{"id":347533,"date":"2025-12-14T13:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347533\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T13:26:07","slug":"devils-gms-biggest-flaw-on-display-in-failed-pursuit-of-quinn-hughes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/347533\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils GM\u2019s biggest flaw on display in failed pursuit of Quinn Hughes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Devils<\/a> made what they believed to be a \u201creally solid offer\u201d for superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes<\/a>, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Hughes was dealt to the Minnesota Wild<\/a> in a stunning Friday night blockbuster trade.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, general manager Tom Fitzgerald<\/a>\u2019s biggest flaw doomed their pursuit.<\/p>\n

HAVE YOU JOINED OUR YOUTUBE PAGE? DEVILS REPORTER RYAN NOVOZINSKY BREAKS DOWN EVERY GAME \u2014 WITH YOUR HELP<\/a><\/p>\n

Discussing the details of the trade on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Devils couldn\u2019t clear the cap space needed for a potential Hughes deal due to \u201cclauses that were honestly and fairly negotiated that prevented them from doing what they needed to do to open up spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: the number of no-movement\/no-trade clauses Fitzgerald has given out over the years hampered his efforts to pull off a deal for a generational defenseman (who just so happens to be brothers with two players on the Devils).<\/p>\n

Sign up for our Speaking of the Devils newsletter here<\/a>! Get 10 inside-Devils notes in your inbox each Monday at 10 a.m. ET!<\/p>\n

If you dish out too many clauses \u2014 especially to guys who don\u2019t exactly need them (Ondrej Palat?) \u2014 you\u2019ll be limited in the deals you can pull off. Just how loosely has Fitzgerald handed out these clauses? He\u2019s the worst offender in the league.<\/p>\n

NJ Advance Media looked at each team\u2019s PuckPedia<\/a> page to gauge how many Devils players have no-trade\/no-movement clauses on their current\/pending contracts vs. the other 31 teams.<\/p>\n

The Devils have a staggering 15 players that fit this criteria, which is tied with the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers for the most in the NHL. Having 15 players with these clauses is about four more players than the league average of 11.25.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald can\u2019t use this as an excuse when trying to pull off a backup-plan trade, which he needs to do soon as they cling to a playoff spot. Other GMs surely don\u2019t. The Hurricanes made a blockbuster deal for Mikko Rantanen last season (before flipping him to the Dallas Stars for Logan Stankoven and picks). The Oilers made a splashy goalie trade for Tristan Jarry on Friday.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: These other GMs seem to strike deals with similar limitations as the Devils, and Fitzgerald needs to find a way, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Devils made what they believed to be a \u201creally solid offer\u201d for superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,49726,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-347533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-color","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}