Devils continue to be super weird about the Wild beating them to a Quinn Hughes trade

Every other team in the NHL could have traded for star defenseman Quinn Hughes, but only the Minnesota Wild got the job done. Most teams that were sore about it have moved on, but not the New Jersey Devils.

As the Wild continue to figure out ways to convince Hughes to sign a long-term extension, the Devils might have just given Minnesota an unintentional assist.

Three months after failing to land Hughes and unite him with his brother and alternate captain, Jack, the Devils continue to be really weird about getting outgunned on the trade market by Minnesota. The latest petty shot New Jersey took revolved around the Olympics and a group photo that received two things it shouldn't have: a sloppy photoshop job and a trip to the team's social media account.

Devils only further help the Wild's cause to pair Jack and Quinn Hughes together by being totally not normal

For context, this appears to be a bit that the Devils have been doing, but that somehow makes it even worse. It's one thing to try and be funny but it's another when it's pretty abundantly clear that the "joke" is being made against the backdrop of some pretty real feelings.

Pettiness masked in faux humor is still pettiness, and the Devils are about as bad at reading the room as they are at being good at hockey.

Even though it's a bit, still can't make this stuff up. The Devils are one of the worst teams in the league, and this is a perfectly tone deaf way to alienate both fans and players -- bold strategy, Cotton!

The good news is that New Jersey's weirdo behavior could end up helping the Wild in their pursuit to do what the Devils failed to. Ever since Quinn came to Minnesota, there have been growing rumors about the Wild trading for Jack. It started mostly as an aside to everyone's excitement about Bill Guerin making such a franchise-altering deal but has slowly snowballed into something that could actually happen.

It's still a long shot and won't be a deal that happens any time before the summer, but there's more of a runway for the Hughes brothers playing together in St. Paul than some might think.

These sorts of antics don't really help New Jersey's cause in keeping their franchise star happy.

Minnesota might be doing business with the Devils in more ways than just a Hughes trade. There's a possibility that Guerin pushes his trade chips to the center and tries to land Nico Hischier, something that would justify packaging assets like Jesper Wallstedt, Charlie Stramel, David Jiricek, and a first rounder and could even spur some motivation to deal Danila Yurov.

Still, the idea of pairing the Hughes brothers in Minnesota is a dream for Wild fans, and goofy stuff like what the Devils are doing only further helps the cause.