Luke Hughes re-signing with the Recent Jersey Devils will get done eventually
Empty Netters: Jeff Marek was on the Empty Netters show with Dan and Chris Powers and was asked about Recent Jersey Devils restricted free agent Luke Hughes, and what is occurring with him.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Dan Powers: “So let’s start it off with probably the largest hot button one, Luke Hughes, restricted free agent, Recent Jersey Devils. Tell us why this guy doesn’t have a contract.”
Marek: “Initially, are we going to make the apparent, Vancouver should offer sheet him joke?”
Dan: “Yes please, Marek. I need to get into this. Like, there just a few of those guys, I’m, I’m blown away that supply sheets haven’t been tossed out.”
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Marek: “Yeah. I mean, listen, I feel that one, I feel that’s one which gets done. Initially, that is type of all under the umbrella of, I feel players understand now, and teams. I mean, listen, we just saw this with the, with the Boston Bruins. Like, it does no person any good if a player misses time?”
Chris: “Oh, such a fact.”
Marek: “By any means, especially, especially young players.”
Dan: “Absolutely.”
Marek: “Nobody’s, nobody’s (Sergei) Fedorov, who misses half a season, get a proposal sheet, gets matched, and he comes back and he’s the very best player. Like that doesn’t occur. Yeah, you’re not, you’re not that, you’re not that, you’re not that guy. Just like the pace of the sport immediately is it’s just too fast. It doesn’t do any player any good.
Look, Devils are down a defenenan. I do know Jonathan Kovacevich is a right side and look, Hughes is left side. But still nonetheless. And it is a massive yr for the . It’s a really veteran group of negotiators at CAA, and his father is a giant a part of it. And this whole thing is type of being in-built lots of ways around that family. I don’t think for one second that this one, that this one doesn’t get done.
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Really, I mean, the large query for me on defense is, who’s going, is it going to be (Simon) Nemic or is it going to be (Sean) Casey as the following, you already know, young guy that, that pops within the blue line?
But I are likely to think that, and this might just be true for lots of these, RFA, possibly Marco Rossi, possibly not a lot, but we’ll see (Rossi signed a three-year bridge deal after the Podcast aired). I feel. I feel this one, I feel this one gets done before, before training camp. I feel that there’s two, two veterans, two smart on either side.
That I mean, immediately, the one thing we do must remind, remind ourselves to, and I feel this comes into play probably with someone like Luke Evangelista there, that is the last yr you possibly can sign eight-year deals, right?”
…
Dan: “Yeah, if we take a look at the Devils, I feel the thing people aren’t talking about is that they literally can’t afford Luke immediately on a long-term.”
Chris: “Yeah, right.”
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Dan: “I mean, Luke Hughes has eight by $8.5 (million), 8 by $9.5 (million), this, this deal that we’re seeing everyone sign. We see Sanderson sign it. We seen (Brock) Faber sign a lot of these deals. (Charlie) McAvoy’s deal, like that’s the usual for this kind of defenseman.
And I feel that’s what his camp and himself think he’s. They’ve $6.1 million cap space, and so they don’t have lots of guys coming off the cap next yr. So the Devils are also staring down the barrel of, they should make a trade. So, yeah, I’m sure they’re like, hey, you already know, sign a five, two-year by five, but even that he if I’m Lucas Hughes, I’m like, ‘Get *ucked. No likelihood I’m signing that. Are you crazy?’”
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