Welp, the day is almost upon us. The date we’ve been dreading all offseason. Usually, the start of training camp is a happy day for New Jersey Devils fans, but the only thing fans care about right now is the guy who’s unemployed.
Luke Hughes still doesn’t have a contract in place as we start the 2025-26 season. Training camp is short for players, and every day is immensely important. We saw how much it impacted Dawson Mercer last season to miss just one day of camp. He played like he was catching up the entire season.
Hughes is also trying to find his place in the lineup. He has a chance to earn first-line duties in his third full season in the NHL. He’s shown flashes of greatness, but it sounds like there are serious issues that have caused his negotiations to land here.
Devils fans are approaching panic mode with Luke Hughes negotiations still unfinished
Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald said that nobody wins in a holdout. Most thought he was thinking out loud, but as we inch closer to training camp with no contract in place, it might be more of a prediction. Truly, everyone is going to lose if Hughes isn’t signed with quickness.
Perhaps the Hughes camp is trying to force its way to a five-year deal, which would make sense why the negotiations aren’t progressing. If that’s the requirement from Pat Brisson, Hughes’s agent, we’d also hold our place in the holdout.
However, based on everything we’re hearing, including from Luke Hughes’s brother Jack Hughes during NHL Media Days, that’s not a line in the sand. If that’s the case, it’s just about finding the right price. We’ve seen billion-dollar business deals done on the golf course or in a board room with a handshake. Fitzgerald needs to get Brisson and Hughes in a room and make the deal happen.
If we open training camp without Luke Hughes on the roster, the noise around Fitzgerald will get deafening, the team will be forced to answer constant questions about their defensive star, and it will indeed be a distraction for everyone. Fitzgerald is right; this is a no-win situation.
There are still 24 hours left to get this deal done. Hopefully, we’ll wake up pleasantly surprised on Wednesday.