Wild To Acquire Quinn Hughes

It appears the Quinn Hughes trade rumor mill is coming to an end.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Canucks are trading the defenseman to the Wild.  TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that Vancouver will be receiving center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick in return.

Dating back to the offseason, there had been speculation that a trade involving Hughes could happen at some point.  The blueliner had talked about liking the idea of one day playing with his brothers, something Canucks president Jim Rutherford also referenced.  To that end, the Devils were believed to have had discussions about the idea of making a move for him with those discussions resurfacing this week amid talks with several other suitors.

Minnesota was not among those known suitors but they have won the sweepstakes for Hughes, making a significant addition to their back end.  The 26-year-old has been one of the top-scoring defensemen in the NHL in recent years and is only two seasons removed from winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top blueliner while finishing third in voting for the award last season.

This season, Hughes has played in 26 games with Vancouver, picking up two goals and 21 assists while logging a career-high 27:26 of ice time per night.  For his career, he checks in at just below the point-per-game mark with 61 goals and 371 helpers in 459 regular season games.  He has produced at a similar rate in the postseason, notching two goals and 24 assists in 30 playoff contests from the Canucks’ playoff appearances in 2020 and 2024.

It’s an understatement to say that adding Hughes will be a significant addition to Minnesota’s back end.  The team has leaned heavily on Brock Faber in the early going this season with veterans Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon also logging over 20 minutes a night.  That’s a solid foundation but a group that was lacking a legitimate number one defender.  That’s now no longer the case with Hughes sliding in as that missing piece with Jacob Middleton (when healthy) also serving as a top-four-caliber piece.

Hughes has two seasons remaining on his contract with a team-friendly $7.85MM AAV.  It’s plausible that he could double that when his contract expires and have a chance to be the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL.  Interestingly enough, he’s going to a team that employs the highest-paid player in NHL history as of next season in winger Kirill Kaprizov.

Clearly, GM Bill Guerin, who is also the GM for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, feels he will be able to make a strong pitch for Hughes to stick around for the long haul, even if it requires another record-setting contract to do so.  Hughes will be eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1st although Minnesota has received no assurances that he’ll do so, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo (Twitter link).  Notably, with new CBA restrictions on term and bonus structure kicking in next September, Minnesota will have about a 10-week window to try to lock Hughes up to an eight-year extension before the maximum length of a deal drops to seven seasons.

The Wild currently sit in third place in a hotly contested Central Division.  They’re behind Colorado and Dallas, the top two teams in the NHL by a considerable margin while Winnipeg, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, is also in their division as well, though languishing as of late.  With this move, an already difficult division gets a lot more difficult but the opportunity to add an elite defender to his group is an opportunity that Guerin clearly couldn’t pass up.

As for Vancouver, this is a situation they clearly didn’t want to be in on multiple fronts.  For starters, the recent trade speculation was hardly ideal and it was recently acknowledged that it was a discussion point in the dressing room.  Meanwhile, their preference certainly would have been to try to lock him up long-term.  However, considering that the Canucks sit dead last in the NHL standings with just 25 points in 31 games and are coming off missing the playoffs last season, a retool of some sorts was going to be on the horizon.  Taking a step back would have lowered the chances of Hughes re-signing while moving him allowed for the potential to kick-start that roster restructuring.

There’s a strong case to make that Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have accomplished that with this trade.  For starters, they bring in a highly-touted young defender in Buium who they hope can be an impact piece right away, particularly on the offensive front.

The 20-year-old was the 12th overall pick by Minnesota not even a year and a half ago.  He signed his entry-level contract at the end of his college season back in April and made his NHL debut in the playoffs, picking up an assist in four games.  Buium has been a regular on the back end for the Wild this year, playing in 31 games where he has put up three goals and 11 assists in 18:28 of playing time per game.  He should have a chance to play a little higher on the depth chart with the Canucks with a regular spot in the top four behind Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and Tyler Myers being a legitimate possibility.  With a longer-term lens, he could be a potential long-term partner with fellow rookie Tom Willander.

Buium is signed on his entry-level contract through the 2026-27 campaign with a cap hit of $967K plus an additional $1MM in potential ’A’ bonuses in each year.  If he progresses as expected, his second contract could wind up eclipsing what Hughes is making now while giving them a foundational blueliner, albeit not a franchise one like Hughes is.

As for Rossi, he helps fill a need that the Canucks have had for quite some time as a legitimate second-line center to play behind Elias Pettersson.  J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat were on the roster is past years but both were ultimately moved out and with due respect to Filip Chytil who can be a quality player when healthy, Vancouver lost a lot of impact depth down the middle with those swaps.  Rossi isn’t at the level of Miller or Horvat but he will be a substantial upgrade on their current depth options, a group headlined by recent UFA signing David Kampf.

The 24-year-old was the ninth pick back in the 2020 draft class.  Rossi battled myocarditis not long after being selected which stalled his development although he bounced back without any long-term concerns.  He had a solid showing in 2023-24 with 40 points in 82 games and then was considerably more productive last season, tallying 24 goals and 36 assists in 82 regular season games while playing over 18 minutes per night.  However, his ice time dropped in the playoffs to just 11 minutes per game and he remained a subject of consistent trade speculation throughout the summer with the two sides well apart on contract talks for a considerable amount of time.

More to follow.