New Jersey Devils Sign Jack Hughes To Big Extension

The New Jersey Devils have signed center Jack Hughes to an eight-year, $64 million contract extension. With this, he will have an $8 million cap hit starting next season.

That's "Jersey Jack" to you. 😤https://t.co/EXPQYEEwRl
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 30, 2021

Hughes was selected first overall by the Devils during the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, so it's entirely understandable why they wanted to lock him up for such a long time. With that, they now have him under contract for the entirety of his prime years and he will still be under 30 years old when it's expired.

Due to his shoulder injury, Hughes has only been able to play in two games this season. In them, he had two goals and an assist, so he started the year on a real tear. Now, he's set to return and will be looking to build off of that.

This is a contract that fans could say is high-risk, high-reward. If Hughes truly breaks out and begins to inch closer to his potential, his $8 million cap hit will be a steal when seeing how other first-line centers are paid. Yet, if he's stagnant from here, this could be a long-term overpayment. We'll find out in time, but he's still just 20 years old, so he should continue to improve from here.

In 119 career games so far, Hughes has 20 goals, 55 points and a minus-27 rating. However, he also did take a noticeable step forward last season, as he recorded 31 points in 56 games.

Overall, this is a fantastic day for Jack. Not only is he returning to the lineup, but he also landed himself a monstrous contract.