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Latest On Quinn Hughes Trade Aftermath

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As the dust begins to settle from Friday’s Quinn Hughes trade, an era-defining transaction for two NHL franchises, more and more information is being reported regarding the circumstances that led up to the deal.

Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin addressed the media yesterday regarding the trade, and revealed a few things about how it all came together. He said that he took a direct, aggressive approach in negotiations with the Canucks, stating “we had to go to them with something real, right away, to tell them that we’re serious,” and adding that the eventual package the Wild sent to the Canucks was the first offer Guerin made.

That bit of information sheds some light on the Wild’s overall strategy regarding their path to contention. Guerin’s willingness to part with key future pieces such as Zeev Buium to acquire Hughes, who has less than two years of team control remaining, indicates that the club sees itself as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender within that period.

Of course, the simple fact that they acquired Hughes sends that signal as well, but it’s also notable that the Wild did not hesitate to include players such as Buium in their initial trade offer to the Canucks.

From the Canucks’ perspective, it’s easy to see why the Wild were able to push through the other bidders for Hughes’ services and get a deal done.

It’s been reported (by The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun) that other clubs, such as the Philadelphia Flyers, didn’t feel willing to surrender the caliber of assets the Wild were willing to part with, like a high-upside young player who is either NHL-ready or nearly NHL ready. The Wild were in a unique position where they were able to offer key players who brought a rare combination of youth, upside, NHL-readiness, and positional value.

Buium is a supremely intelligent defenseman who could very well quarterback the Canucks’ top power play unit in short order. Marco Rossi is a center who has a 60-point season on his record and hasn’t turned 25 yet. In a trade market where it’s extremely difficult to acquire centers, let alone young, productive ones, that’s a major piece. And then the willingness to add a player like Liam Ohgren into the deal, someone who has preexisting chemistry with key Canucks youngster Jonathan Lekkerimaki, is something that likely pushed the Wild even further in the Canucks’ eyes.

It’s extraordinarily difficult to “win” a trade where your franchise is parting with a player of Hughes’ caliber. The Wild’s initial offer was strong enough that it, at the very least, gave the Canucks a fighting chance given the key factor of Hughes’ limited team control.

LeBrun also revealed a few other teams that were involved in the race to acquire Hughes. He reported that the New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers “made legitimate offers” for Hughes, while the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes “showed interest.”

LeBrun also added that “despite rumors to the contrary,” the Washington Capitals “were never real players” to acquire Hughes and cited the organization’s unwillingness to part with a player such as Cole Hutson as a key reason for their reluctance. Hutson is the younger brother of 2024-25 Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson and has 20 points in 17 games this season at Boston University.

Looking at the deal from a different angle, Canucks head coach Adam Foote also spoke to the media yesterday and addressed an aspect of Hughes’ departure that could be key to the Canucks’ off-ice player dynamics. Per The Athletic’s Thomas Drance, Foote said that he hasn’t had an opportunity to speak with the club’s senior hockey operations leaders about naming a new captain, but added that defenseman Filip Hronek will be an alternate captain in the meantime.

The Canucks’ current alternate captains, besides Hronek, are Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Tyler Myers. The fact that Myers is now 35 and has just one year remaining beyond this one on his contract lowers the odds that he’d be a long-term solution as a captain, but both Boeser and Pettersson are in their late-twenties and under contract through 2031-32, making them more logical candidates for such a role, though it is also possible that the next Canucks captain is not currently on their roster.

Photos courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

Vancouver Canucks Activate Marco Rossi

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The Vancouver Canucks announced this morning that center Marco Rossi has been activated off of injured reserve. In a corresponding move, the club placed center Elias Pettersson on IR, retroactive to Dec. 5.

Rossi has not played since Nov. 11, when his former team, the Minnesota Wild, took on the San Jose Sharks. The Austrian center, who turned 24 in September, was a major piece of the return package the Canucks received as part of Friday’s stunning Quinn Hughes trade.

He had scored 13 points in 17 games before suffering a lower-body injury against the Sharks. Rossi participated in Canucks practice yesterday in Newark, and now appears poised to dress for the team’s matinee contest today against the New Jersey Devils.

It seems Rossi will begin his time as a Canuck playing a major role in head coach Adam Foote’s lineup. The Athletic’s Thomas Drance indicated yesterday that Rossi will begin his tenure as the Canucks’ first-line center, skating in between veteran wingers Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser. That’s not a role he is entirely unfamiliar with, as he was tested in a similar role at times during his tenure with the Wild.

For much of their existence as a franchise, the Wild have struggled to source top-six offensive centers, pivots capable of scoring at a high rate. While that specific type of player is notoriously difficult for NHL teams to acquire, Rossi has joined a team with one such player already on the roster.

Pettersson, who scored 102 points in 2022-23, has been the key center in Vancouver since winning the Calder trophy in 2018-19. Pettersson has been out since Dec. 5 with an upper-body injury, and has missed three games so far.

When everyone is healthy and playing at their best, the addition of Rossi gives the Canucks an enviable level of depth down the middle. With Pettersson as the first-line center, Rossi anchoring the second line, and Filip Chytil running the third line, the Canucks have a trio of first-round picks at center to form the backbone of its forward corps.

But unfortunately for the Canucks, injuries and inconsistency have clouded that picture considerably. Pettersson hasn’t looked like the Pettersson that scored 102 points and emerged as one of the game’s dominant young centers for more than a year now. Chytil, despite his evident talent, has struggled with persistent injury issues and is once again sidelined with an upper-body injury.

That leaves Rossi, at the moment, the only pivot of that trio healthy and set to play for the Canucks. As the club continues to push forward in its rebuilding process, the health and performance of its three key young centers (as well as the continued growth of 23-year-old Aatu Raty) will be a key story line to track in Vancouver.

Elias Pettersson Out, Marco Rossi Could Make Canucks Debut

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The whirlwind around the Vancouver Canucks will continue into Sunday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. Vancouver will be without their star forward Elias Pettersson, but could return Marco Rossi back from injury, per Thomas Drance of The Athletic. Rossi has missed over a month of action with a lower-body injury. He has been considered as day-to-day over the last week and could now get the chance to make his Canucks debut in the first possible opportunity.

Rossi should be a major addition to a Vancouver side that’s struggled to fill their top-center role all season long. He scored 13 points in 17 games with the Wild to start the season, and is coming off a career year with 24 goals and 60 points last season. He was a fringe top-line center to start the year, rotating with Joel Eriksson Ek for minutes. That’s a standing he earned in the latter half of last season, when injuries to Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman pushed Rossi into a premier role. He hung onto it, despite a playoff series with minimal usage, and now has a chance to grow into a much larger role for Vancouver. The 24 year old scored 49 goals and 114 points in 202 games, and five seasons, in Minnesota.

Even with that production, Rossi could face an immediate challenge stepping in for Pettersson, who hasn’t played in over a week due to an upper-body injury. Pettersson has continued to serve as Vancouver’s top forward. He led the offense in average ice time (20:37) prior to injury and continues to lead the forwards in points (22). Vancouver has struggled in his absence, with only six goals in their last three games – tied for third-worst in the league over the last week.

With a return from injury and recent move weighing him down, Rossi likely won’t be the one to relight Vancouver’s offense out of the gates. His return will be a great indication of what Vancouver will have to offer on the heels of a historic trade. They acquired three young and promising pros and could slot two of them – Rossi and defenseman Zeev Buium – into top-line roles right away. How they’re able to perform under the pressure of a losing season could go far in forecasting Vancouver’s next era, now shaped around three former Minnesota Wild, Pettersson, and inevitably high draft capital.

Canucks Place Lukas Reichel On Waivers

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As a result of yesterday’s blockbuster trade with the Wild, the Canucks had some roster juggling to do after bringing in three players and only sending one out with only one roster spot available.  They dealt with one of the extra slots by putting Marco Rossi on their injured reserve.  But one player had to come off the roster and it will be winger Lukas Reichel, who will be placed on waivers at 1 PM CT, reports Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic (Twitter link).

Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army relayed (Twitter link) earlier today that Reichel had been removed from Vancouver’s active roster.  Players can be waived with non-roster status and that’s clearly the move that the Canucks have made to get back to compliance.

This was not the plan for Vancouver when they moved a 2027 fourth-round pick to Chicago to acquire him back in October.  Reichel had gotten off to a good start with four points in five games before the swap but had fallen down the depth chart, resulting in the Blackhawks giving him a fresh start elsewhere.

Reichel played big minutes upon being acquired, even spending time at center with Vancouver’s injury issues at that position.  But the production simply hasn’t materialized as he has just one assist in 14 games following the swap.  Meanwhile, his role diminished to the point where he has only played once in the last ten games.  Over his career, Reichel has 22 goals and 37 assists in 188 NHL appearances.

The 23-year-old was a first-round pick by Chicago back in 2020, going 17th overall.  He’s in the second and final season of a two-year, $2.4MM pact and will be owed a $1.3MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights to become an unrestricted free agent.  Based on how things are going, it seems likely that he’s heading towards a non-tender.

That said, players with first-round pedigree often get multiple opportunities so it’s not impossible to think that a team might be interested in taking a flyer on Reichel by 1 PM CT on Sunday, hoping that a different fresh start could get him going offensively.  If not and he goes through unclaimed, Vancouver will ultimately clear $1.15MM of his $1.2MM cap charge off the books by assigning him to AHL Abbotsford which would allow them to get out of using LTIR and allow them to start banking salary cap room again.

Poll: Which Team Won The Quinn Hughes Trade?

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Last night, the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks got together on the biggest trade of the season and of recent memory. Rivaled only by the three-way trade that sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes and Martin Necas to the Colorado Avalanche, the Canucks moved former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Quinn Hughes to the ’State of Hockey’.

It’s easy to assess what the Wild gained in this trade. They’ve landed arguably one of the top three defensemen in the NHL, rivaled only by Avalanche Cale Makar and Blue Jacket Zach Werenski.

Outside of some mild injury concerns, Hughes has been dominant on a largely non-competitive team. Despite putting up some solid production through his first three seasons, he’s been dominant for the last five, scoring 50 goals and 335 points in 330 games while averaging 25:59 of ice time per night.

Unfortunately, and likely one of the motivating factors for moving on in Hughes’ eyes — the Canucks have only qualified for the playoffs twice throughout his career, with things again looking bleak this season. Although they aren’t considered in the same echelon as the Avalanche or Dallas Stars, potentially not even after this trade, the Wild have only missed the playoffs twice throughout Hughes’ career.

Still, as mentioned, Minnesota is lining up to play one of Colorado or Dallas in the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs if they don’t fall to a wild-card spot, which may be more advantageous to them. Even though they’ve made the postseason more often than not over the last decade, the Wild haven’t reached the second round since the 2015 postseason. Time will tell if adding a player of Hughes’ caliber will be the answer to getting them over the hump.

For Vancouver, the Canucks effectively added four first-round picks for their franchise player. Marco Rossi, 24, is the oldest of the group, having been selected with the 9th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Liam Ohgren, 21, and Zeev Buium, 20, were drafted in the first round of the 2022 and 2024 NHL Drafts, respectively.

Rossi will immediately become the Canucks second-line center and will likely push Filip Chytil to a third-line role once he returns from injury. Over the last two years, Rossi has scored 28 goals and 73 points in 99 games while averaging a 47.1% success rate in the dot.

Still, Rossi isn’t far removed from a more-than-disappointing playoff performance last season. Scoring two goals and three points in six games, the Wild infamously demoted Rossi to the team’s fourth line as early as Game 2 in the team’s matchup last spring against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Meanwhile, Buium, the former National Champion with the University of Denver Pioneers, is enjoying a solid rookie campaign. Before the trade to Vancouver, Buium had scored three goals and 14 points in 31 games, averaging 18:28 of ice time per night. Despite starting 51.5% of his shifts in the offensive zone, he had averaged a 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength. He doesn’t project to have a similar offensive ceiling as Hughes, though he may end up being somewhat better defensively.

Lastly, Ohgren has yet to break out in any meaningful way with the Wild and may benefit from more ice time in Vancouver. Largely limited to a bottom-six role, the Swede has tallied two goals and five points in 42 games over the past two years, averaging 10:26 of ice time. However, if his AHL performance is any indication of things to come, the young center has tallied 22 goals and 42 points in his last 50 games with the struggling Iowa Wild.

Many of the grades of this trade will hinge on a few things. If Hughes signs a long-term extension with Minnesota this summer, or helps the team win its first Stanley Cup in franchise history, it will make the return haul a far easier pill to swallow. For Vancouver, if Hughes was unwilling to resign and doesn’t with Minnesota either, the trade will make a ton of sense in the long term, especially if each player reaches their respective ceiling.

Now it’s time for you to vote — who do you think came out on top?

Mobile users click here to vote.

Wild Acquire Quinn Hughes

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The Quinn Hughes trade rumor mill has come to an end.  The Wild have acquired the blueliner from the Canucks in exchange for center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick.  Both teams have announced the swap.

Dating back to the offseason, there had been speculation that a trade involving Hughes could happen at some point.  The blueliner had talked about liking the idea of one day playing with his brothers, something Canucks president Jim Rutherford also referenced.  To that end, the Devils were believed to have had discussions about the idea of making a move for him with those discussions resurfacing this week amid talks with several other suitors.

Minnesota was not among those known suitors but they have won the sweepstakes for Hughes, making a significant addition to their back end.  The 26-year-old has been one of the top-scoring defensemen in the NHL in recent years and is only two seasons removed from winning the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top blueliner while finishing third in voting for the award last season.

This season, Hughes has played in 26 games with Vancouver, picking up two goals and 21 assists while logging a career-high 27:26 of ice time per night.  For his career, he checks in at just below the point-per-game mark with 61 goals and 371 helpers in 459 regular season games.  He has produced at a similar rate in the postseason, notching two goals and 24 assists in 30 playoff contests from the Canucks’ playoff appearances in 2020 and 2024.

It’s an understatement to say that adding Hughes will be a significant addition to Minnesota’s back end.  The team has leaned heavily on Brock Faber in the early going this season with veterans Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon also logging over 20 minutes a night.  That’s a solid foundation but a group that was lacking a legitimate number one defender.  That’s now no longer the case with Hughes sliding in as that missing piece with Jacob Middleton (when healthy) also serving as a top-four-caliber piece.

Hughes has two seasons remaining on his contract with a team-friendly $7.85MM AAV.  It’s plausible that he could double that when his contract expires and have a chance to be the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL.  Interestingly enough, he’s going to a team that employs the highest-paid player in NHL history as of next season in winger Kirill Kaprizov.

Clearly, GM Bill Guerin, who is also the GM for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, feels he will be able to make a strong pitch for Hughes to stick around for the long haul, even if it requires another record-setting contract to do so.  Hughes will be eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 1st although Minnesota has received no assurances that he’ll do so, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo (Twitter link).  Notably, with new CBA restrictions on term and bonus structure kicking in next September, Minnesota will have about a 10-week window to try to lock Hughes up to an eight-year extension before the maximum length of a deal drops to seven seasons.

The Wild currently sit in third place in a hotly contested Central Division.  They’re behind Colorado and Dallas, the top two teams in the NHL by a considerable margin while Winnipeg, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season, is also in their division as well, though languishing as of late.  With this move, an already difficult division gets a lot more difficult but the opportunity to add an elite defender to his group is an opportunity that Guerin clearly couldn’t pass up.

As for Vancouver, this is a situation they clearly didn’t want to be in on multiple fronts.  For starters, the recent trade speculation was hardly ideal and it was recently acknowledged that it was a discussion point in the dressing room.  Meanwhile, their preference certainly would have been to try to lock him up long-term but TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that they’ve known for a while that he wouldn’t do so.  However, considering that the Canucks sit dead last in the NHL standings with just 25 points in 31 games and are coming off missing the playoffs last season, a retool of some sorts was going to be on the horizon.  Taking a step back would have lowered the chances of Hughes re-signing while moving him allowed for the potential to kick-start that roster restructuring.

There’s a strong case to make that Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have accomplished that with this trade.  For starters, they bring in a highly-touted young defender in Buium who they hope can be an impact piece right away, particularly on the offensive front.

The 20-year-old was the 12th overall pick by Minnesota not even a year and a half ago.  He signed his entry-level contract at the end of his college season back in April and made his NHL debut in the playoffs, picking up an assist in four games.  Buium has been a regular on the back end for the Wild this year, playing in 31 games where he has put up three goals and 11 assists in 18:28 of playing time per game.  He should have a chance to play a little higher on the depth chart with the Canucks with a regular spot in the top four behind Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, and Tyler Myers being a legitimate possibility.  With a longer-term lens, he could be a potential long-term partner with fellow rookie Tom Willander.

Buium is signed on his entry-level contract through the 2026-27 campaign with a cap hit of $967K plus an additional $1MM in potential ’A’ bonuses in each year.  If he progresses as expected, his second contract could wind up eclipsing what Hughes is making now while giving them a foundational blueliner, albeit not a franchise one like Hughes is.  Buium is under team control through the 2032-33 season.

As for Rossi, he helps fill a need that the Canucks have had for quite some time as a legitimate second-line center to play behind Elias Pettersson.  J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat were on the roster is past years but both were ultimately moved out and with due respect to Filip Chytil who can be a quality player when healthy, Vancouver lost a lot of impact depth down the middle with those swaps.  Rossi isn’t at the level of Miller or Horvat but he will be a substantial upgrade on their current depth options, a group headlined by recent UFA signing David Kampf.

The 24-year-old was the ninth pick back in the 2020 draft class.  Rossi battled myocarditis not long after being selected which stalled his development although he bounced back without any long-term concerns.  He had a solid showing in 2023-24 with 40 points in 82 games and then was considerably more productive last season, tallying 24 goals and 36 assists in 82 regular season games while playing over 18 minutes per night.  However, his ice time dropped in the playoffs to just 11 minutes per game and he remained a subject of consistent trade speculation throughout the summer with the two sides well apart on contract talks for a considerable amount of time.

Eventually, the parties worked out a three-year, $15MM bridge deal in late August.  He will remain under team control at its expiration for one more year but will be owed a $6MM qualifying offer with salary arbitration rights.  Meanwhile, Rossi has produced at a similar level this season, picking up four goals and nine assists in 17 games.  However, he has missed the last four weeks with a lower-body injury although he took part in Minnesota’s morning skate on Thursday which suggests he’s getting closer to returning.  With Pettersson out of the lineup himself, it’s possible that Rossi could jump right into a top-line role depending on when he returns.  He and Braeden Cootes – a 2025 first-round pick – now give Vancouver some much-needed longer-term stability behind Pettersson down the middle.

As for Ohgren, he’s an intriguing addition to this swap.  The 21-year-old was a first-round pick by the Wild in 2022, going 19th overall.  However, his development hasn’t gone quite as planned to this point.

Ohgren had his first full season in North America in 2024-25 and was quite productive with AHL Iowa, amassing 19 goals and 18 assists in 41 games, more than solid production for a rookie.  But while that yielded some opportunities with Minnesota, he wasn’t able to produce very much, being limited to just two goals and three assists in 24 games.  This season, he’s still looking for his first point after being held off the scoresheet in his first 18 outings while logging just 9:32 per night.  Ohgren briefly saw some action with Iowa as well, notching two goals and three helpers in nine games.

That made Ohgren a legitimate change-of-scenery candidate.  He should have an opportunity to play a little higher up the depth chart at some point with Vancouver and if he can turn into a productive secondary scorer, he’s someone who can be a useful piece for them for a while.  In the second season of his entry-level deal, Ohgren has a cap hit of $887K along with $500K in ’A’ bonuses per year.  He’s under club control through the 2030-31 campaign.

Between these players and a first-round pick, Vancouver has added what they hope will be several core players to help them down the road.  If all goes well, it will result in them taking a step back to take a couple of steps forward down the road.

From a salary cap perspective, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic mentions (Twitter link) that there is no salary cap retention on any players in the swap.  PuckPedia notes that the Wild are adding a net cap charge of just under $997K over a full season.  Using their numbers, that means that Minnesota is now projected to finish the year around $2.1MM below the cap ceiling, meaning that Guerin still has some financial flexibility to try to add to his roster later in the year.  Meanwhile, Vancouver is still operating in LTIR although they should be able to dip below that threshold before too long, allowing them to bank some cap space to put toward some of the bonuses for their entry-level players.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Hughes was being traded to the Wild.  Dreger was the first with the full trade return.

Photos courtesy of Sergei Belski and Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.

Canucks Activate Thatcher Demko

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Dec. 11: The Canucks formally announced Demko’s activation. Nikita Tolopilo was returned to AHL Abbotsford in the corresponding move. The 25-year-old Belarusian ends his recent string of call-ups with a 2-1-0 record in four appearances, posting a promising .911 SV% and 2.74 GAA.

Dec. 9: The Canucks are likely to have starting goaltender Thatcher Demko back in the crease when they host the Sabres on Thursday, head coach Adam Foote told reporters following last night’s game (including Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 950).

Demko’s return will come several days past his initial target date. The oft-injured starter sustained a lower-body injury against the Jets on Nov. 11, leaving the game after the first period. It’s believed to be a groin issue, unrelated to the knee issues that cost him a significant chunk of the 2024 calendar year. He was listed as week-to-week but was expected to be back in the lineup by the end of November.

While that didn’t happen, a late return is better than no return at all. Demko looked like his old self before landing on IR. His .903 SV% and 2.80 GAA in 10 starts don’t jump off the page, but they should when put in the context of Vancouver allowing a league-high 3.75 expected goals against per 60 minutes at all situations, per MoneyPuck. Demko has saved 6.3 goals above expected, and his save percentage is 25 points better than what high-workload backup option Kevin Lankinen has put on offer.

With an 11-16-3 record and seemingly unsolvable defensive warts, playoffs are all but out of the question in Vancouver this season. Getting Demko back should at least stop the bleeding, as the team now deals with offensive woes, scoring only 1.50 goals per game since Thanksgiving.

Demko’s early resurgence was significant in proving Vancouver didn’t significantly err by giving him a relatively rich three-year extension this summer. Kicking in next year, the deal carries a cap hit of $8.5MM and boasts a full no-movement clause. If Demko were to keep that level of play up and were open to a move if the Canucks engage in a complete teardown, that cap hit wouldn’t be prohibitive in trade talks.

Canucks Have A Clear Blueprint To Bring To Quinn Hughes Trade Discussions

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The question of whether Quinn Hughes will sign an extension with the Canucks to keep him in Vancouver beyond the 2026-27 season remains an open book. However, the club having the worst record in the Western Conference, with a second straight playoff miss in sight, certainly doesn’t bode well for his future.

The recent uptick in reports of teams calling Vancouver about Hughes’ availability could be more rooted in conjecture than reality. With the Canucks’ lack of hesitance under the oversight of the Patrik Allvin/Jim Rutherford front office to move on from star players, though, a trade – whether this season, over the summer, or early next year – feels more probable than possible.

There will be rampant speculation about where he ends up and how it happens until a resolution, one way or another, comes to pass. He’s a bona fide top-three defenseman in the NHL and a top-15 player outright. At a $7.85MM cap hit (for now), he’s among the most affordable truly elite talents in the league. His lack of trade protection makes him a highly movable asset, too – especially if Vancouver pulls the trigger now, before he becomes a pending unrestricted free agent.

Even if they wait until the summer or next season to make a move, they’re still in for a gargantuan return. Those hoping for a discount because of his lack of team control past 2027 will be disappointed. No team is going to be willing to put forth a competitive-enough offer without a high degree of certainty – or at least optimism – that he will be willing to sign a long-term extension.

It feels like an exceedingly rare situation for a player of Hughes’ caliber to be legitimately available for trade with at least a full season left on his deal. There’s precedent for such a move, though.

The circumstances surrounding the first Erik Karlsson blockbuster, which sent him from the Senators to the Sharks in the 2018 offseason, are strikingly similar from both the player’s and the team’s perspective. Karlsson was a year older than Hughes at the time of the deal, but their value and reputation were extremely comparable. Both had recent Norris wins and multiple nominations. Both had top-10 MVP finishes (Karlsson had three at that point compared to Hughes’ one).

Organizationally, it’s fair to draw comparisons as well. The Senators’ record in 2017-18 had tanked to the second-worst point total in the East immediately after a resurgent 2016-17 campaign that saw them reach the Eastern Conference Final. The Canucks are trending toward a similar fate, albeit two years removed from their explosive 2023-24 regular season, when they captured the Pacific Division crown and came one game away from a WCF appearance. Both teams were center-needy. Ottawa had moved the preceding year to acquire Matt Duchene, but he didn’t last long with the Sens. Beyond Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was also dealt within a couple of years, there wasn’t any long-term depth in the system.

Vancouver now has Braeden Cootes as a hopeful top-six option after selecting him No. 15 overall this year, but there are no other names in the system who project as everyday NHLers. Behind Elias Pettersson, there are no impact options on the NHL roster aside from a high-ceiling but independent Filip Chytil.

The Canucks, then, shouldn’t have too much trouble dictating their terms if trade negotiations do get serious. When Ottawa shipped out Karlsson (plus minor-league forward Francis Perron) with a year left on his deal, their return wasn’t entirely futures-focused.

Four players – plus three draft picks (a first and two seconds) – came back in the deal. The most high-profile skater at the time was the signing rights to center Joshua Norris, who was the Sharks’ clear-cut top prospect at the time and one year removed from being a top-20 pick. Winger Rudolfs Balcers was a fifth-rounder three years prior but was coming off a 48-point rookie season in the minors and was regarded as a top-five prospect in San Jose’s pool.

The two “help-now” names in the deal were still relatively young: Chris Tierney (24) and Dylan DeMelo (25). Tierney was coming off a 40-point breakout as San Jose’s third-line center, while DeMelo had seen his stock jump in a similar manner with 20 assists in 63 games as San Jose’s third right-shot option on the blue line.

As a result, Vancouver should be asking for – and getting – the same haul of draft picks, an under-20 center with first-round pedigree, a B-tier prospect, a young middle-six center, and a promising depth lefty on defense to help shoulder the loss of Hughes from a roster management perspective. Those hoping for a discount because he’s not team-controlled for more than two years will be disappointed. Canucks fans hoping for an immediately impactful top-six center will likely be as well.

The Devils have been the most frequently speculated destination for Hughes to unite him with his brothers, Jack and Luke. The notion of them being the favorite to acquire him – at least via trade and not free agency – falls apart when considering they don’t have a Norris-caliber center, or anything close to it, in their prospect pool. Their next wave of forwards is already relatively weak, and the top name – 2023 second-rounder Lenni Hameenäho – is a winger. Dawson Mercer would draw the comparison to Tierney, a considerably higher-value one, thanks to him tracking toward a second career 50-point season. Still, the Canucks will aim for a higher-ceiling and younger needle-mover as the centerpiece of the return down the middle to anchor the years-long retool that a Hughes trade will usher in.

With that in mind, from the Canucks’ perspective, that makes the Red Wings the most attractive suitor of the teams firmly linked to Hughes so far by a significant margin. Nate Danielson is a 2023 pick – further removed from the trade than Norris was – but was a higher selection at No. 9 overall and carries a bit more value, particularly as he’s solidifying a spot on Detroit’s roster already. They don’t have a similarly-aged comparable for Tierney, but could move veteran Andrew Copp, who’s scoring at a 40-point pace this season. That would rank eighth on the Canucks and second among centers behind Pettersson. Albert Johansson is perhaps a more well-regarded prospect than DeMelo was, but he is of similar age and role. That could help balance out the value gap between present-day Copp and 2018 Tierney. The Canucks could take their pick from Detroit’s bevy of B-level prospects.

Any team looking to match or exceed that package will need to meet the prerequisite of having a center – likely selected with a top 20 pick in the last two or three years – to start with. A name like Philadelphia’s Jett Luchanko would generate significant intrigue if paired with roster players like Noah Cates and Egor Zamula, for example.

The checklist is clear: a future high-end top-six center, a quality middle-six center, a young depth defender, a promising mid-to-late-round draft pick, plus the three picks. Let the mock trades fire away.

Image courtesy of Simon Fearn-Imagn Images.

Wild Reportedly Have “Significant Interest” In Kiefer Sherwood

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The Minnesota Wild have reportedly “shown significant interest” in Vancouver Canucks veteran forward Kiefer Sherwood, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith.

Sherwood, a pending unrestricted free agent, is widely expected to be dealt by the Canucks before the trade deadline next year. According to Russo and Smith, “The Canucks have shopped him around the league and originally wanted a good, young prospect.”

Smith and Russo now cite league sources who tell them the Canucks “have since changed gears” in their expectations, and “now want a good roster player and have also asked teams for a first-round pick.”

Whether the Wild remain interested in trading for Sherwood specifically at that price remains unclear. Earlier this month, we covered reporting indicating that Sherwood clearly fits the exact kind of mold of player Wild GM Bill Guerin would like to acquire.

The 30-year-old is notoriously difficult to play against, combining pest-like attributes with a real physical edge to his game.

The sandpaper in Sherwood’s game (he registered a whopping 462 hits last season) pairs with Sherwood’s more recent emergence as a goal scorer to create a really intriguing player for teams to target.

Sherwood has already scored 12 goals this season, and he had 19 goals and 40 points last year. While he’s rapidly increasing his expected asking price in free agency next summer, he’s also rapidly increasing his overall on-ice value.

As for his potential trade fit in Minnesota, it’s important to also note that there is some recent history of substantial trade talks between the Wild and Canucks. Russo and Smith in the same piece as earlier reported that “the Canucks turned down an offer from the Wild” that would have sent Wild center Marco Rossi to Vancouver at the 2025 draft. Per Russo and Smith, the offer included the No. 15 overall pick, center Aatu Raty, and netminder Arturs Silovs.

While Sherwood has gone cold in terms of scoring over the past two weeks, it’s unclear whether that will play a role in changing the leaguewide interest in his services. The trade market for established NHLers has been widely characterized as slower than usual, with few teams embracing the role as true sellers.

The fact that the Canucks appear clearly motivated to deal their unrestricted free agents, even established NHLers, makes them unique in the overall trade market landscape of the NHL right now. As a result, it’s likely that the high level of trade interest in Sherwood will likely be immune to the game-to-game fluctuations in his form.

As for where Sherwood might fit in Minnesota, the clear objective for the Wild in pursuing him would be to help address their need for more secondary scoring. Stars Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the Wild in terms of production, and they’re the only two Wild players with a double-digit goals total so far in 2025-26.

Sherwood would add a third such player to their team, and would give head coach John Hynes a player who could easily slot in on their third line, perhaps in the spot of veteran Yakov Trenin. While Trenin’s salary ($3.55MM AAV) merits more of a third-line role, Trenin has produced like a fourth-liner in Minnesota. He has eight points in 30 games this season and scored just 15 points in 76 games last year.

Whether the Wild are in enough of a need of immediate secondary scoring help to surrender what the Canucks are asking for in exchange for Sherwood is not clear at this time. For as many positive qualities Sherwood brings on the ice, trading a first-round pick as well as a “good roster player” for him is a steep price.

The Wild are already without second-round picks in each of the next two drafts thanks to prior transactions. Consequently, Guerin may need to think carefully before spending another premium draft asset on immediate help.

When it comes to acquiring Sherwood, or any other veteran player for that matter, Minnesota will need to carefully balance the value of immediate help versus the risks of depleting the resources the team’s amateur scouting department, led by Judd Brackett, will have at their disposal next year.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

Pettersson Unlikely To Play Thursday But Will Travel On Road Trip

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  • Canucks center Elias Pettersson skated on his own before practice today but didn’t take part in team drills and is unlikely to return from his upper-body injury on Thursday against Buffalo, notes Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province. However, he is expected to accompany the team on their upcoming five-game road trip with an eye on returning at some point on that trip.  The 27-year-old has been a bit more productive relative to last season but is still underachieving offensively with six goals and 14 assists through 28 games which is still good for a share of the team lead in scoring.  He joins Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger as injured centers, putting Vancouver in a tough spot when it comes to filling out their lineup.

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