The Minnesota Wild made one of the NHL’s biggest bets last season when they acquired Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.
Minnesota traded Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round pick in exchange for Hughes mid-December, and the blueliner immediately justified the price by producing 52 points in 47 games and setting a Wild single-season scoring record for a defenseman.
The next step was supposed to be keeping him beyond his current $47.1 million contract, which runs through the end of the 2027 season, but that has yet to happen.
PuckPedia's Keith Kavanaugh joined Jeff Marek on "The Sheet" on Tuesday and said the tone surrounding Hughes’ future has noticeably changed as extension negotiations have dragged into August.
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“The sentiment I’d say a month ago was not 'if' he’s going to sign this extension, but 'when' he’s going to sign this extension with Minnesota,” Kavanaugh said. “And now it almost feels like it’s shifted a little bit to 'if.'”
Wild general manager Bill Guerin appeared on Judd's Hockey Show and confirmed communication with Hughes’ camp but offered no indication that an agreement is close.
“I'm not gonna get too far into [the negotiations]… but I've been talking to Quinn and his camp all along,” Guerin said. “These things take time, and they're big decisions for players, and they're big decisions for teams.”
Marek, meanwhile, suggested the biggest question for Hughes might have little to do with salary.
“I think in the back of Quinn Hughes's mind is — I don't think any of this is about the money, because I think the money he's going to get in Minnesota is the money he's going to get in New Jersey, is the money he's going to get in Detroit, is the money he's going to get wherever he ends up going,” Marek said. “I think he looks at it and says, like, 'Is this a Stanley Cup team?'”
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman remains more optimistic, as he recently predicted Hughes will ultimately sign a three-year, $54 million extension with the Wild, carrying an $18 million annual value. Friedman also said he will not become concerned unless Hughes remains unsigned when the season begins.
Until then, however, the shift described by Kavanaugh leaves Minnesota facing a far less comfortable question than it expected earlier this summer and the possibility of an exit either via trade before the deadline or next summer as a free agent.
