Devils Watch: Quinn Hughes Is at a Crossroads With the Wild | Report
Minnesota is not the problem right now. That is the part of this that keeps getting lost. It’s the inevitable pull to his brothers, who play for the New Jersey Devils.
The Wild already spent the kind of package you only spend once. Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, Zeev Buium, a first-round pick. Bill Guerin flew to New Jersey the night of the trade and brought Quinn Hughes back himself. Hughes scored in his debut. He liked the city. He said as much last spring. Minnesota has spent the summer trying to turn that half-season into a signature.
And still, there is no signature.
That is the opening for New Jersey. Not a trade rumor that league sources already called fiction. Not some secret pipeline that does not exist. The opening is simpler than that. Hughes has a year left. He has two brothers in Devils sweaters. He has not committed to the team that just mortgaged a chunk of its future to get him.
According to Chris Johnston via TSN 1050 radio, the summer put it in language that actually sounds like the situation, not the rumor mill:
“My understanding of this situation through the summer is I think he was having trouble basically making up his mind about what he wants to do for his future. There’s a desire that we’ve known for years to one day play with his brothers. I think he did enjoy his Minnesota experience after the trade was made part way through last year with Vancouver. And so, I think at some point he’s going to have to — I’m sure he’s been doing some degree of soul searching and leaning on conversations with the people he trusts around him, but he’s going to have to make a call on what’s best. I think the posture of Minnesota is that they’re here. I dont think there are any restrictions on their end in terms of making him a very wealthy man. But he has to be willing to sign it. And at least to this point, I dont think that has been committed to or something he’s ready to do.”
Read that twice. The Wild are ready. The money is there. The player is not.
That tracks with what has leaked out of the summer. Talks happened. They did not close. Cale Makar’s $20.4 million deal reset the market and made a long-term Hughes number even heavier for a Wild club that already has Kirill Kaprizov on the books. Guerin has said he is confident and also admitted the obvious. They cannot make him sign. Elliotte Friedman has said more than once that the pace of the talks surprised him.
Again, it needs to be prefaced that none of that equals Hughes walking into Prudential Center next month. The Wild have not put him on the market and it’s not beyond Guerin to see where things go as the season progresses. Anyone selling you a done deal is inventing one.
What it does equal is time. Hughes can play this year in Minnesota, take the last year of his current deal, and keep every option open. A shorter extension would line him up with brother Jack Hughes in 2030. A long one would plant him in St. Paul through his prime. The third path is the one Devils fans keep circling: no extension at all, then a conversation on a trade, or looking to next summer where it feels like New Jersey is an obvious destination because Jack and Luke Hughes already live there.
The brothers piece is not a rumor. It is the one constant that survived Vancouver, the trade, and a playoff run in Minnesota. Jack has said he wants to play with Quinn. Luke has said the same. Quinn has never treated that like a punchline. He also has not treated it like a promise. That is the whole summer in one sentence.
Minnesota’s posture is that they are standing there with the pen. Hughes still has to pick it up.
All the Devils can do is be patient.