As training camp gets closer, the Minnesota Wild’s summer of waiting has continued. One of the biggest dominos that has yet to fall is a contract extension for Quinn Hughes, who is entering the final year of his deal but has begun talks on a new deal to keep him in Minnesota.
Wild fans have been more reasonable about Hughes’s negotiations compared to Kirill Kaprizov this time one year ago. But the same can’t be said for fans of the New Jersey Devils.
With brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes already on the roster, Devils fans believe it’s Quinn’s destiny to come to New Jersey and play for them. And a seemingly harmless comment made by Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who reportedly met with Hughes’s camp in Michigan earlier this month has sent them back into a state of delusion as his next contract hangs in the air.
“I don’t want to get too far into it, but I’ve been talking to Quinn and his camp,” Guerin said during an appearance on SKOR North’s Judd’s Hockey Show last week.. “Like I said last year with Kirill, these things take time. They’re big decisions for players. They’re big decisions for teams. So it’s a process to work through it and this is no different than any other big contract negotiation.”
Devils fans believe their Quinn Hughes dream is still alive after Bill Guerin’s comments
Devils fans have long treated the Hughes brothers like Thanos collecting Infinity Stones. While Jack Hughes is signed through the 2029-30 season, Luke Hughes is signed through the 2031-32 campaign and it was a big reason why Quinn was linked to New Jersey after requesting a trade from the Vancouver Canucks last fall.
Even after Quinn Hughes was traded to the Wild, Devils fans have acted like it’s only a matter of time until he comes to play with his brothers – especially after Quinn Hughes scored an overtime winner against in the semifinals and Jack Hughes scored the golden goal for the United States national team during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
It’s also hard to blame Devils fans for feeling this way. After arriving in Minnesota, Hughes transformed the Wild into legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, scoring five goals and recording 53 points in 48 games during the regular season and added four goals and 15 points during the Wild’s 11-game playoff run.
Quinn Hughes’s profile also rose dramatically after moving from Northwestern Canada to the United States and it’s understandable that any team that needs a superstar on the blue line would be watching to see how negotiations with the Wild would pan out. But recent history suggests Devils fans may be wasting their time.
The Wild still shouldn’t be worried about Quinn Hughes leaving for the Devils
Wild fans expected Kaprizov would sign a massive extension when he became eligible last summer and it got to the point where owner Craig Leipold told The Athletic’s Michael Russo that July 1 “would feel like Christmas” with Kaprizov’s new contract and several high-profile additions leading the excitement.
But that didn’t happen right away. Kaprizov’s negotiations continued as the team reported for training camp and a report that he had rejected an eight-year, $128 million contract extension surfaced, creating even more panic before Guerin spoke to the media last September.
“My role as general manager is to protect our players,” Guerin explained during an appearance on the 10,000 Takes show last September. “I know two things. That info didn’t come from us, and it didn’t come from Kirill’s agent. I don’t know where it came from. Kirill’s agent and I have a very good relationship. We’re working through things. We’re not going to let things like this get in the way.
“...I don’t want our market to go into an all-out panic mode here. The most important thing to me is Kirill and not getting him put in a bad spot. We love him. He’s a wonderful guy. He’s an unbelievable player. And we want him.”
The counter for Devils fans is that while Guerin definitely wants to keep Quinn Hughes, it’s unknown if the feelings are mutual. Quinn Hughes stated that he is “definitely open to re-signing” with the Wild when the season ended last May, But since then Leipold has come out and noted Quinn Hughes’s preference to a three-year deal, presumably to sync with Jack Hughes’s deal with the Devils.
With a price tag that could flirt and possibly exceed Kaprizov’s $17 million AAV in the final eight-year, $136 million contract that was agreed to a few weeks after Guerin’s response to the leak, Devils fans could see him playing through the final year of his deal and heading to New Jersey.
But there’s another hole to poke into that logic. SKOR North’s Kirsten Krull noted the respect that Hughes has that Guerin “sacked up” by trading away three players and a first-round pick to bring him to Minnesota and also pointed out that Hughes would likely give the Wild the same warning he gave the Canucks when he decided he wasn’t going to re-sign so they could get something for him.
“You don’t think he has the same respect or courtesy for Bill Guerin?” Krull asked. “He loves Bill Guerin and so does his family. If he wasn’t going to extend here, don’t you think he would have had a private conversation with Bill and this wouldn’t be getting drug out like this right now? I think the last person he’s going to string along is Bill Guerin.”
All of this considered, there’s a chance that Quinn Hughes signs a three-year deal and makes his way to New Jersey to play with his brothers when his new contract expires. But Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman also emerged from his cottage late last week to say he “doesn’t have any panic” about Quinn Hughes’s contract situation.
But for the Devils fans hoping he’ll turn down the Wild and power play his way to the Meadowlands immediately, logic is not going to change their mind. Instead, Wild fans will have to gut through it and hope the best time to respond is when Quinn Hughes puts pen to paper.
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