It has been a quiet offseason after the explosion of July 1st, arbitration hearings that weren’t and the offer sheet to Leo Carlsson that reset the market. But one of the major storylines this offseason that has been unresolved, or in the minds of one fan base, is resolved: Quinn Hughes and Minnesota.
Now Quinn Hughes isn’t the only superstar player that is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. Players like Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning are still waiting to sign new extensions. But it does not have as much focus as Hughes and the Wild do.
NHL Rumors: Where Things Stand with Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild
As NHLRumors.com has documented over the past week, Wild GM Bill Guerin is playing this one close to the vest with what he says. Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold was more confident a deal would get done. However, Guerin has learned not to negotiate through the media. But it begs the question: why isn’t it done yet?
On the August 6th edition of NHL Tonight with Tony Luftman, Cory Schneider, and EJ Hradek, following Elliotte Friedman’s appearance, the panel debated the factors as to why a Quinn Hughes deal is not done yet with the Wild. Is it more about the market, or is there another force driving these negotiations?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Tony Luftman: “Reigning GM of the year. Bill Guerin asked about Quinn Hughes Extension talks. This is what Guerin had to say.
“I’m not going to get too far into it, but I have been talking to his camp all along. These things take time. They are big decisions for players and teams, so it’s a process to work through it.”
I think back to him getting Quinn Hughes, and Quinn Hughes used the words “sacked up.’ That this guy did that to get him there, and how much that meant to him. Certainly, the relationship is in a good stage. Schneids, what’s your read on it?”
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Cory Schneider: “I think contracts this year have kind of completely gone. Like the whole rhyme and reason has completely been spun on its head with the Leo Carlsson offer sheet, the Macklin Celebrini extension.
Guys maybe wanting to play together at some point. We saw Brady Tkachuk move. Dylan Larkin wants out. There’s USA Hockey guys; they’ve got to bring that in. So I think teams are. I think they’re kind of got some whiplash right now, trying to figure out what’s the market, what’s the landscape.
It’s not a few years ago where it’d be an eight times whatever you’re going to stay. You’re going to be Wild for life. The loyalty factor. I can see a three-year, $20 million AAV now. Is he worth more than Macklin Celebrini? Maybe definitely worth more than Leo Carlsson, in my opinion.
So, does he want his contract to line up with his brother Jack? Because they want to go play together. These are all factors now that are very real. That I don’t think were as recent as a couple years ago.
So, I think that’s sort of what Bill Garren is quietly saying. And these things take time. It’s that we’ve got to figure out what the heck’s going on and what he wants.”
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EJ Hradek: “Yeah, and I was of the mind that it was going to be a three-year extension. To your point, to line up with Jack, so then when Jack’s contract expires, he’d be in a position to kind of, they’d both be in a position to kind of figure out what they want to do, but things have happened, right?
I mean, they were together for Team USA winning the gold medal. There’s some time now. Off-season. Guys get to spend time together. They get to talk. They’ve as you point out, they’ve watched this market kind of explode in a way that maybe we didn’t, we thought might happen, but we weren’t sure until we saw it.
So maybe that three-year deal, to your point, now is three times 20, or maybe the conversation has been, well, I only have one more year left. Maybe I’ll just play the year out and make a decision later. I don’t really know. We don’t know what’s going through the mind of Quinn Hughes. We don’t know what’s going through the mind of Pat Brisson, his representative. He’s handled a lot of these things in the past.
I was of the mind that a deal would get done, and I still would be of that mind that they’ll get an extension done. But as I always like to point out in these things, it’s not done until it’s done. So as we sit here to this point, a deal that I thought would have been maybe done as early as July 1st, when you could have announced an extension, has not been done yet.”
If anyone thought Quinn Hughes was signing an extension on July 1st, think again. Again, he was open to a contract extension. The Wild wanted him back, but the market, as we have seen, is going to determine the price. Deadlines make deals, and as Friedman noted, there will be concern if he isn’t signed by the start of the season.
No Need to Panic About Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar Yet
Now the brothers do want to play together. Whether Jack Hughes actually makes it to free agency in a few years remains to be seen. But there is something about a brotherly bond that is hard to break. We know his agent, Pat Brisson, was coy with Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski on The Sheet a few months back.
Players talk. We all know it. They have been talking since last year. It’s clear there was something behind the Jim Rutherford statement. Plus, where does Quinn Hughes actually have the best chance to win? Is it Minnesota or is it New Jersey?
So many factors in these negotiations between the Minnesota Wild and Quinn Hughes. It’s something to keep an eye on as the season inches closer.
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