NEW YORK – It's the biggest deal in franchising history, and that's exactly what you'd expect when… Vancouver Canucks give up Quinn Hughes.
The team received the equivalent of four first-round picks, including potential star rookie guard Ze'ev Buyum, by sending Hughes to the team. Minnesota Wild and put an end to the uncertainty and noise clouding the best player the Canucks have ever had.
Canucks president Jim Rutherford said Friday's blockbuster accelerates the “recovery” of his last-place team and should allow it to turn things around within a few seasons.
There's understandable excitement over the acquisition of 20-year-old Buium, 24-year-old center Marco Rossi, 22-year-old prospect Liam Ogren and the Wild's first-round pick in June's draft.
Rutherford said that once Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin entered the trade for Hughes a week ago and put together his offer, “nobody else came close.”
But amid the adrenaline rush and excitement of such a catch, there is also an undeniable sadness that the Canucks have lost forever by selling their 26-year-old captain, who won the Norris Trophy less than two years ago and is undoubtedly among the most talented and dynamic players on the planet.
Friday's trade sharply reinforced the organization's failure over six years and two management regimes to build a lasting contender around a generational defenseman like Hughes, who was a 20-year-old rookie and part of a brilliant core of players in the early 20s when the Canucks won a pair of series during the pandemic playoffs in the summer of 2020.
“There's definitely a certain sadness,” Rutherford said in a phone call with several Vancouver reporters. “I really care about the man. I really respect him. That's our business. But today is not the saddest day for me; I've had a lot of them this season. The first was because of the team performance and the injuries that we dealt with, and the second was the worry for months that we weren't going to get a good deal in return for Quinn. And so I can say today that I feel like, given the circumstances, we got a good return in return. And I'm very I'm excited about these players.”
Rossi, Buyum and Ögren were selected in the first round. Rutherford said he acted over the last two weeks to move Hughes because he believed the Canucks had more leverage to make a better deal now rather than waiting until the NHL trade deadline or the end of the season in Vancouver.
He said he is “almost 100 percent” confident that Hughes, the seventh overall pick by former Canucks general manager Jim Benning in 2018, will not re-sign with Vancouver.
Hughes is eligible for unrestricted free agency after next season, so his team — suddenly Minnesota — will need to know his long-term intentions this summer.
The eldest of three National Hockey League brothers whose siblings Jack and Luke Hughes play for the New Jersey Devils, Hughes was cagey about plans, telling Sportsnet before this season: “Who knows what we can do and who knows how I'll feel this time next year? But that’s still a year away.”
What the Canucks have done is sink to the bottom of the standings, once again compromised by injuries and, until recently, weak defense and inevitable penalties.
There has been a lot of talk about “noise” in the market, including questions to Hughes after Thursday's 3-2 home loss to the Buffalo Sabers about Canucks coach Adam Foote's comments this week that the noise could be heard in the locker room.
It's debatable whether much of the “buzz” was genuine or simply fabricated, but what is clear is that if the Canucks were 17-11-3 instead of 11-17-3 and were on their way to the playoffs and a championship bid, there wouldn't be any talk of Hughes and Friday's trade.
Rutherford is right: It was always unlikely that Hughes, who is family-oriented and hails from Michigan and east, would want to stay in Vancouver beyond the end of his current contract. But what the defender wants most is the opportunity to win. So when the Canucks took six steps from the starting gate in October before hitting a faceoff, the chances of Hughes returning completely evaporated.
In an interview with Sportsnet late Friday, agent Pat Brisson said, “Jim and I had so many conversations and we were realistic about (re-signing) based on where the Canucks are. So Quinn is relieved because he's going to play meaningful hockey on a very good team. It's been a tough three months for him.”
The Canucks have always wanted to do the right thing under Quinn, but also do the right thing themselves. And it looks like the Minnesota Wild and Bill Guerin have really put together a strong team. I think the Canucks got more than they could have gotten in June.”
Brisson, who also represents Canucks center Elias Pettersson, praised Rutherford for how “professional” and “first-class” the organization was in handling the situation with Hughes and his subsequent trade. The super agent talked to all the teams vying for his client.
“The only thing I was sure of,” Brisson said, “was that under no circumstances could we guarantee an extension to anyone.”
So the Wild are all-in with Hughes this season and next, not knowing if the pile of assets they dealt on Friday will buy them even more time.
Rutherford said the three new Canucks should help the team become competitive again soon. He also said he has no plans to buy the Wild's first-round pick. The Canucks' own pick looks set to go in the top 10 or even the top five in what is considered an extremely strong draft.
“It’s hard to trade a player like Quinn,” Rutherford said. “We love him as a person and as a player, one of the greatest players to ever play for the Canucks. I think we have to respect what he did here and respect the fact that he was approaching free agency and had the choice to go where he wanted to go.”
“But what does this mean for the Canucks? I think we've been in a rebuilding game for a while now. We've been able to acquire some good young players, but this move gives us some really good young players today. It may not change our team in the next few months or even this season, but it doesn't have to be a full-blown rebuild, which will take five or seven years. We continue to go in the same direction – (and) we're going to get a really good player in June – and that could certainly turn out to be the case for “Canucks over the next few years.”
Rossi, Buyum and Ogren are expected to practice with the Canucks on Saturday in New Jersey, where Vancouver opens a five-game road trip against the Devils on Sunday. The team has lost six of its last seven games.
