Connor Hellebuyck trade fallout for Quinn Hughes, Dylan Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings and the Minnesota Wild
NHL Media: Michael Russo and EJ Hradek talking about Quinn Hughes and Dylan Larkin. What the Connor Hellebuyck trade to the New Jersey Devils means for the Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild and Devils.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Russo: “Obviously, from a Minnesota standpoint, EJ, you know, the one thing that was really interesting to me about this trade is there’s no first-round pick in it.
And I believe the wild trade for Dylan Larkin is a very futures-based deal. A really good young player in the organization, maybe a roster player or two that makes significant dollars just to offset a little bit of the money, but then multiple first-round picks.
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And I don’t think that Shawn Horcoff has been overly enticed by that. And you know, maybe he looks at this deal and says, you know, this isn’t, you know, maybe this is something they have a look at with Dylan Larkin. You could use those futures in other trades; we’ve seen that happen throughout the National Hockey League. If you get pending UFA’s, you can flip those at the deadline. There’s, there’s ways to make it work.
Obviously, we know that Dylan has expanded that list, but I do feel that right now there’s a little more pressure on the Wild to try to get that over the finish line, with Quinn Hughes being the elephant in the room and being currently unsigned.”
Hradek: “Yeah, I’ll add one other thing about, you know, these trades and, you know, picks, people talk about it. I mean, Mercer was a first-round pick in his draft here in 2020, right? We know more about him now. I mean, he’s pretty straightforward. He’s 20 goals, kind of 40 points every year. But he’s a, I’ve watched that kid play a lot. He plays hard. He can play in all situations. He can help you lock down leads. He can be in the face-off circle. He can kill penalties. I think he’s a helpful player, but he was a first-round pick. Command is a first-round pick this past year, 12th overall. We don’t know what he’s going to be yet.
Sometimes when people want to give you those first-round picks in the future, I mean, they have all the analysts. They do the draft data, like, you know, what the draft is going to look like. And sometimes that pick is like, if it goes well for the team that’s sending it out, yeah, we’re happy to give you the 27th overall selection in the first round, or the hopefully the 32nd overall pick in the first round. So it’s always tricky, and the teams, the Red Wings, right, probably need to get players back in return to help them now. If they were rebuilding, they’d probably be very excited about getting picks, right?”
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Russo: “Yeah, no doubt about it. The only thing that I’ll say is, I just have trouble believing. I do think that they kind of want like a 21, 22-year-old Dylan Larkin for a 30-year-old Dylan Larkin, and I just don’t know if that’s going to happen right now.”
Hradek: “Probably not realistic, right?”
Russo: “Yeah, exactly. And I do think, look, the fact that this list, which I, you know, Helene St. James reported the other day, has been expanded. I 100% believe that that’s 100% accurate. Now that it’s expanded, we’ll see what that does now to trade offers and to other interested parties that maybe Dylan be willing to play for.
But I do think that right now the Wild, they have been aggressive in trying to get this guy. They love him, obviously, from USA Hockey, from what they’ve seen of him, and they want him on this team because of what he could do to their lineup. But also probably convince Quinn to maybe sign on the dotted line for two or three more years.
And so I do think that now, look, we know Quinn Hughes thinks of, of Connor Hellebuyck. We know obviously where his brothers play. This could be enticing to him if they could afford him. You know they don’t have a ton of money left. $16.8 (million), I think, according to Puckpedia, with 16 players signed next year. So something would have to give there.
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But obviously, you know this makes New Jersey a much more formidable contender, and you put Quinn on that team, and they’re a really formidable contender. So suddenly, you know what I think is an uneasy situation for Minnesota probably got a little uneasier, and that puts a little more pressure on them to try to get a top-six forward, top-six center into this organization. ”
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