{"id":451737,"date":"2026-02-09T01:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451737\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T01:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:35:09","slug":"devils-jack-hughes-already-demoted-on-team-usa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451737\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Jack Hughes Already Demoted on Team USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

We don\u2019t quite know yet who New Jersey Devils<\/a> forward Jack Hughes<\/a> will play for Team USA. What we do know is he\u2019s already been demoted from last season\u2019s deployment at the 4 Nations Face-Off. <\/p>\n

At Team USA\u2019s first practice on Sunday morning, Hughes didn\u2019t skate alongside his 4 Nations Face-Off linemates in the top-six. Instead, Matt Boldy occupied Auston Matthew\u2019s right wing<\/a>, while Jake Guentzel occupied the left wing.<\/p>\n

For context, the Tkachuk brothers remain centered by Jack Eichel. That means five of six players in Team USA\u2019s top-six last year remain, while Hughes\u2019 lineup status is still being evaluated with only bottom-six roles available.<\/p>\n

According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the rest of USA\u2019s bottom-six was scrambled. Thus, we don\u2019t have an idea what Hughes\u2019 deployment could be at this time.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an injury-related thing<\/a>, either. Hughes missed the Devils\u2019 last three games before the 2026 Winter Olympic break, a stretch of games in which New Jersey went 0-3-0 leaving six crucial points on the table.<\/p>\n

Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Hughes is \u201cfull-go\u201d and is no longer nursing an injury.<\/p>\n

There are a few factors here that potentially led to Hughes\u2019 demotion. First being the off-ice freak accident that required Hughes to undergo surgery on his pinky to repair tendons in his hand in November. Since he returned from that injury in Devember, Hughes hasn\u2019t been the same player has was pre-injury.<\/p>\n

Second, Hughes\u2019 performance at last years 4 Nations Face-Off didn\u2019t turn much attention. In four games, he tallied just one assist and was largely a non-factor in the tournament. <\/p>\n

In 35 games with the Devils this season, Hughes has accrued 12 gols and 36 points in 36 games.<\/p>\n

This is the Devils forwards first crack at the Olympics in his near seven years in the NHL. He\u2019s otherwise been successful on the national level as a point per-game player or better during World Junior tournaments.<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019 deployment at his first Olympic tournament remains to be seen. Yet, for now at least, he\u2019s already been demoted in a lineup among fellow American-born NHL stars.<\/p>\n

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

\t\tJames is a fully credentialed New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We don\u2019t quite know yet who New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes will play for Team USA. What…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[3189,201,3723,5,1272,151,3255,54724],"class_list":{"0":"post-451737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jack-hughes","13":"tag-new-jersey-devils","14":"tag-team-usa","15":"tag-team-usa-lines"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116038115774892475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451737","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=451737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}