If the New Jersey Devils truly want to complete the trifecta and reunite Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes with younger brothers Jack and Luke ahead of schedule, they may have just received their best piece of news on that front yet.
According to longtime Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal, via a recent episode of the "Canucks Talk" podcast, the organization likely feels that trading Hughes away now would be better than doing so later.
"I do believe that they internally do think that it’s better to move him this year if - capital letters - if he doesn’t want to commit to the franchise long-term," Dhaliwal said. "Maybe you get more from this year than next year."
Hughes, 26, has two years remaining on his contract at a modest, relatively speaking, $7.875 million cap hit. That is a large amount to have to account for mid-season, but plenty of teams can and will do it.
Chicago, Columbus, Carolina, Calgary, Anaheim, and Detroit can all make it happen, with Carolina being the obvious doomsday scenario as it relates to the Devils.
Of course, the specter that may ultimately put those teams off from ponying up roster players and/or prospects and picks that amount to Hughes's value is his seemingly inevitable arrival in New Jersey, especially now that Luke has signed with the Devils through 2032.
Indeed, the Devils will still need to pay the Canucks the big bucks metaphorically, but they are effectively buying themselves two years of Stanley Cup pursuits in addition to however long Hughes signs for ahead of or during free agency in 2027.
If the Canucks want to still compete now, someone like Dougie Hamilton may be a suitable starting point. If they want pieces for the future, the Devils lack options at forward, but Seamus Casey and Anton Silayev would be wonderful additions to a young defense that already has players like Tom Willander and Victor Mancini in the cupboard.
Within reason, the Devils can offer nearly as much to the Canucks for Quinn Hughes as any other team while also having the long-term leverage to bully fellow suitors out of the queue.
Where everything goes, obviously, depends on the two teams, but this latest report has actually only boosted the Devils' chances of trotting out all three Hughes brothers in the Red and Black in the near future.