With a week until training camp, the Minnesota Wild’s attention – and the rest of the NHL’s – is centered around Quinn Hughes. Eligible for a contract extension entering the final year of his contract, Hughes was understandably the star of the NHL’s Player Media Tour in Las Vegas on Wednesday and his comments left fans and analysts with the familiar question of “What does Quinn Hughes want?”
Hughes has been vague on that subject, but in a separate interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas he stated a desire that he wants to win and also cited a moment during the Wild’s playoff series against the Dallas Stars last spring.
“I mean, that’s an exciting thing for me, I want to win,” Hughes said on the 32 Thoughts podcast. “...It was [the] first round against Dallas. I’m lining up Game 1. You’ve got [Mikko] Rantanen, Wyatt Johnson, [Jason] Robertson, [Miro] Heiskanen and [Jake] Oettinger in the back. But, you know, I’m looking around me, and I’ve got [Brock] Faber beside me. I got Kirill [Kaprizov], I got [Matt] Boldly, and [Jesper] Wallstedt behind me and that was a cool moment for me, where I was like, ‘They’ve got a great team, but we’ve got a great team.”
With the added possibility of $20 million floating around, the Wild have given Hughes a lot to think about. But if his real priority is winning, staying with the Wild may be the best opportunity to get the best of both worlds.
Quinn Hughes’s situation with the Wild is different than what he had with the Canucks
On the surface, Hughes’s comments from Wednesday sound a lot like what he said in his final months with the Vancouver Canucks. Speaking to Friedman and Buskauskas in the same situation a year ago, Hughes had kind words for the Canucks and made it seem like re-signing was a possibility.
“I mean, I’ve really enjoyed Vancouver. I’m very thankful,” Hughes said via Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. “When I came to Vancouver, I don’t think I even thought I was gonna become what I’ve become. That’s happened because of the people in Vancouver – management, coaching. I’ve had great relationships with Bruce [Boudreau] and Rick [Tocchet]. Management’s been kind of giving me the keys to the kingdom a couple years ago. I’m very grateful. As far as this year, I just feel like last year was a failure and I want to propel my game even further and propel my teammates even further. See what we can do.”
While that feels like a lukewarm response, Hughes added the caveat that he would answer the possibility of an extension “with my actions next summer” and that the team’s performance in 2025-26 would impact those actions.
The Canucks had a decent start, going 9-9-2 in their first 20 games, but lost nine of their next 11 games after that. During that downturn, Adam Foote was struggling as the team’s head coach and Hughes informed the front office that he would not re-sign the following summer, leading to his trade to the Wild.
In Minnesota, Hughes was in a different environment. The Wild were one of the top teams in the Central Division and had one of the best records in the NHL before they were thrown into Gary Bettman’s flawed playoff format. Despite that, the Wild were able to beat the Dallas Stars in the first round before injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin became key factors in a five-game series loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
While Hughes also mentioned the two injuries as wild cards in that series, it also has fueled him to get back on the ice with his teammates while the business side of things sort everything out.
“I feel excited to play,” Hughes continued. “[I’m] excited to play with Brock [Faber] again. I’m excited to be on the power play with [Boldy] and Kirill and continue building with those guys…instead of starting from Game 40 or whatever I was. So for me, I just feel at peace. I feel like there’s a lot to look forward to this year. And as far as the noise, if someone wants to ask me a question…I’m not basing decisions because I don’t want to answer questions. I’m gonna take my time and Billy’s gonna take his time and I’m sure we’re gonna work it out.”
The Wild is Quinn Hughes’s best path to a Stanley Cup
With NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen noting that Hughes told reporters that the Wild “had nothing to show or prove to him” as they look to sign him to an extension, it appears the Wild have given him a lot to think about. Unlike the situation in Vancouver, the Wild also have a team ready to contend even if there are significant questions about the roster going into opening night.
Guerin’s aggressiveness to improve the team also has to be in the back of Hughes’s mind as well as the haul it took to bring him to Minnesota. While playing with his brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes with the New Jersey Devils is a lingering threat, they don’t share the same contender status even though they are expected to rebound after last year’s injury-plagued campaign.
Whether it’s the Devils or somewhere else, Hughes also has to ask what the best situation is. If he’s traded to a different team, he would also be starting over from scratch as opposed to the 48-game head start he had building chemistry after his trade from Vancouver last season.
On a ready made Cup contender willing to back up a Brinks truck to keep him around, it would be wise for Hughes to take the Wild’s deal, even if it’s a short-term deal to join his brothers down the road. Until then, Devils fans will continue to parse the Wild’s roster making a case for their team to be Hughes’s ultimate destination. But the Wild seem to have an advantage if Hughes’s top priority is actually winning.
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