The Minnesota Wild have traded Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round draft pick to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for defenseman Quinn Hughes, both teams announced Friday night. 

Hughes, the 2024 Norris Trophy winner, was selected seventh overall by the Canucks in the 2018 NHL Draft. In eight seasons and 459 games with the team, he's tallied 61 goals and 371 assists. 

In 26 games this season, Hughes has notched two goals and 21 assists. He's been Vancouver's captain since 2023.

Hughes has one season left on his contract after this one before he can become an unrestricted free agent. There has been plenty of buzz about Quinn wanting to play with brothers Jack and Luke with the New Jersey Devils.  

Rossi, a center drafted ninth overall by the Wild in the 2020 draft, is playing in his fifth season in the league. He has four goals and nine assists in 17 games this season. 

Liam Ohgren, a left winger, and Buium, a defenseman, were also first-round draft picks by Minnesota. Ohgren has three goals and four assists in 46 games in three seasons with the Wild. Buium, who was playing in his first season with the team, has three goals and 11 assists in 31 games. 

Rossi at 24, Ohgren at 21 and Buium at 20 fit the young players the Canucks were speculated to be targeting if they were to trade Hughes.  

"With the circumstances surrounding JT and now Quinn, we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota," Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said. "They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later."

Minnesota cannot extend Hughes until July 1, and it's unclear if he would entertain signing another contract. He had nothing in the way of trade protection on his current deal, paying him an average of $7.85 million annually, that would have allowed him to block a trade anywhere.

The Wild are taking a shot at challenging the two top teams in the NHL, Colorado and Dallas, in the Central Division, which also includes reigning Presidents' Trophy-winning Winnipeg. Hughes vastly upgrades their blue line, which already included captain Jared Spurgeon and smooth-skating Swede Jonas Brodin, and winger Kirill Kaprizov only this past fall signed the richest deal in hockey history to stay in the "State of Hockey" for eight more years."