Win-Win Trade Packages for the Hughes Brothers Between the Devils and Canucks

Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford is, as Pittsburgh Penguins fans are intimately familiar with, not afraid to get a little messy.

He proved this yet again at the Canucks' end of season press conference, when he remarked that, "He (Quinn 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."

That's kind of a wacky thing to say as a president of an NHL team!

It's one thing to have this conversation with your star player, your captain, to try and entice him to stay on your team. That's just smart negotiating. It is another thing to tell your entire press corps and anyone watching the video. But then, it's far from the wildest thing to happen in Vancouver this season, so what can you do?

While Rutherford and the Canucks managed to avoid tampering comments for his remarks, he certainly planted a seed in the minds of many. Quinn Hughes has two years left on his contract with the Canucks. If he doesn't sign an extension, he will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at age 27 when that contract expires.

If the Hughes brothers actually want to play together, their best bet would probably be the Devils waiting to sign him in free agency in 2027. But let's explore some paths the teams involved could take to make it happen before then.

An important caveat: none of these paths is especially realistic. We have, of course, learned that "realistic" doesn't always mean anything in the NHL, even when it comes to trades, but there are so many moving pieces that would be required for this to happen.

If they're really intent on making it happen, though, we've got some options.

The New Jersey Devils don't have an amazing prospect pool—it's about solidly middle of the league, so don't get angry and say I called your prospect pool bad, Devils fans.

With that in mind and given that the Devils are going to have to clear cap space in this hypothetical to take on Quinn Hughes, it makes sense to move money out and make this a player-for-player trade.

Hamilton feels like the kind of defenseman Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin would ask for. He's a mobile guy who can score. He's a little older than Hughes and he's got an injury history that has to be taken into account, but he's still a great player, and reliable, and that could soften the blow of losing your Norris Trophy-winning captain. 

All right, it won't, but the Canucks could try to sell it that way, anyway, both to the team and to the press. I won't mince words here: I like Hamilton and the way he approaches the game, so I don't think this trade would be completely lopsided for either side. And while Hamilton costs more than Hughes at a $9 million cap hit (though not more than Hughes will when his next contract gets signed), the Canucks have indicated that they might be planning to move on from some other guys anyway. I mean, we all heard Allvin's comments about Brock Boeser.

This is probably the most likely scenario of the three, though it's important to remember that we're grading on a curve here.

There is approximately zero chance that the Canucks can put together a package to get both Hugheses at one time. So we're separating them and seeing what the Canucks might be able to do to get at least one of Quinn's brothers on the ice with him as a teammate rather than as an opponent.

First up is Luke, because he's younger and hasn't established himself as crucial to the Devils' lineup the same way that Jack has. 

If you're trading away a young defenseman, logic dictates that it makes sense to try to get one back. Tom Willander is an excellent young defensive prospect who just finished his second season at Boston University, and current reports are that Willander and the Canucks aren't yet aligning on terms for him to sign his entry-level contract. It makes sense that Willander would be the one that the Devils ask to let go of Luke, who was a high-profile prospect for a reason and who currently figures into the Devils' plans quite nicely. 

Willander's skill set would fill the gap left by Luke in some important ways, including his high-end skating skills and his motor that never quits. He's miserable to try to play against—he's always engaged physically, competing for pucks and generally making opponents regret whatever decisions they made on the ice to end up facing off against him.

The Canucks obviously want to sign him, but if it starts to seem like they can't, and they could use him to nab one of Quinn's brothers, well—I get the thought process. Especially when it heads down the path of "if we get Luke now, maybe we can somehow get Jack later".

This headline is a lie—there's no trade package here, because there simply isn't a package to be made. I dug through the entire roster and system. Because here's the thing: if you trade away Jack Hughes, you no longer have Jack Hughes. And if you make that trade with the Canucks, you definitely aren't getting anyone Jack Hughes-worthy in return.

Short of Quinn himself, which defeats the entire purpose, the only options that could begin to tempt the Devils to trade Jack Hughes to the Canucks are Elias Pettersson or Brock Boeser. The Canucks traded J.T. Miller to the Rangers earlier in the season, rumor has it to avoid losing Elias Pettersson (as scuttlebutt made it sound like it was going to have to be either one or the other), so trading Pettersson would be off the table. Especially since if you're acquiring Jack Hughes, you're going to want to play him with Pettersson. 

And while Boeser would've been a good card to throw on the table last offseason in a Jack Hughes trade, this year it's not Brock Boeser the player you're trading. It's Brock Boeser and his contract rights. Boeser is a UFA in July, and trading his rights in an attempt to get him to sign in New Jersey—something that isn't guaranteed—isn't going to be enough to get Jack Hughes in return. In any universe. Especially since Jack is on a long-term cost-controlled contract that goes through 2030, and that contract will look better as the cap goes up. 

Another important consideration to take into account? Team culture. Luke doesn't have trade protections in his contract, but Jack has a list that kicks in this offseason, so he could theoretically put the Canucks on his short list of teams he refuses to go to, given the amount of team culture issues we have seen play out in the public sphere for the Canucks this season. Why would Jack or Luke want to leave what seems like a great environment for them in New Jersey, where they seem happy and settled and are on a playoff team (even if they're both currently injured), to go to a turbulent locker room environment with a front office that is thoughtless, at best, with regards to how they talk about players to the media? Add to that the fact that they aren't currently contending and, well. 

If I was Jack and Luke I would tell Quinn "you've got to come to us".