The New Jersey Devils announced they have signed defenseman Luke Hughes to a new seven-year contract extension worth $63 million, carrying an annual average value of $9 million.
Luke Hughes and the New Jersey Devils agreed to a new seven year contract carrying a $9 million AAV
As Friedman said on Sirius XM this morning progressed was made last night.
Devils came up to the number Hughes wanted and Hughes agreed to the term. #njdevils
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) October 1, 2025
Nobody thought it was going to take this long. Dating back to the end of the season, Devils President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald viewed Luke Hughes as a priority. He used that term over and over again to describe the importance of getting the restricted free agent signed to a new contract.
Fitzgerald was adamant that the team would be signing Luke Hughes to an extension when the Devils opened training camp a couple of weeks ago. Both the Devils and Luke Hughes wanted to get a long-term extension done. The Only problem was the Devils didn’t have the cap space to make it work.
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Like with any extension, there was work to do to get a deal done. Even Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast this past Monday reiterated the fact that the parties had work to do to strike an agreement. However, he also mentioned that everyone needed to be extra careful this time of year, as things can change with just one phone call, citing the recent Mason McTavish deal with the Anaheim Ducks.
“I’m so careful this time of year because its like with the Ducks all we were hearing there was no-movement, no movement, no-movement, the Ducks move and the deal gets done right,” Friedman said. “So you have to be so careful this time of year. But I heard with Hughes there is still work that needs to get done there.”
However, progress was made on Tuesday night and in a similar light, the Devils and Luke Hughes had to compromise. The Devils had to determine the dollar amount. They were trying to secure a reasonable contract for Luke Hughes that fit within their salary structure. Ideally, the New Jersey Devils wanted him at around $8 million, possibly a fraction lower. However, Hughes and his camp were looking at Brock Faber‘s $8.5 million per season, or Dougie Hamilton‘s $9 million per season.
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With the salary cap going up, the percentage of the cap that his brother Jack Hughes signed for is higher in terms of dollars. The player wanted fair market value, as he was being viewed as the team’s number one defenseman on the left side.
🚨Devils Thought of the Day 🚨
Luke Hughes and the New Jersey Devils Agree to a New Deal Contract.
Holdout and Stalemate Over
Is Hughes Worth It? #njdevils pic.twitter.com/UNP0uCL4zY
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) October 1, 2025
Both agreed that a seven-to eight-year deal was the right course of action. However, like the McTavish contract, the Devils are buying a majority of Hughes’s RFA years, not his UFA years. Thus, the AAV had to be higher on a longer-term deal.
Hughes has played three seasons with the Devils. Two full seasons and the first year during the 22-23 season, when he burnt the first year of his entry-level deal as he played in a couple of games as the Devils were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In 155 games, Hughes has recorded 93 points (17 goals and 76 assists). During the 23-24 season, Hughes set career highs in points (47), goals (nine), and assists (38). He came up three points short of tying his career high in points after missing the start of the season with a shoulder injury. Those numbers would have been surpassed had he played a full 82 games.
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Luke Hughes is only getting better, and there will be opportunities to play on the power play moving forward. But the Devils get one of their key cogs back in the wheel right before the season started. Expectations are high for the New Jersey Devils to make a deep run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Having Hughes on defense helps those chances.
However, the longer this dragged on, the more detrimental it would be to the player and the team. With Luke Hughes’ extension taken care of, now the focus shifts to Jacob Markstrom.
