The New Jersey Devils have some big decisions to make, but some would argue that the biggest of them all should have been made already.
That big decision is none other than signing Luke Hughes, a pending RFA whose situation is threatening to drag into the start of training camp. That didn't work well for the Devils and Dawson Mercer before, so doing it with the franchise defenseman is even more unwise.
On Friday, Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com reported that Hughes's camp was seeking a deal that would take him and his brother, Jack Hughes, to free agency in the same year, 2030. For Luke, this would be a five-year deal, whereas, according to Novozinsky, the Devils were looking to go for a three- or eight-year pact.
Three, five, or eight years, this deal should have been done already. The Devils were on the clock as of July 1, 2024, and 14 months later, there is no resolution to a situation everybody knew was coming.
Five years is plenty, too, because if Quinn Hughes joins the Devils in 2027, New Jersey is effectively signed up for three years of the three Hughes brothers until 2030.
And, if the Devils cannot win or come close to winning to convince the trio to stay in New Jersey, Fitzgerald and Co. won't be around to see or deal with the aftermath. So, who cares?
Instead, the Devils have been playing hardball with Luke Hughes and his camp for months now, which is only further exacerbated by the glut of anchor contracts signed by the team.
Ondrej Palat can only be traded to 10 teams, and, with his $6 million cap hit, those teams were chosen strategically.
Then there's Johnathan Kovacevic and his $4 million cap hit, which is a fair price, aside from the fact that one of Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey can take up his role for a quarter of the cap hit. A good player, to be clear, but an unnecessary signing that has now doomed the Devils to making irrational, short-sighted, and rash decisions as part of a race to sign Hughes and/or stay cap-compliant this season.
Even if the injured Kovacevic goes on LTIR, the Devils have to pivot and make another move to become compliant, at which point the other 31 NHL teams become aware of the significant trade leverage they have over New Jersey.
Those teams can bend the Devils' arm for whatever, or tell Fitzgerald and Co. to stick it and figure it out on their own. Not ideal!
The reality is that Fitzgerald and the Devils are now playing scared, trying to avoid a doomsday scenario where Jack and Luke leave the Devils, Quinn potentially in tow. But, that's on them. Get the deal done, finish building a contender, and get the job done.
A team with Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, and Quinn Hughes has no excuse for not being a contender in the prospective three years they'd be together.
At this point, the only logical path for Fitzgerald and the Devils is to resign themselves to a five-year deal, three years of the three brothers, and shoot for the stars. Scared money don't make money.