St. Louis Blues fans have a reason to keep one eye on Minnesota this summer, and it has everything to do with the Quinn Hughes contract situation.
The Wild still haven’t locked up one of their top players, and the latest public update from general manager Bill Guerin didn’t do much to clear the fog. On the Judd's Hockey Show podcast, Guerin kept it vague when asked about where things stand.
"I’m not gonna get too far into it, but I have been talking to his camp all along. These things take time... they are big decisions for players and teams, so it’s a process to work through it," said Guerin, h/t Pucks and Pitchforks.
That kind of answer usually means one thing: nothing is close. And after months of both sides saying they’d be open to working out an extension once the playoff run ended in May, the silence is starting to stand out. It’s also been more than a month since NHL free agency opened, which only adds to the sense that this is dragging.
The negotiation itself was always going to be tricky. For Minnesota, the obvious play would be to keep Hughes for the maximum term possible.
But Hughes has his own timeline in mind, and the league’s worst-kept secret is that he wants his free-agency year to line up with his younger brother Jack, the Devils’ star. The Hughes brothers have talked several times about playing together someday, and the summer of 2030 would be the earliest if both reach free agency at the same time.
As for money, Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman believes the number could land at three years and $18 million per season.
Nothing is done yet, though, and that’s where the rest of the Central Division starts paying attention. If the talks stall out, the Wild could eventually be forced into a trade during the season rather than risk losing Hughes for nothing in free agency. And if Minnesota ever had to move him, that would be a major hit to a roster that is already dealing with other issues, including the absence of a top line center and waiting on an answer from the Detroit Red Wings on a Dylan Larkin trade.
That’s the kind of opening the Blues would love to see. But they’d still have to do their part.
St. Louis can’t afford another slow start like last season, when it left itself chasing the pack.
The team already dealt away one of its top scorers in Jordan Kyrou, and now it’s counting on Jimmy Snuggerud and Mason McTavish to take another step in production this year.
If those pieces come together, the Blues could be right in the mix for the third playoff spot in the Central Division.
For now, though, this is all offseason speculation. The league is still in summer mode, and the real answers on Hughes, Minnesota’s roster, and any possible extension should start to come into focus once training camp opens in the coming weeks.
In Other News...
Why Blues Fans Have Real Reason To Believe In Another Cup
A survey of nearly 20,000 hockey fans put the St. Louis Blues in a spot that should catch the attention of anyone watching this franchise closely: among teams viewed as having a legitimate path to a Stanley Cup over the next decade. For a club that has already climbed the mountain once, the appeal here is less about nostalgia and more about the way the roster has been stocked for what comes next, with a young core and a prospect pool that keeps giving the organization reasons to be optimistic.
Several players are expected to play major roles in that development, and the Blues long view has been shaped by the work of both the current and former general managers. The result is a sense that the foundation is in place, even if the final picture is still coming together. For fans looking for a reason to believe another championship window can open, this is the kind of outside validation that makes the case feel a little less like wishful thinking. [Read more 🡒]