Sunny Mehta said Jack Hughes has four years left on his contract with the New Jersey Devils and made clear the team is not treating his future as a problem. Mehta called Hughes one of the best players in the league and said he is not spending time worrying about what comes next for the young forward.
That answer matters now because the chatter around a possible Hughes brother reunion has not gone away, even as Mehta tried to shut down the idea that Jack is a club concern. He said Quinn Hughes plays for another team, and he would not comment on that side of the speculation. The message was simple: Jack Hughes remains in place, and the Devils are not moving into panic mode.
Mehta’s view is rooted in the contract itself. Four years is a long runway in the NHL, especially for a player who is only 24 or 25 and still entering the part of a career where elite players often sharpen into their most complete form. Mehta said he is “super pumped” to have Hughes on the team at that deal, and he added that he has already had multiple conversations with both Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes since taking the job.
He also said the Devils changed pieces around Hughes this offseason, a sign that the team is trying to build forward rather than look over its shoulder at social media speculation. Mehta said he is eager to see how the new mix fits around Hughes and how the chemistry continues to develop. That is the practical reality here: the Devils are acting as if Jack Hughes is their centerpiece, not a name to be dragged into every brother-reunion rumor.
The unanswered part now is not whether Jack Hughes is a concern for New Jersey, because Mehta plainly said he is not. It is whether the noise around Quinn Hughes will keep building if an extension does not arrive with the Minnesota Wild, because the longer that goes on, the more pressure sits there. For the Devils, though, the club line is already set: Jack Hughes is signed, protected by years on a strong contract, and still viewed as the player around whom everything else should take shape.
