At some level? At the level of being a fan of a division rival is about the only level I can think of on which this makes any sense. Hughes's RFA tender in 2025 would come in at $10M in that case, we'd know where inflation stands, we'd know where the league's salary cap is at (has it jumped to $90M after the players repaid the owners and Seattle + new TV money are accounted for?). If Hughes is better than that salary, he will demand more than $10M. It's hard to imagine him signing $8M for 5 more years in that contingency. It's also hard to imagine him having significant trade value given that RFA tender - even if you could take him to team-elected arbitration to knock that down, I don't think it can be knocked down more than a prescribed amount (25%? 10%? Can't remember).
I'm not sure what KK has to do with this.
You've just written out a big contradiction here. You recognize that if Hughes becomes the star a lot of people think he will be, this will be a great deal. The only time to sign a deal where there's enough ignorance on either side is right now. Let's say Hughes can't get it together this year and finishes this season like last season. Now there's no way he will take an 8 year deal unless it's this one, and I'm skeptical the Devils would want to offer that now that it's 3 seasons in a row where his point totals have underwhelmed.
I think one thing the deal skeptics don't see is how great it is to have a player signed from age 21 to age 29. Age 29! This is a player's entire prime. It makes 2030 difficult but it sure makes the intervening years easy.
