Wild trade for Quinn Hughes!
JoeBanzai
Posts: 12,634 ✭✭✭✭✭
Minnesota gives up Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and next year's first round pick for former Norris trophy winner and last year's 3rd place finisher Quinn Hughes.
Bold move to give up 3 former 1st round picks who were all on the Wild roster, (Rossi's hurt right now). The future 1st round pick will be a low one, but still a valuable piece of the trade.
Did the Wild give up too much? Their primary need is a Center, but to acquire a top defender who generates offense rarely happens. Centers, especially big ones who can score are hard to find, and teams seldom part with them.
Wild now have one of the best forwards in Kaprizov, one of the best defenders in Hughes, and two very good young players in forward Boldy and defender Faber. Rookie goaltender Wallstedt (.936 save percentage) has been outstanding!
Currently, the Wild are tied for the 5th best record in the NHL. Does this make them a contender for the Stanley Cup? The Wild haven't gotten past the first round in several years.
GO WILD!
Comments
I think it will probably end up being a good move if they extend him or trade after the season. Solid rental at the very least.
Hope we keep him, but the rest of the year should be interesting!
Hey, lanemyer85!
What's your opinion of Quinn Hughes' abilities?
Would you rate him as one of the top three offensive defensemen in hockey?
Is he as bad as "they" say defensively?
Go Wild!
by "they" I assume you mean the type of locals who vote for serial incompetents like Gov Tim Fudd.... No he's not bad defensively. You know there's still a huge bias against small d-men because they aren't going to smother or maul guys like a Larry Robinson or Scott Stevens or clear a crease. He has some of the same possession resistance qualities of the smooth at everything Nick Lidstrom or Duncan Keith types or now Jaccob Slavin who has been the best pure defender in the league for 5-6 years now. He'll do it by keeping the puck away from the opposition by denying possession.....being the best skating d-man of all time (yes including Orr*), elite passing, beating everyone on dump in retrievals, gap closings, and with stickwork (averages 86th percentile across the various stick check stats). Don't bother waiting for him to bump anyone off the puck or bowl anyone over.
Let's start here
https://packaged-media.redd.it/4sb4xik7mhqe1/pb/m2-res_720p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1765713600&s=d15bcec21f263657d34f366b7b915141de9d490a
that rush through the neutral zone is the fastest of anyone in recorded history. Reminder: getting the puck out of your end is playing defense too. The opposition doesn't need to have possession of the puck for defense to occur.
Speaking of possession...he's good at it...by it, I mean by a Nord Dakota mile
so for those that think there's this gap between Hughes and Makar as the best d-man in the league, nope...it's a 1A, 1B scenario. They just do things a little differently largely due to the size discrepancy.
Here's where you'll see the biggest differences. As talented as Buium is or can eventually be, it didn't translate in chances created, at least yet.
Minny's current ranks...
but also the more obvious stuff
Minny's offense has been heavily reliant on the PP. As one would expect, they rolled Hughes and Faber tonight which it should be every night. That'll knock Brodin and Spurgeon back together because Mighty Mouse really struggled this year trying to prop up Buium who also struggled with NHL level pace. One would think Faber's offensive numbers will get a bump too.
Hughes has the lowest turnover rate among d-men, and highest rush chances created and zone entries since he's been in the league. He simply is a one-man breakout Another thing you should pay attention to is the passing skill. He's also #1 in stretch pass completions by a good margin. Stretch passes of course are often the best way to beat an aggressive forecheck if you can't skate it out of your own end yourself. Despite attempting more stretch passes than anyone in the league, Minny is underwater in completion %. which is likely the reason your homeboys lead the league in icing calls. It'll likely take some time to gel, but that PP1 unit should be pretty entertaining to watch with Hughes, Kirill and that insane angle he likes to take one-timers from, and Boldy
Some other stuff if you want to stroll further into the weeds To consider value, if you take his 2020 to 2025 run with Vancouver, despite having other solid to excellent scorers (Pettersson, JT Miller, Boeser etc) he had the largest disparity in the league when it came to generating scoring when he was on or off the ice. When he was on the ice - Van's expected goals was 70.7%. When he was off the ice Van's expected goals was 38.6%. He's been 99 percentile in WAR over these last 3 peak years
as for whether Billum should have went all in like this and trade away 4 1st round assets, we'll see if he signs an extension. It certainly still doesn't put them ahead of COL or Dallas. Friedman was on during the aftermath talking about Guerin heavily combing the center market (yes, duh) but the one thing I'm not hearing out of any of the praise or outrage from the talking head collective is - well they can always trade him again in the summer if he doesn't want to sign an extension in Minny. He has one more year on this well-below market contract, They can still get at least two 1st round type assets back, if not 2 and something else. Don't think he was too bothered about dealing Rossi and Ohgren or the pick. Probably didn't want to deal Buium. If it could have been Jiricek then it would look better since them wheels are a spinnin' when it comes to his development over this last calendar year.
Even though I highly doubt he will sign an extension before FA, what this does give Minny is a decent advantage over any other team as they will be the only team that can offer him an 8 year deal. New CBA kicks in on 9/26/26 where max term is then going to be 7 years for a holding team and 6 years for a free agent so there is that factor too. There's a quote going around from a couple months ago where when posed the possibility of all 3 brothers teaming up in Trash City USA, Quinn uttered something to the affect of "I don't know if I'd want to step on Luke's toes". Probably just deflection for the Canadian media that are always bunged up on the possibility of another American star jumping ship from the Great White Draconian Wonderland (while conveniently ignoring Cole Caulfield and Lane Hutson signing long term in Montreal, or Matt Coronato in Calgary) with all 3 suiting up in Jersey but there's at least that to ponder too....
Thank you for your detailed evaluation!
I have been defending this trade to the whining crybabies on the Wild Facebook "fan" pages since day one.
Everyone's crying about Buium being part of the deal. Buium WAS the deal! Vancouver had to get a player who had some potential to replace Hughes. Buium showed some good skating ability and puck skills, so everyone here thinks he'll develop into Hughes. I very much doubt he'll be that good. Rossi is a very nice 3rd line center and Ohgren looks like a good hockey player. The first round pick at the end of round one? MEH.
I watched Hughes for his first game for the Wild and immediately saw his ability to EASILY skate right around guys trying to forcheck him several times.
He also had one of those stretch passes you referred to that sent a guy in on the goalie all alone.
He scored a goal as well.
Not sure of the exact numbers, but the Wild have been one of the better 5 on 5 teams in the league for a while now. When their Power Play doesn't score, they don't win close games.
Hughes looked very good running the PP.
The only problem I see is Hughes might want to go play with his brothers. That's understandable. It looks like the Devils will have the cap space in two years to sign him, but so will the Wild. By then Quinn and Kaprizov might feel like they are related. 😉
Speaking of Kirill, he was the best player on the ice yesterday. The guy is ELECTRIC!
Lastly, every hockey fan in Minnesota is tired of first round exits from the playoffs. Kaprizov is 28 years old and we need to get better NOW, or we will have wasted his talent.
I WANT TO WIN NOW!
Great trade for the Wild - off the charts.
Was not a fan of Zeev's personality & glad his weird name is out of my sports vocabulary.
My guess is he will extend with the Wild. If he doesn't do it before next year's trade deadline, you trade him again and get more assets.
As said above, the rest of this season and into next year will be exciting. If they stay healthy, they could really contend for the Cup.
However, the bigger issue I have with the NHL is their playoff system. Having to get out of your own division first before moving on is absolutely STUPID.
The Wild's division may have the three best teams in the entire NHL. I actually like the NBA conference method when it was 1 vs 8 and wouldn't be opposed to the Play-In that takes it to 10 teams in each conference.
I'm not even sure if the Eastern vs. Western Conference in the NHL is even meaningful at all - just take the best teams into the playoffs.
Erik
I think it was reported in The Athletic that this offer was Guerin's first offer...and Guerin basically confirmed it without saying as much. No haggling, he just whipped it out.
My guess is that there's already a nod and a silent handshake agreement with Quinn and the Devils that he'll reach FA and then sign there so NJ doesn't have to give up assets. Palat's $6m deal will expire at that time and Dougie Hamilton's $9m will be in the final year so they can probably find someone to take that if need be or use a cap compliancy buy out. There's the money for Quinn right there.
Regardless, enjoy it for now. This run may be the most fun you'll have watching the Wild in/for quite some time.
I think we can remain gleeful for now and see if the Wild can extend him. I would hope that if they can’t , that they have the opportunity to move him and recoup before losing him to free agency.
and - would be cool to leave Tim Walz out of it. the hot mic was on and the take was ignorant.
There's no doubt this was a good trade for the Wild for at least the next two seasons. The potential downsides are what happens after that. If the Wild can resign Hughes, then they'll never regret it. If they can't, and Buium develops into a star, even if he's not as good as Hughes, then it may be different. But, if the Wild win a cup in the next two seasons, everything else becomes moot. And the Wild were not on my, or anyone else's, radar as a cup contender before this trade, but they certainly are now. Since their first-round opponent will probably be the Stars, I know I'm not happy about the trade.
careful, feign oblivion often leads to venous stasis throughout the white matter and subsequent puppeteering. Time to pretend...
I don't like to be negative, but if he isn't going to sign with the Wild, we aren't going to get much in return for him in a trade.
Anyone out there dumb enough to give us anything if it's obvious we can't sign him?
I'm hoping he stays in Minnesota, but if he doesn't, I'm still happy that we are going for it NOW!
Your insult is well-understood. You shouldn’t think so highly of yourself. You’re not above the others here.
Keep politics out of the discussion or step to and make your point.
nah you'd still get a good deal of value for him. Not 4 1st round assets type value, but it would depend on what Guerin wants to do with the club. The last (and probably similar) comparison would be the Matthew Tkachuk trade to Florida. Also had one year left on his deal and Calgary received Huberdeau coming off a 115 ( or whatever it was) point season and a legit 1st pair defender in Weegar plus a (lottery-protected) 2025 first-round pick. Now, Huberdeau (probably predictably) has fallen off in Calgary which shouldn't be surprising considering he had Barkov feeding him the puck back then. I won't spend time talking about how overlooked Barkov somehow still is....but just look at Florida's record this year without him. Without looking it up, I believe Weegar was also in the last year of his deal so then Calgary had to immediately extend him, which they did. So if Calgary received 3 1st round type assets, then so can the Wild.
Of course I thought it was no better than 50/50 Kirill would resign in Minny, even lower after he rejected the first two offers, so you never know. But if Quinn is in fact directing his way to Jersey, and the Devils want to acquire him before FA, they'd probably have to get a third team involved. I don't think a couple of late 1sts and Dawson Mercer is going to get it done for Guerin. That would be the difference in a potential Minny/NJ trade and the Calgary/Florida Tkachuk trade. The Rangers and Blues and at least one other team were all crawling over each other to make that trade. If Guerin can only deal with NJ, the return won't be as good (without a 3rd team getting involved)
I literally have no idea who you are other than the guy who has spent two posts in this thread successfully repeating what I've already said. So with that you can go back to being a self-elected faux-mod who apparently feels the need to speak for others. Thinks highly of himself, indeed. Feel very free to stop tagging me in your posts.
Hi. Stop insulting people. Enjoy your bitterness. Bye.
I never saw much of Hughes until now.
GREAT player! A pleasure to watch him with the puck.
Wild DESTROY Oilers last night!
Wild have second most points in entire NHL.
No one in Minnesota is complaining any longer about how much we gave up for Quinn Hughes.
GO WILD!