Vancouver Wants to Fill a Hole in a Quinn Hughes Trade
The subject Quinn Hughes is not going away. It might ramp up even more as we approach this weekend, as the Vancouver Canucks take on the New Jersey Devils. Many are wondering whether Quinn Hughes stays in New Jersey and other pieces leave the Devils, travelling with Vancouver.
NHL Rumors: Vancouver Canucks Didn’t Want the Quinn Hughes Conversation Now
However, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was not going to be trapped by Ron MacLean on Hockey Night in Canada during Saturday Headlines. As Friedman has stated, this conversation about the Quinn Hughes trade is taboo because of the potential ramifications regarding tampering. However, if any team, whether it is the Devils or another team, is going to pay a hefty price.
The problem, as Friedman notes during an appearance on the FAN 590 Hockey Show, is that the Devils have to move money to make this deal work, and they are not the only team that must do so.
Well, as I said, I think the reason that everyone’s looking at the Devils right now is because I think the Devils are doing two things. I think they’re seeing what they can add and what they might have to subtract.
So, I don’t think they’re the only team doing this. I Look at it, Matt and I say, there’s probably other teams too. It’s if the second part of your question is the cap and who can fit them in? I guarantee you, the Devils aren’t the only team saying, okay, like, if we’re going to do this and Vancouver, is not going to take necessarily dollar for dollar, or they don’t like what we have to do to be cap compliant, we’re gonna have to call somebody else.
The other part of the equation is that the Vancouver Canucks are looking for a center. So, any deal involving any one of their players, they want to get a center in return. That is where their conversation starts. Not to mention getting a young defenseman in return as well. But the Canucks want to solve a problem down the middle in this potential trade.
Do The New Jersey Devils Have to Be Careful with a Quinn Hughes Trade?
And while everyone connects the New Jersey Devils to Quinn Hughes, do the Canucks value a player like Dawson Mercer as a center because he is better on the wing? So they will ask for someone like Nico Hischier and be denied that. That is why the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, and a team that Elliotte Friedman threw out there, as well as the Pittsburgh Penguins, might have better offers.
Not to mention the teams that could be on themselves, like the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, or even the Vegas Golden Knights. But there will be someone who could pull the Mikko Rantanen card in this thing. Could it be the Carolina Hurricanes? In the long term, he goes East. In the short term, to win, there is a team that would be on themselves and take the risk of him not signing long term, or convince him to stay there long term.
I think two things. I think it’s most likely he goes East if they move him, but that’s what I think is most likely we’ll see, or at least long term, I would think that would be the case. I shouldn’t say that right now, because long term, I think most likely East.
But, there are teams out there that they’ll bet on themselves. Will they do their research now? Will they make some sly phone calls to see what might he might be thinking, sure, but I think there are some teams out there that might say like that, ‘hey, if we get him in here and he sees what we’re about, maybe he wants to stay,’ and some teams will look at that.
Vegas obviously is not an East Coast team, so I don’t know if they really fit in this conversation, but Vegas is a team that really believes and has proven that guys will come there and they’ll want to stay there.
So I’m sure there are other teams that will look at it the same way, like, guys will come here and they’ll want to stay here. I’ll tell you this like, you know, who could nobody’s talked about them yet, but who I think could do it is Pittsburgh.
Again, all these conversations are just laying the groundwork for a potential trade down the line. That is what General Managers do all the time. It will be interesting if the Canucks do decide to move because they don’t want to. They just started a fire that can’t be put out.
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