It's been just over two months since the blockbuster trade that sent superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes from Vancouver to the Minnesota Wild. How has each player in the trade performed for their new team?
The 2026 Winter Olympics are showcasing the phenomenal talent of Team USA star defenseman Quinn Hughes.
Since the Minnesota Wild acquired him in mid-December, Hughes has been everything the Wild had hoped for and then some – and he's made the huge cost Minnesota had to pay to the Vancouver Canucks very much worth it.
Although the price Wild GM Bill Guerin paid for Hughes – center Marco Rossi, promising defenseman Zeev Buium, Swedish young left winger Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round draft pick – was massive, you have to think both the Wild and the Canucks are extremely happy with the way things are turning out with this trade.
But before we examine the assets sent to Vancouver, let's acknowledge just how good Hughes has been in his initial time with Minnesota. After posting 21 assists and 23 points in 26 games with the Canucks this season, Hughes has taken his game to another level with the Wild, generating 31 assists and 34 points in 26 games since the trade.
And at the Olympics, Hughes has put up one goal and five assists in four games, including the overtime-winner in the quarterfinal versus Sweden, underscoring his value as one of the NHL's premier playmaking blueliners.
That said, when you look at the early impact Rossi, Buium and Ohgren have made for the Canucks, you can see why Vancouver GM Patrik Allvin and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford are more than pleased with what they got in exchange for Hughes.
Zeev Buium (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)The centerpiece of the package the Canucks received is 20-year-old Buium, who had notched 11 assists and 14 points in 31 games while averaging 18:28 of ice time as a member of the Wild. But right away in Vancouver, Buium's usage has increased, as he's averaging 20:25 with the Canucks.
Meanwhile, Buium has posted four assists and six points in 20 games with Vancouver. The 20-year-old is not there to lead the league in points, but he is overcoming the adversity of a significant injury (a facial fracture) and showing flashes of the talent that made him the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NHL draft.
Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Ohgren was barely used in Minnesota, averaging only 9:32 of ice time in 18 games with the Wild prior to the trade. So it was little wonder Ohgren – who was the 19th overall pick in the 2022 draft – was looking for his first point of the season when he was dealt to Vancouver.
But Ohgren has come to life as a Canuck, putting up four goals and nine points in 26 games with Vancouver while averaging 13:01 of ice time. As he matures, Ohgren will be looked to for solid secondary scoring, but he's shown enough potential in his early days in B.C. to understand why Allvin and Rutherford wanted him included in the Hughes trade.
Finally, the 24-year-old Rossi has amassed a goal and two points in eight games with Vancouver. Rossi has also been dealing with an injury that's limited his impact, but he showed in the past two seasons in Minnesota what he's capable of, as he posted a combined 45 goals and 100 points in 162 games from 2023 to 2025.
Rossi is earning a good amount of money, as he's under contract for this season and another two seasons at $5 million per year. And if he can give the Canucks that type of point production on a year-in, year-out basis, Rossi could turn out to be the top point-producer of the assets that came to Vancouver in the Hughes trade.
Of course, the player the Canucks take with the first-round pick Minnesota sent to them in the Hughes trade also must be factored in when we're debating the deal years from now. But even if Vancouver never gets a single NHL game out of that first-round draft pick, the Canucks still did very well in what they acquired from the Wild.
Rutherford and Allvin drove a hard bargain for their best player. Although it's almost a certainty that Hughes will be the best player involved in the blockbuster trade, you have to give Canucks management their due for converting Hughes into multiple assets that can help them now and for a long time down the road.
Hughes is already missed in Vancouver. But the Canucks are going to have a brighter future, in no small part because of the talent they picked up in the Hughes trade. Rutherford and Allvin did not settle for throwaway talent in the Hughes deal, and Vancouver's future should make Canucks fans satisfied that the team got as much as they could for a legitimate superstar.
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