Quinn Hughes will be ‘extremely open-minded’ on remaining with Wild

Wild management flew to New Jersey on Saturday to personally pick up Quinn Hughes and take him to the Twin Cities after trading for the superstar defenseman.

But it wasn’t until five minutes after their flight arrived in Minnesota that President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin realized they didn’t have an important part of the deal with them.

Hughes’ gear.

“It was definitely on me,” Hughes said.

The equipment traveled Sunday and made it to Grand Casino Arena in the morning, hours before Hughes would make a memorable Wild debut with it by scoring in a 6-2 blowout of Boston that previewed what to expect from the 26-year-old.

Not only is he a sensation on his own for the way he siphons off pressure from the opposition and funnels it the other direction with a fluidity that’s rare even in today’s super-skilled NHL, but Hughes has a knack for bringing out the best in his teammates.

“He’s a big playmaker,” goaltender Filip Gustavsson said. “He makes everything look so easy, and that brings confidence to the rest of our group. We’re very happy to have him.”

With Hughes, the Wild kept cruising, earning their fourth consecutive victory by running away from a Bruins team that had one more victory than the Wild before puck drop. But the Wild’s cohesiveness was impressive despite adding a new face in Hughes and still playing without a handful of regulars due to injury.

Hughes fitting in is indicative of his talent but also perhaps how ready he was for a fresh start.

He had been with Vancouver for his entire NHL career, becoming its captain, the face of the franchise and the best defenseman to ever suit up for the Canucks after they drafted him seventh overall in 2018. But after they plummeted down the standings to last place, Vancouver management and Hughes’ agent huddled to figure out his future.

Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford already had a feeling Hughes wouldn’t re-sign once he reached free agency in 2027, and although Vancouver didn’t have to, it wanted to send Hughes to a team that would work for him.

“It was a tough situation, but it felt like it was time,” said Hughes, who won the Norris Trophy in 2024 as the league’s top defenseman, averages the highest ice time in the NHL and has the most assists for the position since he debuted in 2019. “… They were kind of talking a lot about places I might feel comfortable, and Jim was amazing with that. He cared about the person. He wanted me to go where he thought I’d be happy.”

He also figured the defensemen he would get to play with would be good for his game. But Guerin was also a selling point.

Guerin interacted with Hughes earlier this year when Hughes had to drop out of the United States team in the 4 Nations Face-Off due to injury, what Hughes said gave him “a glimpse of what a good person” Guerin is.

Hughes was also appreciative of Guerin pulling off a blockbuster trade for him, dealing Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a first-round draft pick, and Hughes wants to prove Guerin was right in doing so.

“There are other teams that probably could have thrown in certain packages like that, too, but at the end of the day they didn’t want to do that, or they didn’t want to trade two or three assets from their team,” Hughes said. “Billy did, so I’ll remember that, and that means a lot to me that Billy did that.”

This willingness by the Wild to bring in Hughes might help them keep him.

“Just seeing how the fans reacted to me as well in warmups,” said Hughes, who was greeted with a loud cheer.

“Warm-ups I think was the loudest I’ve ever heard it since I’ve played here,” Brock Faber said. “Obviously, everyone’s excited. The state of Minnesota is excited to get a player and person of that caliber. It doesn’t happen often that a guy like that gets moved, so it was really cool and it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch for our fans.”

There seemed to be instant chemistry between Hughes and Faber on the blue line; Faber had two assists, the defenseman looking like Hughes with how effectively he joined the offense.

“He makes it real easy to be his D-partner,” said Faber, who was communicating regularly on the bench with Hughes. “For me, I just need to learn to be outs for him and use my feet to keep up with him. I think we should be able to mesh really good together. I thought it was a great start.

“As a D-partner of his, you can really do no wrong [with] how gifted of a skater and player he is. Great communicator, too. So, it was a lot of fun to play with him.”

Still, he acknowledged he had nerves, pointing to an unsuccessful early power play for his unit, and that his body was fatigued.

Hughes had a good idea his final game in Vancouver was potentially Thursday, a feeling that carried over to Friday morning.

“You just never know,” he said, so he traveled with the Canucks to Newark for their Sunday game against the Devils; 70 to 80 people were supposed to be at that game between him and his brothers, but only Luke was in action with Jack hurt and Quinn traded.

He still saw his brothers and had dinner with his friends.

“I had some great memories there [in Vancouver] and some really good friendships, so it was obviously tough,” Hughes said. “But I honesty couldn’t be more excited for this chapter.”

“Definitely have some shopping to do,” Hughes said.

Despite his sense a trade was impending, Hughes didn’t pack for the Canucks’ road trip as if he was leaving for good.

Instead, his mom, Ellen, flew to Vancouver on Sunday and packed up his belongings.

On the ice, he will continue to settle in, too, with Hughes believing it will take him a few games to get acclimated, but one of his strengths he said is reacting to his teammates and identifying their tendencies.

That makes sense with how quickly he was able to complement the Wild, who play four of their next five games at home.