Sabres star's negotiations might signal why Devils are struggling with Luke Hughes

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the Luke Hughes contract negotiations. Obviously, going this far into training camp is not a good thing, but it sounds like both the Devils and Pat Brisson, Luke Hughes’s agent, are on the same page when it comes to term. We imagine both sides are trying to figure out what an eight-year deal looks like. 

It’s been a lot more complicated than most had hoped. While we all thought the hardest part about these negotiations was convincing Hughes’s camp to move towards an eight-year deal, finding the right price for said deal is holding up this process and keeping him out of training camp. 

The Devils came into this negotiation thinking it would be similar to negotiiations they had with Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. Finding the right price on an eight-year deal used to be within this small window, so negotiations didn’t always take longer than they should. 

We live in a brand new world. This is a world where people are seriously talking about Kirill Kaprizov getting north of $19 million per season. 

We can see the Devils expecting to be able to say “there’s no way we’re paying you more than Jack Hughes,” and that being a rightful line in the sand. It’s a different world than it was even a season ago. The salary cap is expected to explode each season as ticket prices go up and fans continue to come in droves. On top of that, players know there are ridiculous expansion fees coming the way of the league’s owners, so nobody is looking to save the teams money. 

There is no way that Luke Hughes will agree to an eight-year deal at $8 million. We’ve seen too many players in his age group agree to bigger deals. Owen Power, who was taken first overall in his draft but is often considered worse than Hughes now, is getting $8.35 million per season on an eight-year deal. Brock Faber is getting $8.5 million per season, and they were in the Calder Trophy race together. 

However, it’s neither of those deals that should scare the Devils. It’s the rumor of the ask by Sabres forward Alex Tuch. 

If we’re reading that correctly, that says that 29-year-old Alex Tuch thinks he can get north of $10 million annually on a new contract for eight years. That’s insane. However, the same report talks about Adrian Kempe, who might be looking for the same. 

Are either of them even one of the five best players on their own team? Are they the pillars of the future? Maybe, but it’s not a definite yes. Luke Hughes is a pillar of the Devils future. And while Kempe and Tuch are going into unrestricted free agency, that doesn’t matter as much as it once did. The Devils have perceived leverage. Luke Hughes has real leverage. 

Wednesday night on the Let’s Go Devils Podcast I predicted that Luke Hughes will sign an eight-year deal for $9.25 million per season. The Devils can fit that in by putting Johnny Kovacevic on LTIR. 

It impacts how they acquire future players, but that needs to be a January problem. Someone let Tom Fitzgerald know this number probably gets it done and gets Luke Hughes in a very important training camp.