Quinn Hughes trade: Wild acquire superstar defenseman from Canucks in blockbuster deal

The Minnesota Wild have acquired superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks, the teams announced on Friday. After weeks of speculation about Hughes' future, the Wild have swooped in and landed one of the NHL's best defensemen.

In exchange for Hughes, Minnesota sent center Marco Rossi, winger Liam Ohgren, rookie defenseman Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round pick back to Vancouver. That's quite the haul, but it may be a worthwhile risk for Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who is trying to help his team hit the next level.

The No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Hughes has become a top-two defenseman in the league, alongside Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche. Hughes can get it done in all three zones as an elite playmaker on offense, a strong puck carrier through the neutral zone and an intelligent defender who plays bigger than his 5-foot-10 frame.

In his 459 career games with the Canucks, Hughes has totaled 61 goals and 371 assists. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Hughes leads all defensemen with 285 assists, and he ranks second in points with 335. After posting 92 points in 2023-24, Hughes won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman.

Hughes has one more season remaining on his contract at $7.85 million per season, a bargain at his current value. Next summer, Hughes will become eligible for a contract extension, and he'll get a staggering raise.

Now last in the league standings, the Canucks may have gotten the sense that it would be difficult to sign Hughes to a long-term extension prior to the summer of 2027. As trade rumors became an increasingly large distraction, president of hockey operations Jim Rutheford chose to kickstart the rebuild.

To that end, he was relatively successful. Rossi is an undersized but extremely skilled center who is under contract for the next two seasons at a reasonable $5 million cap hit. Rossi, the No. 9 overall pick in 2020, just posted 60 points last season.

Buium is another former first-round pick -- the No. 12 overall selection in 2024 -- and he's managed to flash a lot of upside in just 31 career games. Buium has struggled with consistency, as all young players do, but he could develop into a top-pairing defenseman for the Canucks.

If all goes according to plan for Minnesota, that 2026 first-round pick won't be very high, but it's another asset Vancouver can use to stock its prospect pool as the franchise enters a new era.

The Canucks also got Ohgren, yet another first-round pick, who has yet to show much at the NHL level.

Trade grades

Minnesota Wild

Guerin likely winced when finalizing this deal. Rossi and Buium could be very good players for a long time -- and first-round picks are also valuable -- but the juice is worth the squeeze on this one. Teams can search for years and not find a defenseman of Hughes' caliber, and the 26-year-old is still ascending toward his peak.

To put it simply, the Canucks were a dominant team when Hughes was in the game. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, Vancouver owned a 54.1% expected goals share and a plus-40 goal differential when Hughes was on the ice at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick. Now consider his offensive production and an extremely heavy workload, and those numbers only look even more impressive. Hughes is a rare player, and Minnesota capitalized on a golden opportunity.

As for what Hughes will look like with the Wild, I would love to see him play alongside fellow American Brock Faber. While Faber has shown the potential to become a great shutdown defenseman, he doesn't provide enough offense to be a high-end No. 1. Pair him with Hughes, however, and Minnesota could have a top-five pairing on its hands.

If there's any drawback at all for the Wild, it's that the loss of Rossi makes them relatively thin at center in the short-term. Maybe Danila Yurov develops into a quality replacement for Rossi, but he's not there just yet. Still, Rossi probably has a second-line ceiling. While it's not necessarily a breeze to find those players, it's much easier to acquire them than superstar defensemen. Grade: A

Vancouver Canucks

It seemed like the Canucks were resigned to the fact that Hughes wouldn't sign an extension with them before hitting free agency in 2027. Maybe that was the message they got from Hughes, but I'm surprised they didn't make a couple more runs at persuading him over the next 18 months. Hughes was the face of the franchise, and this deal will obviously trigger a big step back.

In terms of the return, let's just be blunt. It's nearly impossible to recoup the value of any superstar in a trade. Vancouver would have been hard-pressed to find an even deal, and it didn't. That said, it could have been much worse if the Canucks simply got tired of trade rumors and dealt him to the New Jersey Devils for a lesser package.

Buium is the big get here, in my opinion. The 20-year-old still has a lot of developing to do, but he has a ton of upside. Buium led the University of Denver to a national championship in 2024, and he posted 48 points in 41 games last season. Putting Hughes-level expectations on Buium would be unfair, but he could be a key piece of Vancouver's blue line for a long time.

Rossi can be a quality second-line center, and he would be a good fit with the Canucks if Elias Pettersson manages to get back on track after an underwhelming last 92 games. Rossi flashed his playmaking ability in 2024-25 while notching 24 goals, 36 assists and 60 points. Again, Rossi may not be a future superstar, but he could be a key contributor for the next decade.

Ohgren seems like more of a throw-in here because he hasn't quite hit his stride at the NHL level. He has yet to tally a point in 18 games this season. He might be a lottery ticket for Vancouver.

The first round pick will help the Canucks add more talent to their pipeline, which might get a major influx of talent with the team on track to get the No. 1 pick in 2026. The loss of Hughes will sting for a while, but this deal does lay the groundwork for a strong future. Grade: C+