For well over a year, every conversation about Quinn Hughes‘ future has ended in the same place: New Jersey, alongside brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes. David Pagnotta thinks there’s another way to read it.
Speaking on the DFO Insider podcast, Pagnotta set up the alternative with a question.
“We all assume playing with the brothers. What about playing near the brothers?” he said.
Jeff Marek supplied the obvious answer, asking whether he meant the Rangers. Pagnotta didn’t dispute it.
“What about playing across the river from the brothers?” he said.
It’s a neat piece of logic. Manhattan puts Hughes within a few miles of his family without requiring him to share a dressing room with them, and the hockey fit isn’t bad either. Chris Drury‘s Rangers could line him up alongside Adam Fox, giving New York arguably the best defensive pairing in the league.
Where will Quinn Hughes play next?
The Minnesota Wild opened the season with him still unsigned, having missed the September deadline that would have allowed an eight-year extension. Seven years remains the maximum available, and nothing about the past few months suggests a resolution is close.
He has been consistently relaxed about it in public.
“Me and Guerin will talk and continue to talk,” Hughes said. “I don’t feel stressed to do something before the season, and that’s not saying that something won’t [happen].”
READ MORE: Paul Bissonnette puts a number on Quinn Hughes staying
He has also pushed back on the assumption that family will decide it for him, acknowledging the appeal of playing with his brothers while making clear he isn’t going to “sacrifice a great spot” to do it.
The stakes for Minnesota are considerable. The Wild gave up Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round pick to acquire him last December, and watching him leave for nothing next summer would be a serious blow. According to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, the organization wants a long-term deal and would try to bring the price closer to $18.5 million a season if Hughes insists on three years.
That shorter term is the detail that started all of this. A three-year contract would line Hughes up to reach free agency in 2030, the same summer Jack becomes available in New Jersey. Cale Makar has already set the bar at $20.5 million a season, and Hughes may well exceed it on a shorter deal.
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