Luke Hughes’ new contract with the New Jersey Devils is a monster, but — at $9 million per season — it actually represents the third-highest cap for 2025-26 in terms of deals signed by RFA defencemen since last season ended.
Both Evan Bouchard ($10.5 million on a four-year deal) and Noah Dobson ($9.5 million on an eight-year pact) will count for higher hits than Hughes next year.
In each case, however, Bouchard and Dobson were inking their third NHL deals, while Hughes signed coming right out of his three-year, entry-level contract.
For more of an apples-to-apples comparison, let’s see how Hughes’ contract stacks up with other fantastic young defencemen who inked seven- or eight-year pacts coming off an ELC.
As the table shows — thanks to information available on the wonderful Puckpedia — while Hughes’ $9 million cap hit tops all the recent, comparable contracts, the percentage of cap he’s taking up under this year’s $95.5-million ceiling is right in line with the other deals. In fact, both Moritz Seider of Detroit and Owen Power of the Sabres ate up at least fractionally larger percentages of the cap in the first year of their deals than Hughes will this season.
Of course, no sooner is one contract registered with the league than we start to wonder what it will mean for the next crop of signees. If we look ahead to the next round of defenceman coming off ELCs, we find two players — Lane Hutson of Montreal and Alexander Nikishin of Carolina — who can be RFAs next summer, while a couple more — Zeev Buium of Minnesota and Chicago’s Artyom Levshunov — could ink extensions in the summer of 2026 when both still have one year remaining on their ELCs.
Of course, these players aren’t all in the same career spot and there’s no telling how different their stories will be 10 months from now. Hutson just won the Calder Trophy, while Nikishin, Buium and Levshunov are only now entering their first full years in the league. There’s also the fact Nikishin turned 24 on Thursday (HBD, Alexander!), while Hutson won’t turn 22 until February. (Nikishin will already have arbitration rights next summer.)
Levshunov and Buium, meanwhile, don’t turn 20 until October and December, respectively. It’s certainly not a slam dunk they’d all be looking for long-term deals and the length of the contract would obviously impact the AAV.
Still, just for fun, let’s see what their new deals could look like if they take 9.5 per cent of a rising cap in the first year of their new pacts.
This is not to say all these young blueliners will soon be playing on these huge hits. It is a reminder, though, that with the rising cap, AAVs are going to look a bit jarring out of the gate until we all recalibrate.
Certainly in the case of Hutson, it’s very easy to see how he could have a double-digit AAV on his next deal. Should the young American go out and equal — even build on — his 66-point showing from last season, an AAV of even $10.5 million would be very reasonable. By the second year of the deal, that would only represent 9.3 per cent of Montreal’s hit.
In other words, basically, the exact percentage Hughes will account for this year in Jersey.
One final note: It feels like everything the Hughes brothers do off the ice is seen through the lens of wondering whether they’ll all play together one day. Of course, Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes has two years left on his contract before he can potentially become a UFA in 2027.
Any New Jersey dreamers out there hoping to take a run at Luke and Jack’s older brother in a couple years likely know the cap is projected to be all the way up to $113.5 million in the first year of Quinn’s new deal.
The Devils will also have some money coming off the books before that summer, with Ondrej Palat and Brenden Dillon — who combine for a $10 million hit — arriving at the end of their current deals. Also, Dougie Hamilton will be entering the final year of a contract that carries a $9 million hit before 2027-28. It’s safe to say finding the space would not be an issue for New Jersey, even with captain Nico Hischier due a new deal by 2027, too.
All we know for sure is, by the time Quinn does put pen to paper, it could be for nearly double the $9 million AAV his younger brother just signed for and still be a solid deal.
