2 NHLers suffer mysterious off-ice injuries within days of each other

Photo Credit: Sportsnet

The National Hockey League has seen an increase in early-season injuries this year, including long-term injuries to big-name players like Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. All of the league’s most notable injuries have occurred on the ice, whether it be at practice or in games, but that changed last week.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, the New Jersey Devils were celebrating an overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks the day before with a team dinner at Chicago Cut Steakhouse. During the dinner, Devils center Jack Hughes was injured in a “freak accident” that involved him cutting his hand on a glass at the restaurant.

Two days later, Hughes underwent successful surgery on his finger. The team announced Hughes would be reevaluated in six weeks, but is expected to miss two months.

The former first-overall pick in 2019 is often injured and has yet to play a full season in his seven years in the league. Hughes played 62 games in each of the last two seasons, missing time in 2023-24 and 2024-25 due to shoulder surgeries. Despite his injury history, the two-time All-Star can be one of the best forwards in the league when healthy. Hughes had 10 goals and 10 assists in 17 games for the surging Devils this season before getting hurt.

"Well, I think just out of respect for the situation, and it doesn't do anybody any good to dig too much into the details of what happened other than to say from our end of it, we're satisfied it was a freak accident that could have happened to anyone," Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Talked to the players who were there, members of our training and equipment staff that were there as well, and very unfortunate situation. More bad luck than anything. We're satisfied with that, and we'll just make sure we can do what we can to get Jack better."

“It’s a tough situation, obviously. You feel for Jack. He’s been playing so well. He worked so hard last summer to get himself back and was playing very well, so it’s tough for him, tough for us as a team.”

This puts Hughes’ availability to represent the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics in jeopardy. Rosters must be submitted by Dec. 31, with games beginning on Feb. 11. Hughes is expected back in the middle of January.

Less than a week after Hughes’ team dinner accident, another player suffered a mysterious off-ice injury.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers announced that Eetu Luostarinen suffered a “barbecuing mishap.” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice listed Luostarinen as week-to-week, but there is no clear timetable for his return.

While Maurice didn’t reveal many details about when, where, and how the injury occurred, he did note that the 27-year-old center suffered burns but was not kept overnight at the hospital.

"I'm gonna list him as week-to-week because we don't have a lot of experience with this," Maurice said. "Some of it's when he comes back and feels comfortable putting the equipment on. He wasn't in the hospital overnight. He did get seen by doctors in that vein."

Luostarinen was playing a bigger role for the Panthers this season. With Barkov out for the season, the 27-year-old was moved up in the lineup and had more responsibilities down the middle. In 18 games for the defending champs, Luostarinen had three goals and seven assists for 10 points. The native of Finland was averaging a career-high 16:46 of time on ice per game.

The Panthers have been hit hard with the injury bug this season, and now have players getting injured during off-ice activities. Along with Barkov and now Luostarinen, forward Matthew Tkachuk has not played this season after having surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia during the offseason. The two-time 40-goal scorer is eyeing a return to the lineup before the Panthers host the New York Rangers in the Winter Classic on Jan. 2. Veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tore his labrum during the first week of the season and is out for five months. Forwards Jonah Gadjovich and Tomas Nosek are also sidelined with long-term injuries.

"There's an awful lot of good if you can capture, if you can learn some new things, things that you have to learn to survive," Maurice said. "And that's really in some ways what we're doing, is trying to survive. When you get to seven guys out of your lineup, you've got a problem. We can survive that and then learn through the adversity of it eventually.”