Quinn Hughes isn’t just scoring points. Is he making the Wild better?

It wasn’t like the Wild were struggling before they acquired star defenseman Quinn Hughes in mid-December.

The team was sixth in the NHL in points percentage and third in the stacked Central Division behind Colorado and Dallas.

But since the blockbuster trade, the Wild have the third-best record in the league, largely because they have become more offensive with Hughes than they were without him, averaging a goal more per game.

As players transition back to the regular season Thursday after a long Olympic break in which two Hughes brothers (Quinn and Jack) enjoyed overtime scoring glory, the Wild will be looking for their star defenseman’s halo effect to last.

Hughes has been scoring at a higher rate, up to 1.31 points per game with the Wild compared with 0.88 points per game with Vancouver, but almost every other player has improved, too.

Only two players on the roster have seen their average points per game decrease since the trade, both of whom missed games because of injury or illness.

The trade shocked the hockey world. The Wild dealt three former first-round picks in defenseman Zeev Buium and forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren and also sent this year’s first-rounder to the Canucks.

The Wild have 16 months to persuade the 26-year-old star to stick around beyond when his contract expires.

“When a player of Quinn’s caliber comes available and you have the opportunity to get him, there’s a cost to it,” Guerin said in a post-trade news conference, “and we were willing to do what it takes.”

Hughes scored against Boston in his debut with the Wild, and in just 26 games, he has already tied the Wild all-time defenseman record for most games with three or more assists, with five such games.

He is the second-highest scoring defenseman in the NHL since the trade and has had a positive effect on the Wild’s other defensemen, particularly his partner Brock Faber. Wild blue-liners are averaging 3.26 points per game since the trade, up from 1.71 points before Hughes arrived.

The Wild have gone from 27th league-wide in points by defensemen to first since adding Hughes. Faber, 35th among NHL defensemen in scoring before the trade, is tied for 10th since, with seven goals and 15 assists in 27 games.

Wild fans have already gotten used to seeing Hughes and Faber playing a lot. Hughes, a power-play specialist, gets more ice time with that group, while Faber plays more on the penalty kill.

Both players are used to playing heavy minutes. Hughes is averaging almost 28 minutes per game overall this season, split between Vancouver and the Wild. Faber has averaged more than 24 minutes each of his first three full seasons.

One factor in the increased ice time could be that the Wild have played 12 overtime games since the Hughes trade.

The Wild, and coach John Hynes, have a history of relying heavily on their top defensemen. Spurgeon and Brodin also have averaged more than 24 minutes per game when they were in the top pair in past seasons. When Hynes coached the Nashville Predators, star defenseman Roman Josi frequently averaged more than 24 minutes on ice in a game.

During their time with the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team, Hughes led all defensemen in scoring with eight points, including the overtime goal against Sweden to advance to the medal round. (It was his brother Jack who scored the gold medal-winning OT goal against Canada days later, with teeth missing.)

Both players played less than they had been with the Wild before the Olympic break: 23 minutes per game for Hughes, 18 minutes for Faber. Hughes extended his shift in overtime against Sweden, staying far away from the U.S. bench and waving off a change moments before scoring the game-winning goal.

The Wild’s post-Olympics schedule resumes Thursday night in Colorado, with a 24-game sprint to the end of the regular season in mid-April, with playoff positioning at a premium.

Making a run at the Stanley Cup could mean having to get past Colorado and Dallas, two of the best teams in the NHL, in the first two rounds.