Before Quinn Hughes had even played a game in a Wild uniform, the team’s general manager was already promoting Minnesota as a place the star defenseman might want to stay long-term.
“I think Quinn will really like it here. He’s a hockey nut. He watches every game. He knows what’s going on in the league. … He just loves hockey,” Bill Guerin said. “And I think there’s obviously no better market than Minnesota to be a hockey player.”
Originally from Florida, Hughes – who will make his debut Sunday evening versus Boston – arrived in his new hockey home on a prototypical deep winter Minnesota day, with the sun shining and a minus symbol in front of the day’s high temperature. Asked about the first impression the bone-chilling weather would offer, Guerin said perhaps their first stop would be an immersion in real Minnesota hockey culture.
“He’s gonna skate on one of the lakes tonight, just to loosen up,” Guerin said, with a sarcastic grin.
Hughes, 26, can hit the free agent market in July 2027, and Guerin can offer an extension starting next summer.
The trade, which is already considered the biggest in-season move in franchise history, came together quickly over the past week.
Guerin and Vancouver hockey operations president Jim Rutherford were in discussions. Guerin made a sizable offer, proposing three former first round picks and one future one in exchange for Hughes, who was named the NHL’s top defenseman two seasons ago. On Friday, while Guerin was making Italian food from a family recipe in preparation for their coming Christmas Eve dinner, Rutherford called to say the Wild’s first offer got it done.
“So I had to take my latex gloves off. I was rolling meatballs and he told me we had a deal,” Guerin recalled. “There was fist pumping involved.”
The next calls Guerin made weren’t as much fun. Forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, and up-and-coming defenseman Zeev Buium all learned from their now-former boss they were due in New Jersey to join their new team, the Canucks. Guerin said all three “handled it like men” as he made it clear that he was not looking to shop any of them, had it not been for Hughes.
“Vancouver got three really good young, quality guys,” Guerin said. “If Quinn Hughes wasn’t available, they’d still be here, and I was totally fine with that. But like I said before, you have to give something to get something.”
In Hughes, the Wild got a game-changing player whose advanced numbers in terms of controlling play from the blue line and advancing the puck out of the defensive zone are the best in the NHL. For a team that began the day in third place in the Central Division, but within striking distance of both Colorado and Dallas, Hughes was seen as a key addition for a team with designs on winning a playoff series for the first time in a decade, and making a deep playoff run for the second time in the franchise’s 25 year existence.
After locking down players like Brock Faber, Filip Gustavsson, Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov to long-term deals, Guerin and the Wild ownership clearly feel like the core is in place. And as the team has salary cap space and many good assets still in hand, Guerin hinted that the Wild are not necessarily done talking trades. But in the near term, when Hughes makes his Wild debut on Sunday, they want him to do what he has done since entering the NHL in 2019 and not feel like he needs to be a savior.
Guerin also admitted patience is not one of his strongest traits. That made the past few years tough, with the Wild lacking the salary cap space to make any trades or free agent signings of note. They were relatively quiet in free agency in July, but Guerin reiterated then that the additional salary cap space freed up by Zach Parise and Ryan Suter coming off the books meant that in-season moves of note were more likely.
Even with the general manager’s hands full of meatball mix, when the call from Vancouver came, the timing was perfect.
“I don’t know what the right moment is, but if you wait for it, you’re gonna miss it,” Guerin said. “I don’t know if the weather had to be warmer or something, but when it’s a player of this caliber, the right time’s always now.”
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