The Minnesota Wild are heading toward the 2026-27 season but while next year will have championship-level expectations, the immediate concern is the future of Quinn Hughes. The star defenseman is negotiating a potential contract extension heading into the final year of his current deal and each update has raised the anxiety of everyone hoping he stays in Minnesota.
With that, a report by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that “there haven’t been a lot of talks recently” between Hughes and the Wild’s camp. But before New Jersey Devils fans use those comments as another way to manifest a blockbuster trade, Friedman gave an important reason why that may be the case.
“It has been the summer of Hughes,” Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast, referring to the offseason tour that Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes have been on since winning an Olympic gold medal last February. “Someone joked to me the other day like, ‘How much do you think they’ve been in the gym?’ We were kind of laughing about it…and I think that’s been part of this.
“They’ve been enjoying their newfound celebrity and the way that last year went for them with the Olympic gold medal, and that’s fine. If I won one of those, I’d be yucking it up across the Eastern Seaboard in the Michigan Peninsula, too. So I’ll wait to see how that plays out.”
Quinn Hughes’s busy summer may explain his quiet contract talks with Wild
Hughes’s summer is fitting for a player who officially jumped into the NHL’s upper tier of superstar players last season. While he was a former Norris Trophy winner for the Vancouver Canucks, it’s hard for players to attract a league-wide audience in Northwestern Canada (unless you’re Connor McDavid). The Wild weren’t exactly a must-watch franchise before Hughes arrived in a blockbuster trade last December, but Hughes transformed them, leading them to their first playoff series victory since 2015.
In addition to what Hughes did for the Wild, he also broke out on a national stage during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. After netting the overtime winner in the semifinals against Sweden and helping the United States defeat Canada in the gold medal game, Hughes has been on a tour that has included partying along The Jersey Shore, attending the World Cup Final match in New Jersey and training with his brothers in New Jersey, Michigan and Florida.
Again, Devils fans will see their home state and feel like this is the hockey gods willing Quinn Hughes to New Jersey to play with his brothers, Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes. But Hughes was also spotted as part of country artist Morgan Wallen’s walk out during a concert at Michigan Stadium in July.
While the Wild did meet with Hughes’s camp in Michigan at the beginning of the month, there hasn’t been a lot of momentum toward a deal. But Friedman believes that Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche could be the domino they’re waiting for.
Cale Makar’s contract could be the key to Quinn Hughes’s Wild extension
Makar is currently negotiating a contract extension with the Avalanche and there is little doubt in anyone’s mind that he will sign an extension. Considered the top defenseman in the NHL, Makar’s contract is likely to set the market and it could be part of a staring contest between him and Hughes to see who can make more money.
Friedman believes that a contract could get done around the same time as Nathan MacKinnon’s did a year ago as the Avalanche gathered for their annual golf tournament right before training camp. He also speculated that Makar, who will turn 28 in October, could sign a three-year contract, which would allow him to try and get one more big contract at age 31, which could give the Wild another important data point in their negotiations with Hughes.
With that, everything continues to point toward negotiations between the Wild and Hughes heating up toward training camp. Wild fans know the drill after a similar negotiation with Kirill Kaprizov last summer and if Makar signs, Minnesota should know how much and how long the contract should be.
It’s not as sexy as noting the two sides haven’t sat down for a while. But it’s two reasons why Hughes’s contract could be longer than expected and why it would take a surprising turn of events to keep him from re-signing with the Wild.
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