The Devils’ Jack Hughes falls into the season with a knee injury

The Devils will be without young star Jack Hughes for the remainder of the season.

Hughes suffered a minor MCL sprain to his left knee after absorbing a hit from the Islanders’ Oliver Wahlstrom in Sunday’s Devils loss, the team announced on Tuesday, prematurely ending the 20-year-old’s breakout season. The decision was made after Hughes underwent further imaging and evaluation by the Devils’ medical staff and chief medical officer on Tuesday.

“If you asked him, he’d say he’d be ready in a week,” said Devils coach Lindy Ruff after the 3-1 loss to Rangers at the Prudential Center.

In 49 games of his third NHL season, Hughes finished with 56 points, a career-best for goals (26) and assists (30). Bottom-bottom in the Metropolitan Division, the Devils have just 12 games left in their season.

New Jersey had to play most of the matchup with the 10-forward Rangers after losing Yegor Sharangovich and former blueshirt Jimmy Vesey to separate incidents with Schneider. In addition to Hughes, the Devils also had to do without Nathan Bastian.

Sharangovich was injured after being beaten by Rangers rookie defenseman Braden Schneider, whom the Devils winger jumped in retaliation for a Schneider clean hit on Jesper Boqvist. Vesey then took the brunt of an awkward hit he took against the boards on Schneider and needed support from the mid-frame ice.

“There’s good and bad, it’s bad that we’re losing him,” Ruff said of Hughes, who was the youngest All-Star that season. “The good news is the injury could have been a lot worse. We will definitely miss him. Other guys will have opportunities. We have to work short term here and put together different powerplay sessions and the guys will get more chances in his absence.