Quinn Hughes still doesn’t have a contract extension as the Minnesota Wild open training camp, and the hosts of Spittin’ Chiclets aren’t optimistic about how this ends.
The timing matters. Today marks the day the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement takes effect, which drops the maximum term for a player re-signing with his current team from eight years to seven. Hughes made clear at the Player Media Tour last week that the deadline didn’t move him, saying he doesn’t “feel backed up against a wall” and that a deal will get done “whenever I feel like it needs to be done.”
Biz on Quinn Hughes
Minnesota gave up a significant haul to get him in the first place, sending Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick to Vancouver last December.
Asked on the podcast what the chances are that Hughes actually stays, Paul Bissonnette didn’t hedge much.
“I think there’s a 15% chance he stays, and that would depend on how they do in the first 25 games,” Bissonnette said. “And that’s with them doing well in the first 25, 30 rolling.”
Ryan Whitney wanted to land somewhere more hopeful, mostly because of how the Wild looked with Hughes on the ice last season.
“I would like to think it would be higher. I’m kind of hoping, because of how fun they were to watch with him,” Whitney said. “That building was so electric, and him – like, every time he’s on the ice, he has the puck the whole shift. So watching them play with him was so fun. But yeah, I don’t know, 30%, 40% maybe.”
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Paul Bissonnette also raised the scenario that should worry Minnesota most, pointing to the possibility of Hughes limiting where he’s willing to be traded.
“I just hope for Minnesota, for Wild fans, that they’re able to get just as much as they gave up for him in the first place, which I don’t know – if he’s handing over a sheet that’s saying New Jersey Devils, it’s kind of like, ah,” Bissonnette said.
What Wild gave away
That theory has followed Hughes all summer. His brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes both play for the New Jersey Devils, and the persistent speculation is that Quinn prefers a shorter deal that would line his next free agency up with Jack’s in 2030. Hughes declined to discuss any specifics of a potential extension when asked directly last week.
He is entering the final season of a six-year, $47.1 million contract and is expected to command a figure at or above the $20.4 million average annual value Cale Makar received from Colorado in August.
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