The Quinn Hughes fallout continues as we head toward the NHL trade freeze ahead of the vacation season. On Sunday, the Minnesota Wild showed off their newest toy as Quinn Hughes took to the lineup against the Boston Bruins. He recorded a goal in his first game in a Wild uniform and seemed to be having fun playing hockey again.
NHL Rumors: Minnesota Wild Went All In with Quinn Hughes. Can They Keep Him?
While Wild GM Bill Guerin went “All-In” to get the eldest Hughes brother, the true work now begins. Remember, Hughes has a yr and a half left on his current deal at $7.85 million a season. He isn’t eligible to sign an extension until July 1, 2026, but the way in which he was talking after the sport on Sunday, he’s open to anything.
“Extremely open-minded,” Hughes told the Minnesota media on Sunday post-game when asked if he was about extending with the Wild. “They’ve got an incredible core. Obviously I’ve only been here 4 hours, but attending to know a few of the guys and the way energetic and positive guys are. After which Minnesota being so near Michigan (his home state), and just the State of Hockey and the eagerness here. Seeing how the fans reacted to me as well in warmups.”
But what could have put things over the sting was the remaining of his quote when he complimented Minnesota’s General Manager for stepping up and going after him.
“After which obviously I got plenty of time for Billy for ‘sacking up’ and making the deal like he did. And just how he valued me,” Hughes continued. “There are other teams that probably could’ve thrown in certain packages like that too, but at the top of the day, they didn’t want to try this or they didn’t need to trade two or three assets from their team like Billy did. So I’ll do not forget that. And meaning lots to me that Billy did that.”
NHL Trade: Vancouver Canucks Trade Quinn Hughes to Minnesota
How players are handled in this case goes a good distance toward whether players stay or not. Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford treated Quinn Hughes like he had trade protection despite the fact that he didn’t. Hughes had the Ryan O’Reilly unofficial-official verbal trade protection. Not only was the player informed throughout the method, but his agent, Pat Brisson, was as well.
Brisson, who couldn’t guarantee teams anything before the trade, will keep an open mind along together with his player after this trade in the case of his contract extension, which hasn’t been discussed yet, as he told Michael Russo of The Athletic.
“We haven’t crossed that in any respect,” Brisson said. “Identical to the conversations I’ve had within the recent weeks concerning the potential extensions and never promising anything, we haven’t even checked out or thought concerning the concept going forward.
The advantage of Quinn, he’s still young. He’s not a 29- or 30-year-old asset. I’m not saying that it’s old, but by virtue of extension, sometimes it’s often your last deal, right? So with him, I don’t know — every little thing’s open. We’re really, really going into this experience with an open mind, and we’ll see the way it goes.”
NHL Rumors: Some Fallout After the Quinn Hughes Trade to the Wild
It’ll be interesting to see where things go for the second-best defenseman within the league. But Bill Guerin isn’t afraid to swing for the fences in the case of handing out contracts. Just take a look at what he did with Kirill Kaprizov and that deal. Again, Cale Makar is due for an extension. Those two players will likely be one-two by way of defenseman getting paid.
But will Quinn Hughes get as much as all of us think? He desires to win. Sometimes taking less in a superb situation is best than getting the bag. The countdown is on for the Wild and Hughes to get a deal done.
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