New Jersey Devils Offseason Hindered By Luke Hughes Extension

The New Jersey Devils offseason has not been as intense as it was last year. Recall that the acquisition of Paul Cotter, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Jacob Markstrom, along with the signings of Brett Pesce, Stefan Noesen, and Brenden Dillon, helped Tom Fitzgerald reshape the roster to be tougher to play against. However, this season, lots of his moves have been hampered because defenseman Luke Hughes needs a new contract.

New Jersey is up against the salary cap, and until the Devils President and General Manager figure out the number for Luke Hughes, nothing else can happen. While some people may say this is an excuse, other general managers in the league deal with this issue and find ways to make moves before signing players. The Devils, however, continue to adopt a more conservative and patient approach.

But make no mistake about it: Fitzgerald wants to get this contract done for the Devils number one defenseman.

“My number one priority is Luke Hughes,” Fitzgerald said on Wednesday.

The negotiations have been ongoing between the two parties. However, it is taking longer than it did for Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Both players signed long-term deals coming out of their entry-level contracts. This has the feel of the Jesper Bratt situation, where those contracts took longer to hash out—same with Dawson Mercer last season.

However, with Luke Hughes, these negotiations have been ongoing and will resume after the July 4th holiday weekend in the United States. There isn’t a sense that this negotiation will last as long as Mercer’s did last offseason. The Devils want Luke Hughes to be there long-term, and he wants to be there long-term, just like his brother, Jack Hughes.

“I talked to his agent yesterday (Tuesday). We said, let’s enjoy the holiday weekend, and we’ll get back start talking after the week,” Fitzgerald added. “He’s excited. He wants to be a Devil long term just like his brother (Jack) did. So we’re excited about that. With Luke, I don’t sense anything other than he wants to be a Devil for a long time.”

As with previous players in free agency, Fitzgerald qualified as the fourth overall pick from the 2021 NHL Draft. Teams do this so they can keep the players rights and continue the negotiating process to strike a deal.

However, this is not the first time negotiations have been mentioned. Back at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, Fitzgerald talked about getting a deal done, but it was the first time he mentioned the salary cap being an issue for his ability to add players.

“Talks have started, but you’re talking to the same agents about other players on the team, like [Simon Nemec] and others they represent, and of course it’s a priority,” Fitzgerald said at the NHL Scouting Combine at Key Bank Center last month.  “We’re just trying to figure out what’s best for Luke and for us, and how do we make our team better with the funds that we have available.”

Again, Fitzgerald, before this interview, had spoken about wanting to change the group because last season’s performance was not good enough. But with only $14.4 million in salary cap space, there were not a lot of moves to make. However, tough decisions lay ahead, as some players were not coming back.

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However, everything else moving forward in the Devils offseason would be determined by the extension for Luke Hughes and the number he received.

“We’ve only got so much (NHL salary) cap space, and we’ve got to figure out strategically how we can better our team on trades, [the] market and what cap space we have available while also thinking what we can allocate towards a great young player (Hughes),” Fitzgerald back in the NHL Scouting Combine. “Both parties are in agreement. … We’re going to get this done.”

However, the number of $14.4 million after the Erik Haula trade earlier in the offseason has dwindled to $6,094,167. That is not enough to secure Luke Hughes a contract extension. With Brock Faber signing an eight-year extension carrying an AAV of $8.5 million with the Minnesota Wild, the expectation is that the AAV for Luke Hughes will be in the range of $7-$7.5 million on a long-term extension with the Devils.

That is a solid for Hughes, considering 93 (17 goals and 76 assists) in 155 regular-season games for the Devils. Not to mention, he finished behind Faber and Connor Bedard for the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in the 23-24 season. So the Devils need to know this number, which they probably do. And if they don’t, then management must reach that number before moving forward.

“What I do with Luke will determine what else I possibly could do,” Fitzgerald said on Wednesday.