Two teams weren’t afraid of getting a long-term commitment from Quinn Hughes
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on when Quinn Hughes told the Vancouver Canucks that he wouldn’t sign a contract extension with them. The New Jersey were really interested, but they weren’t able to create the salary room.
** NHLRumors.com transaction
Ron McLean: “Okay, Quinn Hughes. Walk us through a little bit of all of it.”
Friedman: “Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that everybody kind of wondered about was, what was the behind the scenes of this play? And there’s been a lot of speculation, myself too, about, you know what Hughes said to the Canucks and when about the future. And also, the Canucks have openly speculated that Hughes would want to play with his brothers. So what did they know?
And the best information I could get in the aftermath of this shocking trade, which Martine Gaillard reminded me last night, I never saw coming. That is, that he informed them, I believe, right before US Thanksgiving, like around that time, as the Canucks were losing, he was really having trouble dealing with it.
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If you’re a Canucks fan, you saw it. If you’re a Canuck watcher, you saw it. He was really struggling with the losing. And it was right around that time, before US Thanksgiving, that the Canucks were informed he would not be signing an extension with them this summer. And that’s when the Canucks really stepped things up.
Now, there is no doubt, none at all, that a number of teams were really scared off or worried about the fact that Hughes would not provide a long-term commitment at this time. His agent Pat Brisson’s quote is saying that over the last 24 hours. I think there were two teams that weren’t really afraid of that.
Number one was Minnesota, because I think Bill Guerin is not afraid of anything. And the other one, I believe, was New Jersey, because I just think they felt they were in a really good position.
New Jersey, they could not clear the cap room, and I think they’ve got some clauses there that were honestly and fairly negotiated that prevented them from doing what they needed to do to open up spots.
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And I think Minnesota just said, we’re going for it, and they did. And you know, sometimes, Ron, you come out of these things and people say, ‘Oh, I could have given them a better offer. Vancouver got a better deal.’ I’m not seeing that here at all.
I know the Canucks fans are really disappointed. I understand it. I don’t think in the circumstances, they could have got a better deal than this one.”
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