The New Jersey Devils are playing preseason hockey without their young star defenseman Luke Hughes. The youngest Hughes brother is embroiled in a contract negotiation that’s going way longer than any of us had hoped. On our panic meter that we put out during the offseason, we rate this currently as “calling our therapist.” To be clear, things aren’t okay.
We continue to get small, but positive updates on the Devils’ negotiations with Hughes’s agent Pat Brisson. It sounds like the two have agreed that an eight-year deal is the most likely option, which is fantastic news for Devils fans.
This would put an end to any talk that Jack Hughes could leave in five years, and it makes it close to a certainty that Quinn Hughes is coming to New Jersey when he becomes a free agent. We don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch, but an eight-year deal is the best-case scenario by far.
However, what’s holding up the negotiations is what has fans frustrated. It sounds like the dollars aren’t making sense.
Both sides in Luke Hughes negotiation spoke again Monday night in an effort to find some leeway in talks for the unsigned RFA D. Both sides still need to find more common ground. Still a ways apart. Both sides are focused on a long-term deal but aren’t there yet on the AAV. The…
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 23, 2025
Money appears to be the problem in Luke Hughes contract negotiation
Basically what The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun is saying is they are far apart on the money aspect of this conversation. Fans are not happy that money is the reason Luke Hughes isn’t in the building. The Devils have all offseason to figure out what kind of cash Hughes was looking for, and Brisson and his team had all the time to make the right moves to settle the deal. Fans are seemingly mad at both sides equally, with some thinking Tom Fitzgerald is pinching pennies with a ghost internal cap and Luke Hughes’s team is overvaluing him after two decent seasons.
What is the price that is making the Devils scoff? Is it $10 million? What are the Devils then offering if the gap is being described as “a ways apart”? We’d say if the Devils are offering $7 million and the Hughes camp wants $10 million, that’s a ways apart, but isn’t the easiest option just splitting the difference?
Is anyone unhappy with an eight-year deal worth a total of $68 million? That puts Hughes right under Cale Makar’s AAV and higher than his brother Quinn’s. It puts him ahead of names like Jake Sanderson and Miro Heiskanen and equals his contract to Brock Faber, who he once battled for the Calder Trophy.
With the term reportedly out of the way, we can’t see why this doesn’t get done in a few days. Heck, this should be done any minute. This article theoretically should be outdated by the morning. Unfortunately, we think we still got a little more time before the dollars start to make sense.