NEWARK — The Hughes family has signed two long-term contracts in the NHL. Quinn Hughes anchors Vancouver’s blue line through 2031, while Jack Hughes is the face of the New Jersey Devils’ rebuild, secured for years. Luke Hughes, who plays defense for the same organization as his older brother, is the one waking up this Sunday without a contract.
Two days remain.
The CBA’s transition date arrives Monday. Any extension with the same team signed before September 15 can run for eight years. After that, the maximum term for a player staying with the same organization drops to seven. For a defenseman who turned 22 this month and already plays top-pair minutes for a team that believes it is close, that one-year difference is not merely procedural. It represents real money over the portion of his career that will cover the back half of his prime.
Tom Fitzgerald has overseen the Devils’ rebuild through its most consequential stretch: drafting Jack Hughes first overall, extending captain Nico Hischier, and sustaining the push toward playoff relevance that finally ended a years-long drought. As the deadline approaches, one significant unsigned piece remains on his blue line.
New Jersey selected Luke Hughes fourth overall in 2022. He plays left defense with an offensive ceiling that places him in a category most organizations spend years—sometimes entire rebuild cycles—trying to find. His shot, his ability to activate in the rush, his poise under pressure, and his capacity to create from the interior are not traits that development systems can produce on demand.
In his second NHL season, Hughes recorded 14 goals and 48 points in 78 games. Those are not the numbers of a player still finding his way. They belong to someone who has already arrived—and is negotiating accordingly.
The cap structure in New Jersey is not simple. Jack Hughes carries a $8.6 million annual hit. Nico Hischier’s extension is on the books. Dougie Hamilton anchors the right side at $9 million per year. Adding Luke Hughes at anywhere near the top of the young defenseman market would commit the organization to a multi-franchise-cornerstone payroll structure for a decade. That is not a reason to hesitate. It is a description of what contending teams do.
The organizational case for Monday is the same one that applies to every team still negotiating: an eight-year deal buys age twenty-two through thirty. A seven-year deal stops at twenty-nine. For a defenseman, the year between those two endpoints is not administrative. It is the year where career earning power is highest and where a franchise either has a player locked in or does not. A team that misses the eight-year window and wants a ninth or tenth year must negotiate an extension at the back of the contract from a position of far less leverage.
Fitzgerald has been deliberate throughout the summer, declining to set public timelines on negotiations he does not want to conduct through reporters. Luke Hughes has been at training camp. He has been on the ice. He has not said publicly that a deal is close or that it is stuck. His representatives have not indicated that talks have broken down.
The contrast with the Edvinsson situation in Detroit is instructive. Detroit arrived at this deadline without a permanent general manager, negotiations paused while a search firm narrowed a candidate list. New Jersey does not have that problem. Fitzgerald is in place, has full authority, and has demonstrated a pattern of making large, long-term commitments on players he has identified as foundational. Luke Hughes is the most obvious foundational player the franchise currently has without a contract.
Two days is enough time to sign a contract. It is not enough time to rebuild a negotiating position if the distance between the two sides is structural. What no one outside that room knows is exactly where those sides stand.
The third Hughes brother has made it clear, through his play and through his presence at training camp, that he intends to be a Devil. The franchise has made it clear, through its construction and its investment in the players around him, that it intends to compete. Monday is when those stated intentions require a number attached to them.
The window closes at midnight.
