On Sunday night, the Minnesota Wild defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2, but the bigger story was Quinn Hughes’s return to Vancouver. Traded shortly after the Wild had their lone road game in Vancouver last season, Hughes scored a goal and added an assist and recorded his 500th career point in the win. But Canucks fans let their feelings known with a chant that should grab the attention of Wild fans.
The chant is in reference to Hughes’s contract situation as he continues to hem and haw over his future. While Hughes told reporters on Saturday that something could happen “soon,” the fact is the contract hasn’t been signed, opening speculation on what the holdup could be.
Currently on a Stanley Cup contender that is willing to bend over backwards to get a deal done, one signature could put an end to all of it. But as Canucks fans know, Hughes could be playing the game before he ultimately hits free agency and potentially goes to play with his brothers next summer.
Wild fans are seeing the same Quinn Hughes warning signs Canucks fans ignored
This is not intended to be a doomsday piece. In fact, Hughes could sign by the time you’re done reading this article. He referenced as much when speaking to reporters over the weekend, praising the Wild organization and hinting that a deal could be imminent.
“I mean, I’ve always been. I’m excited.” Hughes said via Joe Smith of The Athletic. “My two feet are planted in Minnesota. Something could happen soon. I’m not too sure. I’m really enjoying playing here. I see playing with – you see (Jonas Brodin), (Jared Spurgeon), when (Brock Faber) comes back – there are a lot of things that are set up for me to have success, individually and for us as a team. …I’m really enjoying it right now and taking my time and we’ll see where it goes. But I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens soon.”
But Canucks fans have heard this tune before. Jay Charania of The Canuck Way noted that Hughes signed a six-year extension coming out of his entry-level contract, but it was more common for players of his caliber to sign for eight years like Faber and Matt Boldy did as their ELCs were expiring with the Wild.
When his brother, Jack Hughes, raised the possibility of himself, Quinn and his younger brother, Luke, playing on the same team, Quinn Hughes didn’t deny that he welcomed the possibility but addressed it in a roundabout way without ever committing to Vancouver long-term.
“I mean, he’s my brother. What’s he supposed to say, first of all? Like ‘I don’t want to play with him,’ you know?” Hughes told The Athletic’s Michael Russo. “...I mean, we have contracts and whatnot. He’s on a different team. Would it be fun to play with those guys at some point? Of course. I think if you guys have brothers, you guys would say the same thing. But we do have contracts. I’m excited to be in Vancouver, and I feel like last year was a little bit of a failure. So I feel like I got things to do there. And I know Jack …loves Jersey, and he’s got stuff to do also.”
Those comments came after the Canucks had a busy offseason, signing Hughes’s friends Brock Boeser, Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko to contract extensions in a failed attempt to get him to sign. Former general manager Jim Rutherford also floated out the possibility of acquiring Jack and Luke Hughes in a trade with the New Jersey Devils as a way to convince Hughes to sign on the line.
“It may not boil down to money with him,” Rutherford said in April 2025. “He’s said before he wants to play with his brothers. That would be partly out of our control. In our control if we brought his brothers here.”
Roughly seven months later, Hughes informed Rutherford that he wasn’t going to re-sign with the Canucks when his contract ended and he was on his way to the Wild in a blockbuster trade. The implication that he quit on the team fueled most of the angst that was in Vancouver on Sunday night and could make its way to St. Paul if he doesn’t re-sign with the Wild.
The Wild may be watching Quinn Hughes history repeat itself
There are a couple of important differences between the Canucks and the Wild. As Hughes contemplated his future in Vancouver, the Canucks were falling apart with a bad locker room culture and a team that sank from being a win away from the Western Conference Finals during the 2023-24 season to the worst team in hockey a year ago.
That decline also convinced Canucks fans Hughes was dogging it in the final stretch in Vancouver, giving up on plays frequently and becoming “aloof” with the local media – something that his former coach, Bruce Boudreau, denied in the days leading up to Sunday’s return.
By comparison, Hughes is playing hard with the Wild, logging three goals and 16 points in the first 13 games. He’s also on a team that is on top of the Central Division with 18 points (8-3-2) and has plenty of quality talent around him, as he alluded to in Saturday’s interview.
But some parallels shouldn’t be ignored. The looming threat of playing with his brothers remains, and it was amplified when the Devils traded for Connor Hellebuyck last Friday. Over the summer, a report said Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who learned under Rutherford in the Pittsburgh Penguins front office before they landed in Vancouver and Minnesota, respectively, called the Devils to check on the availability of Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes, only to be turned down.
There have also been rumblings that Hughes could be waiting to see if the Wild can finally pull off a trade for his mentor and fellow University of Michigan alum, Dylan Larkin. Hughes skated around that rumor like it was an opposing defenseman on Saturday, but it’s another sign that Minnesota is doing everything it can to make him sign on the dotted line while Hughes is dragging his feet.
The biggest thing is that the Wild have enabled this behavior. They’ve given Hughes all the time he needs to make his decision and Smith noted that while Hughes made optimistic comments about a deal getting done, he also wrote that the Wild “have left him alone as of late regarding contract talks” after Sunday’s win.
It should also be noted that Hughes said similar things after the first training camp practice of the season and before the regular season opener about a deal getting done. Jack Hughes also told reporters in September that Quinn Hughes could be signing “a big deal” soon, but that hasn’t happened.
This is not entirely the Wild’s fault. A team that has been rooted in obscurity for most of its existence- Hughes made them relevant. It’s also a franchise that treats marginal players like heroes, giving “Welcome back” videos to bottom-six forwards who enjoyed a cup of coffee in St. Paul.
With Hughes on a Hall of Fame trajectory, they should want him back. But much like Canucks fans, that admiration could blind them from reality as Charania noted in his piece.
“As much as we want to blame Hughes for ‘quitting on us, there were multiple signs that he was not going to be a good partner for us,” Charania wrote. “We were hypnotized by his performance on the ice and blinded to everything else. We should have known better and that’s on us.”
It’s a warning that Wild fans should take seriously and while a few strokes of the pen could make everything go away, it won’t until Hughes’s words turn out to be more than lip service.
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