The Minnesota Wild may have waited too long on Quinn Hughes, and Cale Makar’s new deal just made that look expensive.
The Colorado Avalanche locked up Makar on Friday afternoon with an eight-year, $163.2 million extension, a contract that puts him atop the NHL pay scale with a $20.4 million average annual value. For the Wild, that number matters. Hughes has been in line for his own extension this summer, and Makar’s agreement gives Minnesota a fresh benchmark - one that could sting.
Hughes and Makar were always tied together in this process, but the Wild didn’t have to sit on their hands while the market moved around them. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested earlier this summer that Minnesota might land on a three-year deal worth $18 million per season. Instead, the sides have waited, whether because they were hoping to see Makar’s number first or because Hughes has been traveling around the country since winning a gold medal in last year’s Olympics.
That wait may prove costly. The market has already been pushed upward this summer, with Leo Carlsson signing a five-year, $90 million offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers that the Anaheim Ducks matched, and Maclin Celebrini following with a five-year, $94 million extension with the San Jose Sharks. But Makar’s contract hits different because he’s a defenseman at the very top of the sport.
Both Makar and Hughes have won Norris Trophies, and both have been the most productive defensemen in the league since becoming full-time NHL players in 2019-20. Their value to their teams is easy to connect. That’s why Makar’s extension could have a direct impact on what the Wild ultimately have to pay to keep Hughes.
There’s also the question of timing. If Minnesota had already landed that three-year, $18 million-per-year arrangement Friedman floated, the club might not be staring at such a tricky situation now. Instead, the Wild may have been trying to avoid stacking another major contract beside Kirill Kaprizov’s $17 million annual salary, while Hughes’s camp may have preferred to let the market keep climbing.
Craig Leipold added another wrinkle this summer when he said in a Minnesota Public Radio interview that the Wild were pushing for a five-year deal. Meanwhile, most reporting, including The Athletic’s Michael Russo, pointed to Hughes wanting a three-year extension that would line up with Jack Hughes’s contract with the New Jersey Devils fans.
Now the Wild have to fit Hughes into a future that already includes another major expense and a possible pursuit of a top-line center. Puckpedia projects Minnesota will have $45.98 million in cap space next season, but that number doesn’t make the puzzle simple. It only makes the consequences of waiting a little clearer.
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