Devils Season May Have Come Undone By Trade Attempt Of Quinn Hughes

It is well known that the New Jersey Devils were heavily in on Quinn Hughes. The Vancouver Canucks ended up making a deal with the Minnesota Wild and sent him there instead. There have been reports and rumors of who may have been included in the deal to acquire this third Hughes brother by the Devils, and it may have caused some unintended damage to the team this season.

The Devils are 6-13-1 in their past 20 games going back to the start of December, have lost three games in a row, and lost seven of the past nine games. They have fallen well out of a playoff spot and are five points back of the second wildcard spot with two extra games played.

Elliotte Friedman said, "It is very clear to me that the whole Quinn Hughes situation just damaged their internal workings. Business got out, NTCs used, things like that and I don't know how you fix that."

Players like Dougie Hamilton, Ondrej Palat, and Dawson Mercer have to be in that conversation as these were players rumored to be in trades this season. Hamilton and Palat have 10-team trade lists, so that's definitely who Friedman was talking about here. These players would also make sense in regards to position (Hamilton) and cap space.

The Devils were expected to be a powerhouse in the East, but injuries and poor play by some have derailed that. There are plenty of good younger players, either in their prime or getting there, so the future is still bright if injuries don't continue to be an issue. But the Devils have to be smarter about the contracts they sign and the leaked information about their players. It absolutely affects a team.

This might be able to be cleaned up by the summer if a couple of these players can be moved and the roster changes around a bit, but Hughes is still on the Devils' radar for when his contract expires.