New Jersey Devils may consider dealing restricted free agent Luke Hughes with the Red Wings being a potential suitor.

The lasting conversation heading into early training camps and summer skates has narrowed down to three names still unsigned as restricted free agents. The three that mostly everyone is talking about is Minnesota's Marco Rossi, Anaheim's Mason McTavish and New Jersey's Luke Hughes.

The Red Wings have been reportedly checking in with some of the teams on the names listed like recent reports indicating they've had conversations with Pat Verbeek and the Anaheim Ducks about McTavish, who could fit into the Wings top line left wing spot. We also recently touched on the chances of Marco Rossi being moved as he and the Wild are reportedly still far in terms of his next contract. 

Marco Rossi Could Be Future Option For Red Wings Says NHL Insider New insider reports indicate that the Minnesota Wild and restricted free agent Marco Rossi aren't close to a deal. 

It leaves New Jersey and Hughes, who no one has really spoken much about as mostly everyone is assuming he will stay due to his desire to continue playing alongside his brother, Jack. However, we've seen brothers play on the same team and then leave each other before with the Red Wings having a top four defenceman on their list of needs. 

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Trading away one of their top young defenceman is likely not something that Tom Fitzgerald and the Devils organization are looking to do but if there was a chance, what would the deal need to be?

The Red Wings have a wealth of high-end prospects that New Jersey could almost certainly take a piece of as they ranked 20th overall in overall prospect pool, according to The Hockey Writers rankings this past January, while Detroit finished top five. The Devils also didn't make any notable moves in the draft or free agency so they will be hard-pressed to try and improve after finishing with the 20th-best offence but a top five defence last season. 

They will be getting back superstar Jack Hughes fully healthy after missing all last season due to injury but the team will still need to make improvements towards the bottom six of their lineup. They could afford one or two more contributors on the bottom two lines and J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp or Jonatan Berggren could all be viable options. 

If Hughes is refusing to sign, they may as well improve an area of need while adding to their prospect pool and continue building towards the future. Convincing New Jersey to trade Hughes would likely require a massive haul like a deal including Compher, Berggren, a top prospect like Nate Danielson, a defensive prospect like William Wallinder, some draft picks and even then, it may not be enough to get something done. 

The most likely outcome is that the Devils do decide to re-sign Hughes and he stays with the team but if he refuses to budge, Steve Yzerman and the rest of Detroit's management staff should consider putting together a haul to bring in a 21-year-old top four defenceman that has proven to be elite with 93 points through 155 NHL games.

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