Quinn Hughes has become the center of gravity in Minnesota, and the Wild are asking him to carry more than ever while his future remains up in the air.
That uncertainty hasn’t slowed the team down. Through eight games, Minnesota is off to a 5-2-1 start despite dealing with injuries to Brock Faber (all eight games), Nick Foligno (five), Marcus Foligno (four), Jared Spurgeon (two), and Olli Määttä (two). Hughes has been a huge part of why the Wild keep rolling.
He was already the franchise’s best defenseman last season, but what he’s doing now looks even tougher. His scoring has jumped from 1.10 points per game in a Wild sweater to 1.50 in the early going this year, but the bigger difference is the degree of difficulty around him.
Last season, Hughes had Brock Faber beside him. Faber’s skating gave Minnesota another threat, and it allowed Hughes to jump into the attack without having to do quite as much cleanup work behind him. Opponents could not just chase Hughes, because Faber could hurt them too, and Faber’s 15 goals showed how dangerous that pairing could be.
This year, the load keeps landing on Hughes. With Faber out indefinitely and the blue line hit hard by injuries, Minnesota has had to lean on young, unproven defensemen like Daemon Hunt and David Spacek in bigger roles.
Even with that mess around him, the difference when Hughes is on the ice is stark. At 5-on-5, Minnesota controls 54.8% of expected goals when he’s out there, which as of Thursday would rank eighth in the NHL, between the Montreal Canadiens at 55.0% and the Florida Panthers at 54.6%. When he goes to the bench, that number falls to 43.5%, a mark that would tie the Seattle Kraken for 26th.
That’s how one player can swing a game: one shift looks like a contender, the next looks like survival mode, with Jesper Wallstedt trying to bail the Wild out.
And then there’s the best part of all this - Hughes alongside Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. Minnesota has already shown that trio in power-play situations, but the Wild have also used them together at 5-on-5, and that’s where it turns into something special.
The three have been on the ice together for a little over an hour at 5-on-5, and the results are overwhelming. They’ve outscored opponents 5-0 while creating more than twice as many scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Hughes, Kaprizov, and Boldy all bring different styles, but the common thread is obvious: they protect the puck, see the ice, and make defenses panic. For Minnesota fans, it’s been a rare kind of thrill - and maybe a short-lived one, if Hughes really is only passing through.
Only one person knows that for sure, and it isn’t me. What is clear is that, right now, the Wild get to watch something exceptional.
That’s the whole point. Savor it.
In Other News...
Wild Kept Finding Offense In A Spot That Should Worry Rivals
The Wild are still piecing things together through a long injury list, but on Oct. 15 they found enough offense to pull out a 5-4 win over the Blues in St. Louis. Minnesota spotted the home side an early deficit, then leaned on a sharper attack and contributions from across the lineup to steady the night and keep the game from slipping away.
Matt Boldy was at the center of it, driving the comeback with a hat trick and four points as Minnesota kept finding answers in a spot that can swing a game quickly. Even without several regulars available, the Wild showed they can lean on skilled finishers and enough depth to make opponents pay if they lose track of the puck in the wrong area. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Suddenly Face A Quinn Hughes Decision They Feared
Quinn Hughes was supposed to be the kind of swing the Wild made to close the gap in their division, the sort of aggressive move that can reshape a roster if everything goes right. Instead, according to The Athletics Harman Dayal, Minnesota may already be staring at the uncomfortable part of that transaction, with Hughes still without a contract extension as the deadline picture starts to sharpen. The Wild paid a heavy price to get him, and the whole point was to make him part of the long-term core, not another expensive stopgap.
Now the question is whether that vision holds if the sides cannot get aligned soon enough. If Minnesota has to treat Hughes like a rental, the market would likely bring back a first-round pick and a top prospect, a decent haul in a vacuum but a far cry from the package the Wild originally sent out. Add in the clubs offseason moves and the pressure to keep pace in a tough division, and this has the feel of a decision the front office would rather not be forced into so quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Wilds New Veteran Addition Is Already Changing This Roster Feel
Blake Coleman is still new enough in Minnesota that he spent the Wilds first preseason game watching from the stands with his family, but he already fits the profile of the kind of veteran addition teams talk about when they want a room to settle down. The forward arrived in the July 2 trade that also brought in defenseman Olli Mtt, and with nearly 700 NHL games behind him, he brings more than just experience to a roster that has been looking for the right mix of polish and edge.
There is also a familiar thread running through the fit. Coleman has already worked under head coach John Hynes before, back with the New Jersey Devils, which gives this transition a little more comfort than most summer arrivals get. For a Wild group trying to define its identity early, those kinds of connections matter, even before the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]