Wild Give a Lot to Gain a Lot in Trade For Quinn Hughes – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks made blockbuster trade news late Friday evening, Dec. 12, as it was announced that Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Öhgren, and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft from the Wild were headed to the Canucks in exchange for Quinn Hughes. It was a shock across the league and was easily the biggest trade the Wild have ever done. 

It had been talked about all last season for the Wild that they intended to make a blockbuster move this past offseason, but it didn’t happen. They did make some moves, but none were considered anywhere near blockbuster level. In this article, we’ll take a look at who the Wild are letting go and who they are receiving, starting with their losses. 

Wild Let Go of Rossi & Öhgren 

Of the three players the Wild traded to the Canucks for Hughes, two of them were forwards in Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren. Neither of these players comes as a huge surprise; the Wild did shop Rossi around quite a bit this past offseason, and it took a few tries to get him to sign the contract he has now. Understandably, he wanted to see what his worth was in the rest of the league, but ultimately ended up staying in Minnesota until this point. 

The Wild will miss not only Rossi’s offense but his defensive side as well. While he could put up quite a few points, he was great as a defensive-minded player and helped the defense out quite a bit. This season was a bit more of a struggle, but that’s because he’s been injured for the past few weeks, so he’s only had 13 points in 17 games played. However, once he’s healthy, the Canucks will have a solid center they can rely on for not just offense. 

The other forward in this trade was Öhgren, and he’s kind of a hard player to gauge since he had quite the ups and downs with the Wild. He had been called up quite a bit over the past few seasons with all the injuries the Wild faced over that time, but he struggled to find his spot in the lineup and never seemed to get fully adjusted. In the Wild’s past few games, he seemed to finally be getting over that hump just in time to be traded. He’s young with a lot of potential and it’s possible a change of scenery is exactly what he needs to get his game going in the right direction. 

Wild’s Defensive & Future Loss

The Wild also gave up a defenseman in Zeev Buium as well as a future first-round pick in 2026. While it stinks to give up draft picks, the Wild haven’t been overly concerned in that area for quite some time, as they have a number of young prospects in development waiting to get their shot with the big leagues. 

The bigger loss is Buium, and while some weren’t convinced of his potential, he was already a strong defenseman at 20 years old, and he has his whole career ahead of him. Yes, he still made rookie mistakes, but that’s expected, and after watching him play this season, he learns from those errors and doesn’t lose his edge. Some players, if they make a mistake, are afraid to make the same one again, so they aren’t as aggressive, and their game suffers. Buium wasn’t afraid to make those mistakes and keep at it. 

His defensive game does still need some fine-tuning, but it appeared he was improving with every game he played and the more comfortable he became. It takes time to get used to playing at the NHL level, and he did have a small transition period, but overall, he’s come a long way from his first game, and he’s going to be a strong defenseman in this league. 

Wild Gain Hughes

Now that everyone knows who the Wild gave up, who did they get in return for all of those players? The answer is one of the best defensemen in the league in Quinn Hughes. Many expected him to go to the New Jersey Devils to play with his brothers, Jack and Luke; no one was expecting Minnesota to come into play, let alone win out. 

It was a bit of a head scratcher trading that many young talented players who were expected to be part of the future, but for Hughes, as Matthew Zator, a colleague at The Hockey Writers who covers the Canucks, put it, he’s a generational player.

It’s not often you hear those words about players, but when you do, they’re usually someone you want on your team. He’ll be an asset on the blueline, who’s most steady blueliner, is getting older. Jared Spurgeon has been the anchor on the Wild’s defense for over a decade, and having someone like Hughes join will take some of the pressure off Spurgeon. He does have 23 points in 26 games played this season, which are pretty impressive numbers for a defenseman, so he can provide some much-needed offense as well. 

Related: Grading Canucks-Wild Blockbuster Trade for Quinn Hughes

There’s a lot of good that comes with Hughes, but the one downside is that the Wild have to attempt to re-sign him this coming offseason before his contract is up at the end of next season. It’s likely general manager Bill Guerin is already figuring that out, and right now it’s a worry for another day. 

It’s safe to say no one saw this trade coming, and while the dust is still settling, if everything pans out, both teams look to have gained a lot. Of course, there’s the possibility it doesn’t work out, but in sports, if a team wants to win, they have to take risks, and in the Wild’s case, they had to take a big one, but it looks like they got a pretty solid player in return who could help them quite a bit.