{"id":82483,"date":"2025-08-20T13:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82483\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:07:15","slug":"new-jersey-devils-get-clarity-that-makes-luke-hughes-contract-option-more-appealing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82483\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils get clarity that makes Luke Hughes contract option more appealing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Jersey Devils aren\u2019t done with the offseason. We\u2019ve talked about the Luke Hughes deal to death, but that\u2019s what happens with such a quiet offseason, and the (as declared by the GM<\/a>) number-one priority still hasn\u2019t been delivered. The Hughes contract is slightly complicated, but it taking this long is borderline insane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The slight complication is figuring out how long the contract will be. One contract the Devils must avoid is a five-year deal<\/a>, which would walk Hughes to free agency AND pair his contract with Jack Hughes\u2019s, which not only puts the Devils behind the 8-ball in future negotiations but also lowers the chances they sign Quinn Hughes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes can sign pretty much any other contract. And that includes a one-year deal. While not ideal, a one-year deal pushes the negotiations down the line. It also gives the Devils a chance to get Luke Hughes within the Devils\u2019 salary cap space without going to long-term injured reserve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Devils currently have just over $6 million in space. There\u2019s no world where Luke Hughes signs for anything close to $6 million on a long-term deal. He would likely sign a one-year deal for even less than that. This one-year deal gives the Devils flexibility and, more importantly, time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue with the plan is we thought eight-year deals were off the table after this year. The new collective bargaining agreement ends eight-year deals for good, lowering the term for re-signing a player to seven years and a free agent to just six years. However, that rule doesn\u2019t go into effect on July 1st, when the Devils\u2019 Luke Hughes contract would theoretically go into effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Mirtle of The Athletic<\/a> made it clear that the new CBA goes into effect in September 2026, not July like the NHL calendar suggests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means the Devils can actually make this a nine-year deal for Luke Hughes if they sign him to a one-year deal and then give him an eight-year extension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is an ideal scenario, as the Devils could get Hughes for even longer, and it could get the Hughes brothers in the building for even longer. It would make a Quinn Hughes deal in the future almost a guarantee. It is a no-lose situation.<\/p>\n

The only scary part of this scenario is the Devils allow Hughes to get to RFA status again next season, and then, a team like the Vancouver Canucks could extend him an offer sheet, but that\u2019s a risk they\u2019d be willing to take to make this all work.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Jersey Devils aren\u2019t done with the offseason. We\u2019ve talked about the Luke Hughes deal to death,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-82483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82483","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=82483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}