Hughes, LaCombe Deals To Set Precedent For Thomas Harley Extension

This past week, two young, left-shot NHL defensemen received massive, ground-breaking, near-identical contracts. Both New Jersey Devils' star blueliner of the future Luke Hughes and Anaheim Ducks' defensive stahlwart Jackson LaCombe inked long term extensions for max term, seven years for Hughes and eight for LaCombe, all at a hefty price tag of $9 million per year a piece.

In the case of Hughes, whose contract begins this season, this would tie him for the 12th highest paid defensemen in the league with the likes of Cale Makar, Jakob Chychryun and Dougie Hamilton. There's no doubt that these deals are tide-shifting, as according to a RG.org article by Marco D'Amico, sources within the NHL believe that the salary cap could double over the next nine years.

If you are Dallas Stars' defensive phenom Thomas Harley and his agent Andy Scott, there's no doubt those deals are the anchor with which Harley's RFA negotiations will be centered around.

Harley, 24, is in his final season of a two-year bridge contract worth $4.0 million per season. At the time of his deal, Harley had netted 53 points over 119 regular season games with 47 of those points coming in the final deal of his rookie contract. 

Hughes, 22, comes into his massive deal with 93 points over 155 NHL games, sitting at a career .60 points per game. On the other hand, the 24-year-old LaCombe, who would've been part of the same RFA class as Harley, had notched just 60 points through 148 games for a career .41 points per game, thus far.

Harley is nestled between the two, with 103 points over 197 games, at a .52 points per game rate, with Harley arguably being much better in his own end than Hughes and better offensively and in transition than LaCombe. 

Situationally, Harley is in a more similar place to Hughes as LaCombe is very much already the Ducks no. 1 blueliner, while Hughes is blossoming into a potential no. 1 while they still have Dougie Hamilton, who is regressing albeit still has that top pair pedigree. As for Harley, the Stars may be able to weaponize that Harley just won't be the No. 1 guy with the Stars now and likely for a while with Miro Heiskanen still kicking.

The big factor to determine just how difficult negotiations may be with Harley and subsequently Jason Robertson, both of whom will enter restricted free agency this off-season, is what exactly the cap is expected to jump up to for 2026-27. If the cap rises to as high as $113.5 million as an anonymous agent in a recent article in The Athletic suggests, the Stars could very well get both deals done, no problem, locking down both players to future team-friendly deals. and potentially extending their window.

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