Quinn Hughes Situation In Minnesota Has Mutated From 'When' To 'If'
Some… uhhh… rather interesting quotes from @JeffMarek and @KeithKavJr on the Quinn Hughes saga today.
— Locked On Devils (@LockedOnDevils) August 4, 2026
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Insider Jeff Marek of Daily Faceoff spoke with Keith Kavanaugh of PuckPedia, and the latter pointed out recent comments from Wild GM Bill Guerin that sounded a lot more "cautious" than they had when the offseason began.
"He was gonna 'For sure' be signed a couple of weeks into the offseason, and now we've gotten to August... The sentiment, I'd say, a month ago, was not if he's gonna sign this extension, but when he's gonna sign this extension. And now it almost seems like it's shifted a little bit to 'IF'."
Marek wholeheartedly agreed.
NJ Devils are monitoring the Hughes situation in Minnesota VERY closely
"The longer this drags on, if we get to training camp and there's still no deal in place, the conversation's only going to get louder and louder and louder. And the NJ Devils are kind of keeping that space open a little bit," added Kavanaugh.
New Jersey, of course, is the obvious destination if Hughes does leave Minnesota, where he could join his two brothers, Jack and Luke.
Quinn Hughes, one of the top two or three defensemen in hockey, has only one season left on his $7.85 million cap. The Devils, sitting with $3.85 million available under the cap right now, can get to that $7.85M number fairly easily with a couple of moves.
What Bill Guerin said about the Quinn Hughes negotiations
“I’m not gonna get too far into it, but I have been talking to his camp all along,” Guerin said this week. “These things take time, they are big decisions for players and teams, so it’s a process to work through it.”
James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now echoes the same reading of that statement from Guerin as Marek and Kavanaugh do:
"The language is careful. It is also less definitive than the confidence expressed earlier in the summer by both Guerin and owner Craig Leipold—who guaranteed an extension. The remarks have prompted some observers to note a change in atmosphere—from an expectation that a deal would get done to a more open question of whether one will be completed at all."
This will be a huge situation to watch as we get closer and closer to training camp, which is now exactly six weeks away for the Wild.