It was a bad end to a terrible season, at least for now, for Luke Hughes. After missing most of training camp and all of the preseason due to a contract dispute, the New Jersey Devils’ young star defenseman struggled for most of the year. He was out of position and losing battles for the puck. His trademark speed wasn’t where it had been in seasons past.
According to NHL Edge stats, Hughes’s speed has gone from a top speed of 24 MPH in 2023-24, to 23 MPH in 24-25, to 22.71 MPH this season. His speed shouldn’t be going down at his age. He should be getting faster.
With everything going so wrong, it was good to see Luke Hughes starting to play better. He’s having incredibly bad luck, but that’s par for the course this season. At least the process was much better.
Then, his season came to a halt. In what looked like a simple jersey tug, Luke Hughes was knocked out with a serious shoulder injury.
Luckily for the Devils, Hughes isn’t getting surgery yet. He’s deciding to go for rehab on his shoulder, but that’s probably just a short-term solution. Eventually, most expect surgery to happen. Maybe he can survive until the offseason, but it’s time to assess what’s happening now. If the Devils don’t move forward correctly, they could affect their ability to improve the team next season.
See, the Devils are facing a few bonuses this season. Evgenii Dadonov was given an incentive-laden contract that paid him just $1 million on the salary cap this year. However, he has performance bonuses that need to be paid. He already earned an extra $250,000 by playing 10 games. He will get another $250,000 at 20, 30, and 40 games. That could be an extra $1 million on the cap. In the playoffs, he can earn another $1 million if he plays until the Stanley Cup Final.
Entry-level contracts can also be eligible for bonuses. Arseny Gritsyuk has a chance to earn up to $1 million in bonuses, too. He has to hit a certain set of statistics and/or awards, as reported by Puck Pedia. The same goes for any rookie, but it’s very unlikely Lenni Hameenaho hits those numbers.
Basically, the Devils are facing salary cap overages of up to $2 million if they miss the playoffs and $3 million if they make a run. If they stay in their current state, where the Devils are reaching into their LTIR space, then they have to push that bonus payout in 2026-27.
That’s what happened with Luke Hughes’s bonus last season. The Devils lost $1 million in space because they went into LTIR cap space despite being barely a playoff team. They could make the same mistake here.
With Luke Hughes injured, the Devils could steer clear of a Dougie Hamilton trade. They might just use the extra LTIR space to make a move to upgrade the roster. They don’t need to trade Hamilton now. However, if they don’t trade Hamilton or another high-priced piece like Ondrej Palat, then they’ll have to pay those bonus overages next season. Imagine if the Devils had another $1 million to spend right now? It would have made a huge difference.