A fan base that has been clamoring for a splashy move finally got what it wanted on Friday night when the Wild acquired superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in what might go down as the biggest trade in franchise history.

It’s blockbuster deal that establishes the Wild as legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. The thought of adding Hughes to an already talented core should have everybody salivating at the potential damage this group can do once the playoffs roll around.

So why was it met with so much backlash on social media?

It seems like a large portion of the fan base is less concerned with the Wild getting Hughes, perhaps the second best defenseman in the world, and more concerned with they had to give up to get him.

The package that general manager Bill Guerin put together was substantial. He knew he couldn’t get cute if he wanted a chance at Hughes, so he offered up up center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first round pick.

The massive haul the Wild had to give up for Hughes was a small price to pay. He’s arguably a Top 10 player in the NHL right now, a former Norris Trophy winner, who brings a dynamic element to the blue line that the Wild have frankly never had in their existence.

To get a great player the Wild had to be willing to give up some good players. It’s as simple as that.

Most of the apprehension from the fan base seems to be rooted in moving on Buium before getting to see him as a finished product. Those worries should disappear when considering that even if Buium were to reach his full potential, which is far from a guarantee, he almost certainly won’t be better than Hughes in his current form.

That’s how good Hughes is for those who might not be familiar with his game. He’s a smooth skater with the ability to start a breakout all by himself. He’s also incredibly gifted in the offensive zone without sacrificing anything in the defensive zone.

The production that Hughes has put up since reaching the NHL speaks for itself. He has amassed 432 points (61 goals, 371 assists) across 459 games in his career. The only blue liner with more points than Hughes since he entered the NHL is fellow superstar defenseman Cale Makar, the straw that stirs the drink for the Colorado Avalanche on the backend, who has a chance to go down as the best to ever do it.

The firepower that Hughes brings to the Wild will be on display for the first time when makes his team debut against the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon at Grand Casino Arena.

He will join an extremely talented core that features superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov and star winger Matt Boldy leading the charge, to go along with a number of players, such as center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Brock Faber, who are perfectly cast in their roles. That doesn’t even take into account the stellar tandem of goaltender Filip Gustavsson and fellow goaltender Jesper Wallstedt between the pipes.

The fact that the Wild were able to add somebody like Hughes to the mix can’t be overstated. It has opened the Stanley Cup window for the first time in what feels like forever. That in and of itself makes this trade worth doing 100 times out of 100.

Though it’s been widely speculated that Hughes eventually wants to sign the New Jersey Devils so he can play with his brothers, the Wild now have a chance to prove themselves to him that as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, not to mention the power to offer him more money than anybody else.

In the current collective bargaining agreement, which is still in order this season, Hughes can sign an eight-year max contract this summer. In the future collective bargaining agreement, which kicks in ahead of next season, Hughes can only sign a six-year max contract next summer.

A common refrain among those within the fan base that aren’t sold on the trade is the hypothetical question, “What if he leaves?” A counterpoint that has to be considered is the hypothetical question, “What if he stays?

Not only do the Wild have a chance to prove to Hughes that it’s worth sticking around for the foreseeable future, they have a chance to do so while also getting to chase a Stanley Cup in the process.

That wouldn’t have been possible if Guerin didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger on a trade that will define the rest of his career.

He did so with an understanding that it’s impossible to overpay when a generational talent is on the table. He deserves credit for that, regardless of it ends with him getting to hoist the hardware.

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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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After weeks of watching products on its store shelves dwindle, customers and employees of the Oxendale’s Market grocery in West St. Paul received bitter news this past week. The store, which opened in 2014 in the strip mall off Dodd Road and Bernard Street, will close by Dec. 23, if not sooner.

The announcement was first carried by the West St. Paul Reader, which noted that Oxendale’s was the fourth grocery store to try to make a go of it in the aging and outdated Doddway Center, preceded by Jim’s Market, R.C. Dick’s and Applebaum’s. Employees, according to the Reader, will not be transferred to Oxendale’s other locations.

What triggered its coming closure?

Oxendale’s Market in West St. Paul on Dec. 11, 2025. Oxendale’s is set to close Dec. 23, 2025. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

Managers at the West St. Paul location and two other Oxendale’s groceries in St. Paul and Minneapolis declined comment on Wednesday and referred all questions to a central office, which did not immediately return calls.

Road construction this summer realigning the intersection of Smith Avenue and Dodd Road likely played a part, but experts in the grocery industry say small-to-midsized independent grocers have been buffeted by the same headwinds affecting everyday consumers, from inflation and economic uncertainty to the recent government shutdown that temporarily froze SNAP food benefits.

On top of that, a wave of deportations has heightened a labor shortage and customer hesitancy in ethnic markets.

El Burrito Mercado trims hours, shelves

Oxendale’s isn’t the only grocery going through tough times. Two miles to the northeast, El Burrito Mercado on Cesar Chavez Street in St. Paul announced over the past week that it would limit the hours of its deli, restaurant and grocery come January while removing about 18 feet of store shelving.

“There will be fewer products on the shelves, limited item availability, shortened business hours — and the hardest part of all, reduced hours for many of our staff,” reads a statement posted to social media by Milissa Silva, co-owner and chief executive officer of the storied establishment, long a staple of the city’s West Side Latino community.

A shelf sits mostly empty while in preparation to be removed from the store floor in El Burrito Mercado in St. Paul on Dec. 11, 2025. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

Silva, in an interview Wednesday, said she’s seeing fewer customers, and those who do come in are buying less.

“It is foot traffic,” said Silva, whose parents opened the restaurant and grocery in 1979. “It’s shopping habits. They’re buying smaller quantities. The immigrant community being very fearful … that’s obviously keeping folks away.”

“We’re trying to pivot, but it’s hard,” she added. “We’ve cut a lot of staff hours. It’s really tough. This can’t be forever. We’re trying to be optimistic that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Silva has urged state and local government to do more to help independent grocers, and she encourages elected leaders to join others in shopping local. In a post to social media, she asked customers to help by buying gift cards online to share with families in need and ethnic foods to donate to food shelves, as well as by dining and shopping at independent grocers.

“We need to start a campaign where people say ‘I pledge to shop small,’” Silva said, “and call out our political leaders to be louder on this messaging, because there’s so many restaurants and small businesses that are hurting. And yes, send a little extra love to Latino-owned businesses. Many of us are feeling these hardships even more deeply.”

Other recent grocery closures have included the Midway Cub Foods in the Snelling/University Avenue area of St. Paul and, earlier this year, the Lunds and Byerly’s market in downtown St. Paul, both of which were frequent targets of shoplifters and magnets for other unruly behavior. A Cub Foods on Lagoon Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis closed in June for renovations but reopened in August.

Food prices, economic uncertainty

Pat Garofalo, president of the Minnesota Grocers Association, said grocery stores are capital- and labor-intensive, making them sensitive to even minor economic changes.

While Oxendale’s isn’t a recent member of his association, he said it’s not hard to see why many independent grocers are struggling following periods of high inflation, workforce shortages and food prices affected by government tariffs and supply-chain issues like avian flu.

Minnesota recipients of federal SNAP food benefits lost access to those benefits for just about three days during the 43-day government shutdown that ended Nov. 12, a situation that could have been much worse but for how the state schedules distribution of its federal allotment of SNAP funding. For many grocers, the SNAP situation still affected how they ordered inventory.

“Affordability impacts small businesses just as much as it impacts consumers,” he said. “Rising property taxes, increasing labor mandates and a shrinking workforce create a lot of headwinds for independent grocery stores.”

He added: “As consumer confidence has declined, and there’s more uncertainty in the economy, this impacts people’s shopping patterns. And that applies to flat incomes, higher costs, immigration uncertainty — all of those play a role.”

New business mandates also carry costs and other challenges. A statewide paid family-leave benefit that begins Jan. 1 is already raising questions about how small businesses will schedule around 12 to 20 weeks of paid leave during a labor shortage. The leave, available to almost all workers, will be funded by new payroll taxes, with costs split between employers and employees.

Bright spots?

It’s unclear if the worst is truly behind the American consumer in terms of rising food prices, but there’s a few more bright spots in the grocery aisles these days compared with just a few months ago.

The Trump administration recently relented on international tariffs around beef, coffee and dozens of other agricultural goods. Egg prices have largely stabilized since outbreaks of avian flu in early 2025 sent them soaring. Beef prices are still high, but milk prices have come down a bit because of oversupply.

“I think that the worst is over,” Garofalo predicted. “A lot of these factors involved the supply chain, particularly with beef, where we had a drought a couple years ago. Reducing or eliminating the new tariffs that have been imposed will make things better.”

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If food prices do fall, or at least stabilize, that could spell welcome relief for independent grocers, including others at risk of closing in 2026.

“Certainly, no one benefits from food deserts, and food deserts exist in both urban areas and rural areas,” said Garofalo, who for 20 years was a Republican state representative for rural Farmington and surrounding suburbs. “It seems like something Republicans and Democrats could work together to prevent from happening. Everyone eats.”

The Catholic Charities Higher Ground Minneapolis shelter will be open until 10 a.m. Monday to give people a place to go during this weekend’s frigid weather

The shelter, located 165 Glenwood Ave in Minneapolis, normally opens from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. each day will remain open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to allow people to be inside during the daytime hours, a spokesperson said.

The National Weather Service Twin Cities said bitter cold is swooping in this weekend.

“Wind chill values will drop to the -15 to -30 degree range tonight through Sunday night, potentially as low as -35. These dangerously cold conditions can cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes to exposed skin,” the NWS posted on its X account.

Shelter staff will provide people with hot meals, showers, cold-weather essentials, and a refuge from the freezing temperatures.

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