Minnesota Wild superstar defenceman Quinn Hughes is entering the final season of his contract and there has been much speculation about his future as he approaches free agency.
Hughes, 26, was acquired by the Wild last season from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for defenceman Zeev Buium, forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick.
The 2024 Norris Trophy winner’s future has been a topic of conversation over the past two seasons after he indicated to Vancouver that he did not intend to re-sign with the club, leading to the trade.
As negotiations continue, Hughes’ younger brothers, Jack and Luke, are under contract with the New Jersey Devils.
Jack was asked on Wednesday whether he believes that Quinn’s desire to play with his siblings will affect his decision on his hockey future.
“Yeah, I think that, you know, we’ve always wanted to play with each other,” Jack told Dan Rosen of NHL.com. “Winning in Milan was an unbelievable feat that we could do together, but I don’t think he’s going to sacrifice what’s best for him for us to play together. I mean, we’ll see what he does.”
Jack is entering the fifth season of an eight-year, $64 million contract with the Devils that carries an annual cap hit of $8 million. Luke is on the second season of a seven-year, $63 million contract that carries a cap hit of $9 million.
While the Wild would like to lock up Hughes to a long-term deal, Michael Russo of the Athletic reported in July that he may want a three-year contract to line up with when Jack can also become an unrestricted free agent.
The Wild remain committed to retaining Hughes, with sources vehemently denying possible trade rumours as training camp approaches, according to Russo.
General manager Bill Guerin made a trip to Hughes’ home in Michigan during the off-season to continue talks, and team owner Craig Leipold told Minnesota Public Radio in June that he expects to get the blueliner signed.
“First of all, Quinn Hughes is an extraordinary player and an extraordinary person,” said Leipold. ”We had to give up a lot to get him this past year. We are going to re-sign him. The question will be for how long. We would like to go as long as we could.
“He will probably want it to be a little shorter — shorter being maybe three years. We hopefully will end up at five. I don’t know, and the reason I can openly talk about this is that I’m not doing the negotiating.”
Hughes finished last season with seven goals and 76 points in 74 games split between the Canucks and Wild while averaging 27:44 of ice time. He added four goals and 15 points in 11 playoff games before the Wild were eliminated in the second round by the Colorado Avalanche.
After the team was eliminated from the playoffs, Hughes told reporters that he was open to re-signing with the Wild.
“I mean, I really like it here,” Hughes said on May 15. “We’ll see what [Guerin] wants to do.”
