The New Jersey Devils aren’t done with the offseason. We’ve talked about the Luke Hughes deal to death, but that’s what happens with such a quiet offseason, and the (as declared by the GM) number-one priority still hasn’t been delivered. The Hughes contract is slightly complicated, but it taking this long is borderline insane.
The slight complication is figuring out how long the contract will be. One contract the Devils must avoid is a five-year deal, which would walk Hughes to free agency AND pair his contract with Jack Hughes’s, which not only puts the Devils behind the 8-ball in future negotiations but also lowers the chances they sign Quinn Hughes.
Hughes can sign pretty much any other contract. And that includes a one-year deal. While not ideal, a one-year deal pushes the negotiations down the line. It also gives the Devils a chance to get Luke Hughes within the Devils’ salary cap space without going to long-term injured reserve.
The Devils currently have just over $6 million in space. There’s no world where Luke Hughes signs for anything close to $6 million on a long-term deal. He would likely sign a one-year deal for even less than that. This one-year deal gives the Devils flexibility and, more importantly, time.
The issue with the plan is we thought eight-year deals were off the table after this year. The new collective bargaining agreement ends eight-year deals for good, lowering the term for re-signing a player to seven years and a free agent to just six years. However, that rule doesn’t go into effect on July 1st, when the Devils’ Luke Hughes contract would theoretically go into effect.
James Mirtle of The Athletic made it clear that the new CBA goes into effect in September 2026, not July like the NHL calendar suggests.
That means the Devils can actually make this a nine-year deal for Luke Hughes if they sign him to a one-year deal and then give him an eight-year extension.
This is an ideal scenario, as the Devils could get Hughes for even longer, and it could get the Hughes brothers in the building for even longer. It would make a Quinn Hughes deal in the future almost a guarantee. It is a no-lose situation.
The only scary part of this scenario is the Devils allow Hughes to get to RFA status again next season, and then, a team like the Vancouver Canucks could extend him an offer sheet, but that’s a risk they’d be willing to take to make this all work.