Luke Hughes
Duh. Don’t trade Luke Hughes. He looks like the best player in the 2021 NHL Draft so far. Yeah, we went there. Owen Power is having a really good season, Mason MacTavish is making Anaheim look good for taking him third, and Matty Beniers is doing well at Michigan, but the fact that Hughes had question marks that he’s answered, is one of the youngest players in that draft class, and he showed he has the ability to lead Michigan when Power was in Beijing, the Devils got themselves a gem.
He’s the brother of Jack Hughes who just signed an eight-year extension with the Devils. There’s no way the Devils are going to even listen to a phone call about his brother Luke. There is nothing that can pry him away from the Devils. If the Oilers called and offered Connor McDavid, it would still give Tom Fitzgerald pause (but he would probably still do it).
Hughes is too important to the Devils on too many aspects of the future to even consider making a move on. He has a number-one defenseman upside on top of being the brother of the team’s star. It’s not like brothers in the past who couldn’t live up to the other. This is the new version of the Sedin Twins. The Hughes brothers are going to be great for a long time. There is nothing in this world that could separate the New Jersey Devils from the marketing legacy that is the Hughes brothers.