It goes without saying that the New Jersey Devils are keeping a close eye on what’s unfolding—or lack thereof—between the Minnesota Wild and Quinn Hughes.
Elliotte Friedman isn’t sounding the alarm on Hughes just yet, but the Sportsnet insider left a little doubt that the Wild’s star defenseman remains unsigned for a reason.
Appearing on NHL Tonight, Friedman stuck to his earlier projection that Hughes will eventually land a three-year extension in Minnesota at $18 million per season.
“I have believed that Hughes is going to sign three times 18 in Minnesota. That is my prediction,” he said. “And now people are starting to wonder what’s going on here.”
The delay, he suggested, isn’t about cold feet from either side so much as a sudden shift in the market. Leo Carlsson’s $18 million AAV deal and Macklin Celebrini’s extension with an $18.8 million AAV have reset expectations for young stars. “I do think that the jump to 18 and then 18.8, at the very least, it’s probably thrown a little bit of a challenge in there for all these teams to narrow down these numbers,” Friedman explained.
In other words, what looked like a straightforward three-year, $18 million bridge deal a few weeks ago may no longer match what Hughes’ camp believes the market will bear. The Wild still want him locked in. Hughes has said publicly he likes Minnesota and is open to staying. But the new contracts have given both sides more to chew on, and the talks appear to have slowed while everyone recalibrates.
This, of course, comes on the back of Wild GM Bill Guerin shifting his tone recently from expecting an extension, to hoping one materializes.
Friedman offered a lighter explanation for the quiet, too. “Somebody had a really good line about that today to me,” he said. “They said Quinn Hughes has been too busy having fun this summer with Jack [Hughes] to worry about signing an extension. Like you can’t find them anywhere. They’re out.”
Still, the insider set a clear personal deadline. “I will worry about this if it’s not done by the start of the season,” Friedman said. “If it’s not done by the start of the season, then I’ll start to say, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’”
For New Jersey fans, that timeline is the part that keeps the speculation alive. Jack Hughes is already in a Devils sweater. Luke Hughes is developing into a legitimate NHL defenseman in New Jersey. The idea of Quinn joining his brothers in Newark has floated around for years.
Quinn has one year left on his current deal. If Minnesota can’t get something done by training camp, the possibility of a potential reunion in New Jersey stops being pure fantasy.
None of that means the Wild are out of the picture. But the market has moved, the brothers are enjoying their summer, and the clock is ticking toward the start of the 2026-27 season.
Until the ink is dry, the Devils and their fans will keep watching.
James is a fully credentialed New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the … More about James Nichols