The Minnesota Wild made a splash about a week before the holiday trade on a Friday night when they landed Quinn Hughes from the Minnesota Wild for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, and a first 2026 first-round pick. That is how aggressive Wild GM Bill Guerin was, knowing his team would have cap space to work with going forward.
NHL Rumors: Quinn Hughes Open Minded To Staying in Minnesota
We saw what Guerin did with Kirill Kaprizov, signing him to an eight-year, $17 million-per-season deal. And with the comments by Quinn Hughes, the probability could be higher than he ends up extending in the offseason. However, the Wild are focused on the here and now. With the assets and cap space as weapons, the expectation is that they are not done adding.
As Anthony Di Marco of the Daily Faceoff stated on TSN Radio in Montreal, when asked whether Quinn Hughes was a prelude to something else, he said there is more to come in Minnesota.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “Anthony, I take a look, and you alluded to it, the potential playoff matchups. So now there’s no doubt that you’re a better team with Quinn Hughes than you were before you acquired him, but you’re lacking a little bit at center depth, especially if you match up against the Stars in the first round, and then if you get out of that, probably the Avalanche in the second round. So, is this a precursor to maybe another move with that prospect pool you’re talking about?”
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Anthony Di Marco: “I think so. Like, I spoke to a Minnesota source on Saturday, and they told me flat out, like, yeah, we still have cap space. What do you think this deal means? And I fully expect the Minnesota Wild to be one of the more aggressive teams between now and the trade deadline in early March. So for me here, I’m going to look at every center on the market and connect them to the Minnesota Wild now.
And for me, my mind goes to Nazem Kadri specifically, because I do know that the Minnesota Wild, like Kadri as a player. He’s won a Stanley Cup, he has cost certainty as well. And I think that might be a trend here, as Sean has alluded to, that perhaps the Minnesota Wild aren’t looking just for rentals.
Like they’re going to take major swings and add players to the foundation of the group for the next several years, and if they are in a window right now that follows the trajectory of Quinn Hughes contract, maybe it is this year and next.
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And like they have probably the best goaltending tandem in the NHL. There’s a case to be made that they now have the best top four on the back end in the NHL, and now you need some help up front. Like Joel Eriksson-Ek is now their de facto first-line center. You still are losing a top-six center in Marco Rossi, although they never were extremely high on him by all accounts in Minnesota.
But I think you desperately need a shot in the arm down the middle here, and I fully expect Bill Guerin to take a major swing at that between now and the period deadline.”
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