The biggest question all offseason for the New Jersey Devils has been when Luke Hughes will sign his new contract. As the Devils start camp, the restricted free agent defenseman is not there and will be a holdout until a new deal is signed. But Devils President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald has had the same goal and top priority since July 2nd, signing his defenseman to a long-term extension.
Tom Fitzgerald discussing the Luke Hughes contract situation describing it as part of the process and “the team is disappointed he is not here and he is disappointed he is not here.” #njdevils @NHLrumorsX @DevilsNationX
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) September 18, 2025
“We will be signing him,” Fitzgerald told the media. “I said it earlier … the top priority is signing Luke Hughes to a long-term deal. That’s our goal. It hasn’t changed.”
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Once the training camp schedule was announced, you knew Fitzgerald was going to be asked first thing about Luke Hughes. You could hear Fitzgerald’s firm tone that he was going to sign him. And while this has been the message since the summer, the words “top priority” continued to be brought up. Again, he uttered those words right before the July 4th holiday and told the media that the two parties would take a break and get back after it following the holiday weekend.
However, there was radio silence from both the Hughes camp and the Devils. Things have recently picked up between the two sides, and Fitzgerald confirmed what DevilsNation.com has been reporting: he wants Luke Hughes signed to a long-term extension. Not only that, but Luke Hughes wants to be there long-term.
But like any negotiation, this is a process. It was a process with Jesper Bratt several years ago. Not to mention last year with Dawson Mercer, who only missed two days of training camp, but this one feels a little longer. As Fitzgerald stated, the two sides will work this out, but he doesn’t know how.
“This is part of the process,” Fitzgerald told the media on Thursday. “We’re grinding through this together and presenting both sides’ stories and where we want to go with this, respecting each other’s opinions. Unfortunately, we’re disappointed he’s not here. I know he’s disappointed he’s not here. I was texting with him [Wednesday], knowing that we will get through this at some point. We just don’t know when that point is.”
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The New Jersey Devils, as does the player and his agent, know the salary cap is going up. So the players are looking to maximize their value, while the team tries to maximize the contract value as the window to win a Stanley Cup opens. So there are a lot of factors that go into this negotiation. It is not just the player’s contract, but what else the Devils have on the horizon.
Tom Fitzgerald discussed extending goaltender Jacob Markstrom #njdevils
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) September 18, 2025
Fitzgerald confirmed they are working on a Jacob Markstrom extension. What is that number going to look like which decreases the number of $104 million the cap is expected to rise to? Not to mention the players they trade for, sign, or extend next offseason, similarly to the situation involving Luke Hughes. That is why Fitzgerald and the Devils did what they did this offseason, which wasn’t much because of the uncertainty surrounding what Luke Hughes was going to make.
Thus, that $14 million they initially had to work with was going to slowly dwindle quickly, knowing Hughes was probably going to get a contract that landed somewhere between $7.75 million-$8.25 million a season. And at a $95.5 million salary cap, there isn’t much wiggle room.
In contrast, they will get some relief as DevilsNation.com has documented from the start, with Johnathan Kovacevic going on LTIR and being out until January, that only kicks the can down the road and solves the problem monetarily. There was still more work to be done.
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Despite reports, Dougie Hamilton is not getting traded. This wasn’t even an option, as sources indicated. Fitzgerald indicated that the team knows what it has to do to make the contract work, and it doesn’t involve a trade.
“No, we have figured this out and know what our wiggle room is,” Fitzgerald continued to say.
The plan, mainly all along, was to use LTIR up to a certain point to make the contract work; from there, some magic was going to have to be worked out. However, there will still be tough decisions down the road. Something that wasn’t mentioned on Thursday. There is still a belief that a trade involving Dawson Mercer or another player will make all the dollars work out.
But Fitzgerald and Pat Brisson, the agent of Luke Hughes, know there is urgency to get it done, as missing camp for a young player is never a good thing.
“Urgency-wise, I mean, tomorrow’s (Friday) day two of training camp. I do believe every day you lose it has an impact on a player,” Fitzgerald continued. “So from our end, yeah, there’s urgency to get him here, or to continue to strive to that common goal of getting a deal. And I believe on their end, too, there’s this urgency. So his agent and I have the utmost respect for will continue to push toward each other, and knowing that each side has to continue to give.”
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There have been too many instances of this happening, as it not only hurts the player but also the team. Remember the most famous one, William Nylander, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, held out until the very last day, and both sides never really were the same. It is a trend that we continue to see more and more, as evidenced by Jeremy Swayman’s performance last year with the Boston Bruins.
So it is essential for the Devils number one defenseman to get into training camp. Missing preseason is not ideal, but missing regular-season games is the bigger problem. That is the deadline the Devils are up against.
But Luke Hughes remains the top priority, and a contract will get done. It is just a matter of when at this point. Remember, one phone can change everything.
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