New Jersey Devils President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald will have a busy off-season ahead to improve his hockey club. Fitzgerald was not happy with the group he fielded this season. And while a change to the roster is coming, the biggest priority for the Devils is signing defenseman Luke Hughes to a contract extension.
Hughes, a restricted free agent, is looking to get a significant raise from his entry-level deal. He has emerged as the Devils number one defenseman when Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler went down to injury. Even when those players came back, Luke Hughes still stood out until his unfortunate shoulder injury in Game 1 of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes.
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However, Fitzgerald would like to finalize this contract sooner rather than later, as he told Mike Morreale of NHL.com, to determine how he can configure the rest of the roster for the upcoming season.
“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 told Morreale this past Wednesday at the NHL Scouting Combine at Key Bank Center. 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.”
This past season with the Devils, in 71 regular-season games, Hughes recorded 44 points (seven goals and 37 assists), including 16 power-play points, all of which were assists. Remember, Luke Hughes missed the first 11 games after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained during his summer training sessions. However, when he returned, he picked up where he left off last season. Hughes fell short of his career highs of 47 points (nine goals and 38 assists) in 82 games.
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So, if Hughes starts the season healthy, he will go over the 50-point mark and surpass 38 assists and nine goals. Again, we did not see what he could do in the playoffs as he reinjured the same shoulder from the summer. However, it is clear, despite comments from Vancouver Canucks President Jim Rutherford, that Luke Hughes is not going anywhere. It’s just a matter of cost.
“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 continued in speaking with Morreale of NHL.com. “Both parties are in agreement. … We’re going to get this done.”
The Devils have approximately $12 million in salary cap space, even with the cap increasing to $95.5 million, to sign Luke Hughes to an extension and address needs in other areas. Those include finding depth scoring, signing a backup goalie, and getting another goal scorer in the top six.
There is not a lot of money left over to make other moves and sign players Cody Glass (RFA), and unrestricted free agents Brian Dumoulin, Nathan Bastian, Curtis Lazar, Daniel Sprong, Jake Allen and Justin Dowling.
So, it’s a busy offseason of potentially wheeling and dealing ahead for the Devils to field a competitive roster.
