This entire offseason has been taken over by Quinn Hughes talk. It’s on social media every day, and it is what insiders and analysts are discussing on the big shows and podcasts. Part of it is because of the overall slow offseason. We haven’t had a big trade since July 2nd, and all we’re relying on are rumors and dried-up offer sheets to give us something to talk about.
Hughes was eligible to extend with the Minnesota Wild on July 1st. It’s now about 40ish days since that eligibility came to fruition. Since then, Quinn Hughes has spent most of his summer in New Jersey and all of his summer with his family. He’s been at the hip of Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes, his two brothers who play for the New Jersey Devils.
Alongside Jack, he’s been able to rub elbows with Jessica Alba and Tate McRae, watch the World Cup Final from a luxury suite, enjoy walking out as the introduction to Morgan Wallen, and take in all of the amenities that come with living so close to the Jersey Shore. He’s been back in Michigan for a few weeks and has been dealing with a death in the family, so that would slow things down.
However, it hasn’t stopped everyone from talking about Quinn Hughes. Elliotte Friedman said that he won’t be worried until Quinn Hughes starts the season without an extension in place. Well, that puts a clear timeline in place for Bill Guerin to get a contract done.
Last season, the Devils weren’t ready for the opportunity to connect the Hughes brothers. Tom Fitzgerald went into the season with barely any cap space. He assumed if the opportunity knocked, he’d be able to move Dougie Hamilton. Well, he couldn’t, and now Quinn Hughes is negotiating a new contract with the Wild instead of the Devils.
The New Jersey Devils aren't making the same Quinn Hughes mistake twice
Sunny Mehta came into the Devils' front office and started fixing the mistakes of the previous regime. Not that Simon Nemec was necessarily a mistake, but trading him for a haul of draft picks now gives him ammo to make a major trade down the line. Mehta turned Nemec into Matias Vanhanen, Lavr Gashilov, Etienne Morin, and two first-round picks. That’s a good amount of premium assets for one player who signed a deal with the Calgary Flames that the Devils couldn’t afford.
Then, Mehta traded Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers for Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist. In one move, he cut cap space and added depth to the bottom six while getting rid of a huge problem in the Markstrom extension. Markstrom could bounce back, but he was ridiculously bad last season.
The Devils have the pieces to make a trade for Quinn Hughes. It would probably be something like Dawson Mercer and four first-round picks, but it would be worth it just to rectify another Tom Fitzgerald mistake. Maybe it’s prospects like Seamus Casey, Alexander Command, Anton Silayev, or Lenni Hameenaho that get it over the top. Maybe it takes another roster player besides Mercer, like Arseny Gritsyuk or Cody Glass. Both would hurt, but you don’t stop a Quinn Hughes trade for a bottom-six player.
The salary cap is in a perfect place to trade for Quinn Hughes
Where the Devils are particularly set up is on the salary cap. The Devils currently have $3.85 million in space right now, according to PuckPedia. Dawson Mercer’s cap hit is $4 million per season. When one combines those two numbers, it’s $7.85 million, which is exactly Quinn Hughes’s cap hit for the 2026-27 season.
Looking forward, the Devils are expected to have $32 million in cap space with no big names to re-sign next season. If they trade Mercer, Cody Glass is their biggest free agent. So, if they give Quinn Hughes $18 million per season, they still have $14 million to replace, like one line on their bottom six. If you consider the top nine as Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Cody Glass, Arseny Gritsyuk, Anthony Mantha, Connor Brown, and Dawson Mercer, then just two need new contracts, and they might be the cheapest on the list.
Replacing Mercer won’t be terribly hard, especially if they are able to add Dylan Larkin to the discussion since he’s close to the Hughes family. The Devils could easily fit Hughes and Larkin this season if they can move one of their left-handed defensemen, and add pieces to the trade that Detroit might be interested in, like Cody Glass or Nick Bjugstad. Timing is everything here, but the Devils would have to match Larkin’s cap hit to make it work.
Either way, the Devils have the money and pieces to make this work. The prize is getting the Hughes brothers together. Anything else is a bonus.
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