{"id":400858,"date":"2026-01-11T03:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/400858\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T03:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:55:14","slug":"devils-forward-to-have-surgery-out-extended-time-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/400858\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Forward to Have Surgery, Out ‘Extended Time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

And just like that, the New Jersey Devils<\/a> will be cap compliant for Johnathan Kovacevic to come off long-term injured reserve. <\/p>\n

Forward Stefan Noesen did not step<\/a> on the ice for practice on Saturday morning before the team head\u2019s north to face the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n

The team followed his absence with an announcement that Noesen ill undergo knee surgery next week to address a lingering injury. The Devils also stated he will be placed on injured reserve and will be out an extended period of time.<\/p>\n

The knee injury is unrelated to the one Noesen missed time for earlier this season, when he had groin surgery from a pre-existing injury from the 2024-25 season. The Devils forward could have avoided missing the start of the season with offseason surgery, but opted for a rehab attempt before ultimately deciding to have the procedure.<\/p>\n

Noesen\u2019s knee injury could explain his underwhelming output in 2025-26. He\u2019s mostly been utilized as a fourth-line forward at even strength alongside Luke Glendening and Paul Cotter, with some limited time in the top-six and on the power play.<\/p>\n

In 38 games this season, Noesen\u2019s netted three goals and seven points.<\/p>\n

Last year, Noesen broke out for his best season on the scoresheet across his 12-year career, netting career highs in goals (22) and points (41) in a second-line role alongside Nico Hischier<\/a> and Timo Meier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Noesen is in the second year of a three-year contract that carries a $2.75 million average annual value. He has a 10-team no-trade list that downgrades to a seven-team no-trade in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n

The Devils will have to do a little bit of salary cap gymnastics to move Kovacevic off injured reserve. Evgenii Dadonov appears to also be nearing a return with a $1 million cap hit.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And just like that, the New Jersey Devils will be cap compliant for Johnathan Kovacevic to come off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[201,3723,5,1771,151,50705],"class_list":{"0":"post-400858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-johnathan-kovacevic","12":"tag-new-jersey-devils","13":"tag-stefan-nosen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115874452854154820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}