Devils’ Jack Hughes out for season with knee injury

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

Hughes suffered a low-grade MCL sprain of his left knee after absorbing a hit from the Islanders’ Oliver Wahlstrom in the Devils’ loss Sunday, the team announced 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 official on Tuesday.

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

In 49 games in his third NHL season, Hughes finished with career highs in goals (26) and assists (30) for 56 points. The Devils, who are in last place in the Metropolitan Division standings, have just 12 games left in their season.

New Jersey was forced to play with 10 forwards for a majority of the matchup with the Rangers after losing Yegor Sharangovich and one-time Blueshirt Jimmy Vesey to separate incidents with Schneider. In addition to Hughes, the Devils were also without Nathan Bastian.

Sharangovich was injured after taking a beating from Rangers rookie defenseman Braden Schneider, whom the Devils winger jumped in retaliation for a clean hit from Schneider on Jesper Boqvist. Vesey then took the brunt of an awkward hit he made on Schneider against the boards and needed assistance off the ice in the middle frame.

“There’s the good and the bad, it’s bad we’re losing him,” Ruff said of Hughes, who was the youngest All-Star this season. “The good news is, the injury could’ve been a lot worse. We’re definitely going to miss him. Other guys are going to get opportunities. We’ve got work to do short term here, putting different power play units together and guys are going to get bigger opportunities in his absence.”