The Minnesota Wild knew when they traded for Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks that a contract extension would be a high priority.
They paid a huge price for the superstar defenseman, and his contract only ran through the end of the 2026-27 season. The price would look a lot heavier if Hughes didn’t extend in Minnesota.
Whenever Hughes signs a new deal, it’ll be one of the richest in hockey history, but it hasn’t happened yet, and so he’s officially rolling in the last year of his current deal.
That brings with it plenty of risk. If the Wild don’t get an extension signed with Hughes, they could lose him for nothing.
And because of that, Hughes is going to be involved in trade chatter up to the deadline. The alternative path for Minnesota to losing Hughes for nothing is to trade him somewhere for value in return.
It wouldn’t be as much as the Wild gave up for Hughes, given his deal would almost be up, but it’d be better than nothing.
Of course, the Wild want to compete for a Stanley Cup, so trading Hughes doesn’t help that cause. It’s a complicated situation.
Quinn Hughes Trade Update
The Athletic’s Harman Dayal included Hughes on Thursday on a list in which he discusses five players who could turn into “late-season trade candidates.”
Dayal discusses many of the same contract issues mentioned above.
“Minnesota hopes a winning environment, surrounded by Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber, will coax Hughes into extending, but it hasn’t happened yet, despite all the optimistic chatter at the end of last season,” Dayal writes. “The allure of playing with his brothers out East, closer to home, is obvious, but I wonder whether Minnesota’s underwhelming offseason contributed to Hughes’ wait-and-see approach.”
There is only so much time left before someone has to blink here.
“Winning matters to Hughes, and he may want to see whether Minnesota, which is stuck in a very difficult Central Division, can plug its holes and build a roster that can go toe-to-toe with Colorado for years to come,” Dayal writes. “It’s easy to see why Hughes would want to take his time with this life-changing decision, but the Wild can’t wait forever, either. If this situation drags on without an extension, GM Bill Guerin will have to decide whether to trade Hughes or hold onto him past the trade deadline.”
Devils Rumors
The New Jersey Devils are always going to be the popular landing spot because that’s where Hughes’ brothers Jack and Luke already play.
“If the Wild lose confidence that they can re-sign Hughes and are forced to explore a trade, he’s unlikely to be worth anywhere close to the mammoth package (the equivalent of four first-round picks) that Guerin surrendered to the Canucks,” Dayal writes. “Minnesota’s options would be to trade him to New Jersey, which would likely feel confident it could re-sign Hughes, or sell him elsewhere, since his current contract has no trade protection. Both roads would be disappointing; the Devils probably wouldn’t feel motivated to offer much if they think Hughes will sign with them in the summer (New Jersey doesn’t have many exciting young assets anyway), and other clubs would likely only offer rental-type prices.”
The only way Minnesota can feel it confidently wins in this situation is if Hughes signs an extension.
Otherwise, all these paths feel like they carry a bit too much risk and maybe not enough reward.
But this is the corner the Wild backed themselves into. They’ll just have to hope that one way or another Hughes can prove to be worth it.
Wild’s Quinn Hughes Trade Update Facing Contract Trouble