The Minnesota Wild are in the middle of their deepest playoff run in a decade and a lot of it has to do with the acquisition of Quinn Hughes. The star defenseman was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for three players and a 2026 first-round draft pick on Dec. 13 and has been a driving force in the Wild’s rise to a Stanley Cup contender.
Part of that process has occurred during the playoffs where Hughes has taken his game to another level. Playing in front of a bigger stage, Hughes and the Wild haven’t flinched and national analysts are starting to take notice including ESPN’s P.K. Subban, who called him the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs even over his star counterpart, Cale Makar.
“Cale Makar might go down as the greatest defenseman to ever play the game when it’s all said and done. He’s not there now [but] he’s that good,” Subban said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday. “…But Quinn Hughes is a special player and no one has even been close to Cale Makar [but] he’s right there and in this playoffs for me, he’s gotta be in the MVP, Conn Smythe, he is in that conversation. He’s one of the best drivers, if not the best driver right now in the game and skating-wise, no one can touch him. So I’m with you on Quinn Hughes. I’m on the Quinn Hughes train big time.”
Quinn Hughes is playing at an MVP level for the Wild this postseason
Subban’s proclamation can be backed up with stats. Since making his debut with the Wild on Dec. 14, Hughes ranked second in the NHL among defensemen with 53 points behind Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard (66). But Hughes has hit an extra gear in the playoffs with 10 points in nine games entering Monday night’s Game 4 against the Avalanche.
In addition, Hughes has also started to find the back of the net. His four goals during the playoffs are just as much as the five he tucked over the entirety of the regular season and it includes two game-winning goals including a pair of goals that helped defeat the Dallas Stars 5-2 in Game 6 of the opening round and helped Minnesota advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Hughes’s stats are just part of the story. The 26-year-old has unlocked an extra gear in Brock Faber, who had four goals and a NHL-high 12 points in the playoffs entering Monday and has continued to get the best out of Kirill Kaprizov (four goals, 14 points) and Matt Boldy, who leads the playoffs with seven goals to go with his 11 points.
Acting like a top centerman on a team that’s currently stretching Ryan Hartman in that role is a bonus and comparable to Makar. But Makar also plays on a team loaded with talent including Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Valeri Nichushkin and his Stanley Cup performance has been quiet by his standards with just four goals and five points in his first seven games.
The key is that Hughes has been the straw the stirs the drink for the Wild playoff run and has helped them get to this point. If he helps them overcome the Avalanche, the conversation for a Conn Smythe Trophy will only intensify and could help Minnesota make its first Stanley Cup run in franchise history.
For now, the Wild will need Hughes to keep his strong performance going and it could get them to a place they’ve never gone before.
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