The real reason the New Jersey Devils couldn't trade for Quinn Hughes revealed

For months now, all NHL fans have been hearing about is the Quinn Hughes connection to the New Jersey Devils, and with the Vancouver Canucks struggling early in 2025/26, it's a connection that certainly made sense.

However, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin shocked the NHL world on Friday night when he dealt Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, a team that absolutely nobody saw acquiring Hughes, as GM Bill Guerin clearly moved in silence.

Now that things have cooled down after the shocking trade, details are beginning to be released over how things ended up playing out, or in this case, not playing out.

On Saturday night, Elliotte Friedman revealed on Sportsnet just why the Devils weren't able to put together the most compelling offer for Hughes, with Allvin and the Canucks clearly looking to move him before the Devils could make it happen.

According to Friedman, the Devils couldn't get the deal due to the team not being able to clear cap as a result of "clauses that were honestly and fairly negotiated that prevented them from doing what they needed to do to open up spots".

Unfortunately, this was always going to be the issue with New Jersey, as Minnesota was able to send salary back to the Canucks with some spare salary of their own to take on Hughes, and for those looking to see Quinn, Jack and Luke play together in the NHL, we'll need to wait until at least the summer of 2027 when Quinn becomes a free agent.