Quinn Hughes makes Wild debut to enthusiastic crowd in St. Paul
When arguably the best defenseman in hockey wants out, there's a reason.
"You want to be successful," Quinn Hughes said after playing his first game as a Wild since being traded from the Canucks. "I came into the year open-minded and wanted to make it work and, obviously, wanted to have a great year. I just think, with the injuries and the direction it was going, it wasn't happening."
Vancouver's loss is Minnesota's gain. An overjoyed St. Paul crowd welcomed Quinn Hughes for his Wild debut on Sunday night.
"That was pretty special, honestly," Hughes said. "I wasn't expecting that. That was very cool. I know it's a hockey market, but that was exciting."
It was an ideal start to the Quinn Hughes era in Minnesota. What he said about potentially resigning a long-term deal in the summer was exactly what the Wild front office wanted to hear.
"Obviously, I got a lot of time for Billy for quote unquote sackin' up and making the deal like he did," Hughes said. "There are other teams that probably could have thrown in certain packages like that, too, but at the end of the day, they didn't want to do that. They didn't want to trade two or three assets from their team like Billy did. So, I'll remember that and that means a lot to me."
Hughes also cited the Wild's core roster and Minnesota's proximity to his home state of Michigan as reasons he'll be open-minded this summer. Hughes is under contract through the 2026-27 season.
So far, Hughes is skating with Brock Faber in the Wild's top D-pairing.
"We talked a lot," Faber said. "TV timeouts and things, just kinda learning little plays and plays off, faceoffs and, obviously, it's a completely new system for him too. We're gonna get better, I think, as we go."