Luke Hughes finally made his anticipated return to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday morning for practice ahead of a preseason tilt against the New Jersey Devils.
READ MORE: Holdout Over, Devils Extend Luke Hughes to Long-Term Contract
The holdout ended on October 1st, with just two games left in the preseason. On Thursday morning, Luke Hughes was on the ice, but was working in line rushes with the extras at practice.
The lines looked as follows:
Devils Lines 10/02/2025
Forwards
Evgenii Dadonov–Jack Hughes –Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier–Nico Hischier–Dawson Mercer
Ondrej Palat–Cody Glass–Connor Brown
Paul Cotter—Luke Glendening–Arseny Gritsyuk
Defensemen
Topias Vilen–Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler–Dougie Hamilton
Brendan Dillon—Simon Nemec
Luke Hughes – (Stefan Noesen)
Goaltenders
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
After the first group skated on Thursday, Sheldon Keefe explained Luke Hughes will not be a participant in the preseason game against the Rangers. It’s undetermined, still, if he will play against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
In fact, Hughes stayed on the ice to work with the second group of skaters, just to get the extra reps in for practice.
It appears Topias Vilen will skate in Hughes’ place next to Brett Pesce.
The expectation, however, is he will be ready—conditioning-wise—for opening night.
Also in attendance on Thursday was Stefan Noesen. It’s his first time on the ice with the team as he’s been nursing a groin injury, recovering from late, unexpected offseason surgery.
Noesen worked with a gray, no-contact jersey, and skated as an extra on the blueline.
Keefe explained that although Noesen’s return is good news and he believe’s his timeline to return has moved up, there’s no official update on when.
“I think so. It’s a good sign that he’s been out there, and as I could see, he’s still out there,” Keefe explained as Noesen remained on the ice after practice. “So that’s a good sign. I haven’t been told anything in terms of his availability for full practicing or anything like that. It’s just the morning skate portion, so he hasn’t even reached the point of being a full practice participant.”
