After a brutal start to the season, the Minneosta Wild have managed to not only level out but become one of the top teams in an incredibly competitive Central Divsion.
It’s that push toward the top that has seemingly movtivated Bill Grurein to make one of the boldest moves of his tenure as general manager. On Friday the Wild pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade, sending Zee Buium, Marco Rossi, and a first-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for team captain Quinn Hughes.
The move is absolutely siesmic, and sends a clear message to everyone in the league that the Wild are ready to seriously compete for a Stanley Cup this season. It’s a trade that establishes them as contenders as well as setting in place another core piece of the foundation as the next chapter of the teams history gets written.
Wild make bold blockbuster trade to acquire Quinn Hughes and reset the team’s trajectory
It’s hard to overstate what an uncharacteristic swing this is for the Wild. This is a team that has been strapped in terms of its spending power thanks to the decision to buyout Zach Parise and Ryan Suter at the start of the decade, something that truly set the team back.
One of the reasons that decision has been stuck in the craw of fans is the development of superstar Kirill Kaprizov. Minnesota managed to secure him on a long term contract and ensure he’s the centerpiece of the franchise through the end of the 2020s, which makes the trade for Hughes even more…well, wild.
Adding Hughes means the Wild are acquiring an elite defenseman to go along with the superstar scoring prowess of Kaprizov. Add to that the leadership of Jared Spurgeon and guys like Matt Boldy and Joel Erikssin Ek, as well as the outstanding goal tending from Jasper Wallstedt, and all of a sudden the Wild have the sort of lineup that can truly contend for a Stanley Cup in ways it might not have in the past.
Wild fans have grown tired of the team making the playoffs only to become first round canon fodder for teams like Dallas, Winnipeg, or Vegas, but with the arrival of Hughes the Wild have a top line defenseman to skate alongside Brock Faber as well as help him develop into the important piece the franchise needs.
This is a game changing trade for the Wild. The price paid is steep, but it’s worth it considering what it means in terms of what it says abut Gurein trying to actually build around Kaprizov. We’ll see how it ages, but this is the sort of swing fans have been waiting for and it finally happened.