Addition Of Quinn Hughes Gives The Wild A Top Defense Core; Is It Enough In The Competitive Central Division?

If you believe that a Stanley Cup champion team requires a bedrock foundation of an elite defense corps, all you need to do is look at the Florida Panthers’ group of blueliners in the past two seasons to see that’s true.

You have to think the Minnesota Wild just took a massive step forward with the acquisition of superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes.

In this writer’s opinion, the Wild now are neck-and-neck with the Colorado Avalanche in terms of the best collection of D-men in the league, and the Hughes trade just made the Central Division – the NHL’s most competitive division before the trade – even more competitive.

The Wild’s defense corps was already one of the better ones in the league prior to the Hughes trade. With young lion Brock Faber leading the charge, Minnesota has proven competitors Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin in their top-four. 

But now, Hughes gives the Wild a gigantic advantage, and the ripple effect on the rest of Minnesota’s D-men is going to make them incredibly difficult to play against.

Now, that doesn’t mean the Wild are going to have a cakewalk to a championship because they’ve acquired one of the best blueliners on the planet. The Avalanche’s defense corps is also deep and incredibly skilled, with superstar Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Josh Manson, Samuel Girard, Sam Malinski and Brent Burns giving Colorado the type of depth most teams can only dream about. 

The Avs were our pick to win the Cup this season in large part due to that defensive depth, and they still are our pick to win it all. But suddenly, Minnesota has two of the top-10 D-men in the league, as Hughes and Faber can control play and be difference-makers at both ends of the ice.

While Colorado’s forwards are in our mind, what gives them the edge over other playoff frontrunners, the Wild can now focus on adding talent up front and narrow the gap between themselves and the Avs. 

To that end, Minnesota currently has $1.26 million in salary cap space, but that number increases to $3.76 million by the March 6 trade deadline. That gives Minnesota GM Bill Guerin more than enough space to add an experienced forward to improve the Wild’s offensive firepower – and given that Minnesota currently sits in 25th place with a goals-for per game of 2.81, they definitely need some help scoring goals.

To be sure, Hughes will help the Wild put the puck in their opponent’s net, but as we all know, the playoffs are a war of attrition, and that’s why Guerin has to use his remaining cap space to solidify his team’s offense. With Hughes on board, the Wild are set on ‘D’, and with Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt providing excellent goaltending, Minnesota has elite depth at its most important position.

Minnesota Wild Clearly Have The Stanley Cup In Their Sights With Hughes Trade The Minnesota Wild going all-in might be an understatement with this massive trade for superstar NHL defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.

From our point of view, the Avalanche remain the gold standard for Cup frontrunners. But suddenly, the Wild can go toe-to-toe with them on defense and in net. Another addition or two at forward, and Colorado is going to be pushed to its limit by Minnesota.

For most of their 25 seasons, the Wild have been a study in mediocrity, and we’ve consistently argued that Minnesota fans deserve to have high-end talent to root for. With superstar Kirill Kaprizov leading the charge up front, and with Faber and Hughes as their foundation on defense, the Wild now have those types of game-changers and needle-movers. 

If Minnesota goes on a deep playoff run next spring and goes beyond the second round for only the second time in team history, their addition of Hughes will go down in history as the point when they became a true Cup contender.

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