Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin spoke on why the Quinn Hughes trade worked well for both the Canucks and Wild.
It’s unfortunate, but it was only a matter of time before the Vancouver Canucks traded Quinn Hughes. Hughes’ trade announcement on Friday may have come as a bit of a surprise, but it wasn’t necessarily the player that was the most shocking part about it — it was the team he ended up going to.
Despite teams like the New Jersey Devils (home to Jack and Luke Hughes), Detroit Red Wings (located in Hughes’ home state), and even the Philadelphia Flyers (coached by Rick Tocchet) rumoured to be interested in Hughes, it was the Minnesota Wild who won the Hughes sweepstakes on Friday night.
The return was promising for the Canucks. Vancouver obtained virtually everything that was on their Christmas list after they flipped Hughes to Minnesota. Marco Rossi will come in as the team’s future second-line center, Zeev Buium has the potential to become an offensive force on the blueline in his own right, Liam Öhgren is projected to become a solid middle-six winger, and the first-round pick in this year’s draft will help Vancouver round out their future.
But why the Wild?
“I don’t know what the right moment is, but if you wait for it, you’re gonna miss it,” Wild General Manager Bill Guerin said in a media availability on Saturday regarding why he swung for the fences in an attempt to acquire Hughes. “When it’s a player of this caliber, the right time is always now.”
The effort paid off for Guerin and the Wild, who will welcome Hughes into the lineup when Minnesota takes on the Boston Bruins later today. Guerin knows what the Wild are getting in a player with as high of a caliber as Hughes — but he also knows that Vancouver will be happy with the return on their long-term investment.
“He’s a special player. These opportunities don’t present themselves all that often, but we feel fortunate. I just love the way the deal went down, because I really think we got what we were looking for, and I think Vancouver got what they were looking for. They got three really good young players that are going to help build their team, and we got a franchise defenceman.”
As Guerin said, the deal worked out for both the Wild and the Canucks. Vancouver was looking to go younger, while Minnesota had their eyes on a gamebreaker to pair well with star forward Kirill Kaprizov. In a division as competitive as the Central, it may have even been necessary for the Wild to seek out a star like Hughes.
“From what Jim [Rutherford] tells me, when you’re dealing with players of this caliber, guys that have done so much for your organization — and that’s why I love Jim — you want to do right by the player as well, but the first thing is accomplishing what you need for the team. But then there is a human element to it, and I think we satisfied both parties, everything in that.”
A key piece in what Vancouver received as a result of this trade is Buium, who Minnesota drafted 12th overall back in 2024. The silky defenceman is 31 games into his NHL career and already has three goals and 11 assists in that span of time. He’s already won at both collegiate and international levels of hockey and, with his skills, will be a big factor in Vancouver’s success in the future. When asked about whether the deal would have been done without the inclusion of Buium, Guerin professed that he didn’t think that would be the case.
“Zeev — I love that kid. He’s a special kid. He’s a special human. Getting to know him and his family,” the Minnesota GM explained. “Vancouver got three really good, young, quality guys. If Quinn Hughes wasn’t available, they’d still be here. And I was totally fine with that. But like I said before, you have to give something to get something.”
While there is no winning a Quinn Hughes trade if you’re the team parting ways with him, according to Guerin, this deal worked out for both sides. The Canucks got a tidy package filled with skilled young players, while the Wild got their franchise defenceman. When all is said and done, the reason Hughes went to Minnesota was solely that — that they were the team to offer the best return.
“Jim had other options, and he had to kind of see things through. I don’t know who he was talking to, or what his process was, but we came out of the gates with that because they wanted to check certain boxes, and we had to check them for them. That’s the only way it gets done.”
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