What would a Canucks trade for Jack and Luke Hughes look like?
Jim Rutherford never fails to entertain the hockey world, and once again, he caught everyone’s attention on Monday. When asked about the looming contract status of Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes in a of couple years during a season-ending press conference, the president of hockey operations dropped a bomb that everyone assumed was a possibility, but no one expected out of his mouth.
“[Hughes] has said before he wants to play with his brothers. That would be partly out of our control. In our control if we brought his brothers here.”
Ever since the New Jersey Devils drafted Luke Hughes fourth overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, to go along with the first overall selection of Jack Hughes in 2019, many already made the connection, or at least had the thought “how long until Quinn joins them”. Once Quinn was named captain in 2023, and when the Canucks made the playoffs later that year (and the Devils didn’t), Canucks fans probably felt a little bit safer about his long-term future in Vancouver.
But in the past year, Quinn has seen his team take a major step back, significant drama get out of the locker room (no thanks to the president that just threw some more drama his way because of Monday’s comments), J.T. Miller get traded, along with Brock Boeser seemingly set to leave this summer as a free agent and Elias Pettersson’s name still lingering in trade rumours. Suddenly a great environment has turned toxic, and you could possibly see Quinn not wanting to be a part of that.
But, Quinn to the Devils is the easy and boring solution to Rutherford’s comments on Monday. There’s already two Hughes brothers in New Jersey, and they have the talent and prospect pool to make a reasonable trade for Quinn while making the money work. If not, they can just as easily wait two years for Quinn’s contract to expire and sign him in free agency. They’re expected to have $31 million in cap space, with only Luke, Simon Nemec, Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen as free agents of significant note over the next two years, so it’s not unreasonable for them to pursue that.
But why not have a bit more fun, and look at the other possibility: the Canucks pulling off a blockbuster deal to swing both Jack and Luke to Vancouver. Much more chaotic, right? Let’s breakdown this potential trade for both teams and find a possible deal that works for them.
Why would both teams want to make this trade?
It’s quite obvious why the Canucks would want to make this deal just from Rutherford’s comments alone. Suppose he’s admitted to the public that Quinn wants to play with his brothers. In that case, there’s a possibility that the team is legitimately concerned about his future with the team, or at least considers it to be the biggest factor in not being able to re-sign them. Quinn may have just mentioned it like “it would be cool if I could do this”, but maybe there’s more to it.
So if that’s the case, the Canucks view acquiring the other two brothers as an insurance policy for Quinn to stay in Vancouver. Maybe it’s not something that they have to do, but if this factor puts his future with the team out of their control, acquiring his brothers gives them a lot more control.
But what about the Devils? The truth is, there is absolutely no reason for them to make this trade, unless the Canucks offer them the right amount for a return. Jack and Luke seem more than happy in New Jersey, and they are two excellent pieces of a core that seems set to contend for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup for years to come.
Unless Jack and Luke outright say the same thing to the Devils that Quinn has said to the Canucks, there’s no incentive for them to move the brothers. Even if they did say this, it’d be more likely that they would just swing a deal for Quinn or wait until 2027 to sign him in free agency.
So in this scenario, it’s advantage New Jersey. The Devils don’t have as much to lose by doing nothing as the Canucks do. Any offer they receive would have to be really worth moving on from two key cogs of their future, because they can easily just say no and go on with their day. This means that Vancouver needs to give New Jersey an offer that they can’t refuse.
Nailing down the foundation
The trade starts with Jack Hughes, and trying to find a replacement for him in the trade. He’s part of an essential 1-2 center punch with Nico Hischier in New Jersey, so the Devils probably don’t want to lose that element to their team identity. They’ll want a center of a similar caliber in return.
Luckily, that superstar center is something that the Canucks can probably provide. In fact, it’s almost a perfect situation in that this center has an uncertain future with Vancouver, so to throw him in this deal wouldn’t be unreasonable.
The problem is that this center is coming off of the worse season of his career and is in the first year of an eight-year contract with an $11.6 million cap hit. He’s also two years older than Jack.
In case you haven’t put two and two together, that center is Elias Pettersson.
If we were talking about this trade prior to March 2024, the starting point of this trade probably would have been Jack Hughes for Pettersson. Both were quite equal at that time, and it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that they could have been dealt one-for-one. That would have changed a bit more after Pettersson signed his extension regardless, giving him $3.6 million more per season than Jack, but it would likely mean that the Devils get another player or pick.
But Pettersson has been a shell of his former self since signing that extension. In the 77 regular season and playoff games since that extension, he has just 16 goals and 51 points. In that same span, Jack Hughes has 27 goals and 70 points in 62. Maybe they have the same ceiling, but Jack’s trade value will be much higher.
There’s also a bit of an unknown surrounding the value of Luke Hughes. He’s already established himself as a 40-point defenseman capable of playing in a top four, but he also hasn’t quite hit his ceiling. That said, he still has the draft pedigree of a fourth-overall pick and should probably be valued as a player who could eventually become a high-end defenseman in the league.
The problem for the Canucks is that, unlike the Jack Hughes-Pettersson comparison, the Canucks don’t really have a comparable for Luke on their roster, outside of Quinn himself. Tom Willander is probably the closest to that, but Luke for Willander straight up is still not enough for the Devils, especially since the Devils want a piece that can help them now, and Willander appears set to return to college next season.
But, the Devils don’t exactly need a defenseman back in this trade. If anything, Luke moving does at least alleviate another problem for them, which is how many bodies they have on their blueline. Luke shouldn’t be the guy they move just to fix this, but in this hypothetical situation, it does fix the issue, and gives more ice time for the likes of Nemec and Casey.
So what else can the Canucks give the Devils? How about a possible long-term solution to their goaltending problems that have plagued them for years? They’ve patched things up this season with Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen, but at 35 and 34, they won’t be the long-term fix.
So why not take a swing at Thatcher Demko, who could be considered expendable, especially after the Canucks gave Kevin Lankinen the contract they did. There are many questions surrounding Demko, particularly regarding his durability, but the 2023-24 season also showcased his ceiling as a Vezina-caliber goaltender.
If the gamble works, the Devils have their goalie to build around their current core. If it doesn’t, Demko only has one year left on his contract, and you can either move on, or give him a show-me contract. It’s high-reward, low-risk, outside of potentially losing him to free agency next season.
But even then, that uncertainty probably isn’t enough to convince the Devils to just take that along with Pettersson, even if, again, that might be a more reasonable trade just over a year ago. So the Canucks will have to continue to add to this deal to make things work.
The complementary pieces
Let’s get the obvious part out of the way: the Canucks are adding a pick here. Maybe it’s only a second-round pick depending on the other pieces involved, but that’s probably the lowest they can go. At least one first-round pick will most likely be required.
Beyond that, one option could be another depth forward, although who that will be could vary. The Devils could try to buy low on Nils Hoglander and hope his game can return to the 24-goal season he had in 2023-24, even with the upcoming $3 million cap hit next season. They could opt to go for a safer, cheaper depth option in Kiefer Sherwood or Teddy Blueger. Or perhaps New Jersey could try to bend Vancouver’s arm enough here and pry Jonathan Lekkerimaki from them, since he already appears to be on the cusp of the NHL.
Even still, a prospect like Willander may be required beyond all of that. This is a tricky trade to put together because it’s so unprecedented. A top 10-20 center in his prime and a young defenseman who has the potential to be in the upper echelon of their position, both going to one team. Rarely does one get dealt, never mind both in the same trade.
The only precedent that we have to go off of is that trades with star players involved often see an underwhelming return for the team trading the player. Trades like the ones that got Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers or Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights have become clear losses for the Calgary Flames and Buffalo Sabres. The recent Mikko Rantanen trades might be the closest we’ve seen star players of that ilk get traded for a fair return. So if in some universe the Devils really want to get the Hughes’ brothers to Vancouver, it might not be for the return that they expect, or at least it may be for quantity over quality.
The Trade
Vancouver acquires: Jack Hughes & Luke Hughes
New Jersey acquires: Elias Pettersson (22.41%/$2.6 million retained), Thatcher Demko, Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Tom Willander, 2025 first-round pick
As far as making the money work, this trade would be cap compliant in a vacuum assuming that it’s occurring during the summer. The Canucks would walk away with $25.3 million in cap space (although they’d need to sign Luke after the trade), while the Devils would be much tighter to the cap at about $3.4 million, although with most of their roster signed. To entice New Jersey more, Vancouver retains some of Pettersson’s contract to get it closer to what the Devils were originally paying Hughes, but there wouldn’t need to be any money moved to get the trade approved.
At the end of the day, this is a tough trade to nail down. On one hand, I feel like I’m underselling the Devils, but then sometimes I feel like I’m not putting enough value on Pettersson and Demko considering what they’re capable of at their peaks, even if they’re coming off of down years. Maybe being so back-and-forth on this deal just means that I got it right down the middle.
Regardless, it just goes to show how unlikely it is for this to happen. There’s no need for New Jersey to move Jack and Luke in this situation, especially when it’s much easier for them to go after Quinn instead. It also makes much more sense for Quinn to go to a Devils team on the rise than for Jack and Luke to go to a Canucks team that can barely retain the talent they’d acquired for their initial competitive phase.
That means that the Canucks would have to bring forward a significant package to tempt New Jersey, and it just doesn’t look like they can do so considering the current state of the team.
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