cause there’s been enough going on here as it is. But, hopefully, that just dies down, and our guys can just focus on what we need to do to get our game going.”

The “noise” won’t go away completely until the Devils either make a move(s) or the Trade Deadline passes. But it can and certainly will lessen now that Quinn Hughes isn’t skating into “save” the Devils.

“We try and stay out of all the stuff behind the scenes as much as we can,” Paul Cotter explained. “Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. So control what you can control and go from there. But, yeah, I guess it’s good that maybe some guys feel more secure.”

In the second period, New Jersey scored two goals, one apiece from Paul Cotter and Cody Glass, each of whom is being counted on to provide secondary scoring while the “big guns” are out. Lammikko and Colton White were credited with the assists on Cotter’s goal, meaning the young Finnish forward had two primary assists in the game. The marker also gave Cotter his second career three-game goal-scoring streak. 

Meanwhile, on Glass’ goal, Ondrej Palat and White were credited with the assists. New Jersey also remained perfect on the penalty-kill in the game, killing off two penalties in the middle period. However, their power-play continued to struggle, failing to convert on a five-on-three or the five-on-four versions that came before and after the 45-second two-man advantage. 

The Garden Staters clamped down in the third period and salted the game away when Connor Brown scored the empty-netter with two minutes to go, giving New Jersey a 4-1 win and their first victory on home ice since Wednesday, November 26th, when they beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 in overtime. 

It’s a step in the right direction for the Devils. After all, Quinn Hughes isn’t walking through that door. 

“We’ve always wanted to play together,” said Luke Hughes. “Whether it’s The NHL or on a US national team, you never know what can happen. We have a lot of years left in our careers. He’s really excited, and our family is for him, and he’s gonna be great for that team.”

Great for Minnesota and possibly great for New Jersey, too, now that that speculation is no longer hanging overhead.