Insider: Devils Have 2 Trades Vetoed Due to No-Trade Clauses

Tom Fitzgerald, NJ Devils executive vice president/general manager

The New Jersey Devils, as we know, came up short in their bid to land their third Hughes brother, as the Vancouver Canucks took the package offered by the Minnesota Wild. But this doesn't mean that the Devils didn't try to get this—and other deals—done to this point in the season. In fact, reports insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast on Monday, GM Tom Fitzgerald has had trouble consummating at least two deals he's tried to make due to no-trade clauses his players hold.

I do believe the Devils have had a couple of deals vetoed. Okay? I do believe that. I don’t know who, I don’t know what, but I do believe that’s happened. There’s too much noise out there for that not to have occurred.

Devils lead the league in no-move/no-trade clauses

In fact, Fitzgerald and the Devils have 14 no-trade & no-move clauses on their roster. That's tied for most in the NHL with the Carolina Hurricanes and Seattle Kraken. The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs are next at 13. Getting deals done certainly becomes difficult when most of your team has a clause that gives them the right to veto it.

We're just speculating, but the most likely culprit in any Hughes offer would be Devils defenseman Dougie Hamiltion. His name has been 'out there' this year, and he does have a 10-team trade list.

Fitzgerald has taken some heat around New Jersey for having handed out so many NTCs and NMCs, handcuffing himself. But Friedman doesn't believe that the GM is in any trouble of losing his job, as some have suggested over the weekend.

"I don't believe that right now... If you're saying to me that the New Jersey Devils are on the cusp of a GM change—No. I don't believe that's the case at all."

Friedman adds that an official from a rival team told him that, in addition to a potential veto from a player, what really prevented the Devils from winning the Quinn Hughes sweepstakes is that "they reached a point where they knew they weren't going to get Hughes. Because they could not beat the Minnesota offer."