This is an excerpt from this week’s 5 Observations column. For more on Quinn Hughes, the Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks, the trades this week, and all the action around the NHL, check out the column below.
Dive Deeper: 5 Observations: Hughes, Canucks, Wild, Goaltending & More
At this point, everyone has seen the news and is over the shock of it all. The blockbuster happened as a classic Friday night news bomb and we’re a few days removed from it all. It’s time to figure out what this means for the Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks, and the NHL as a whole.
1. Jim Rutherford Operates on his Timeline, For Better or Worse
This trade is confirmation that Canucks president and long-time general manager (GM) around the league, Jim Rutherford, doesn’t wait around to make a deal. When he sees an offer on the table, he’s quick to pull the trigger. It happened with Bo Horvat as he sent the elite center to the New York Islanders during the 2023 All-Star Break. It happened last season as well with JT Miller, as Rutherford moved him to the New York Rangers ahead of the Four Nations Faceoff break.
Now, he’s trading Hughes well before he has to. Rutherford could have waited until the trade deadline or even the next trade deadline and instead made the move now. There’s plenty of debate about whether this philosophy is better or worse. The argument for making the trade early is that the value of the player goes down the moment they are put on the trade block. In this case, the Wild have two seasons to make a run at the Cup with Hughes and are willing to offer more because of it. The downside of course is that he’s leaving other offers off the table and instead pouncing on the earliest deal and not the best per se (who knows whether other teams would up the ante).
Ultimately, this is the tendency of Rutherford. What this means moving forward is that he won’t wait on other deals earlier, and the Canucks have other players to trade. So, keep a close eye on them.
2. Canucks Should Rebuild But Probably Will Retool
Trading Hughes is an indication and the green light to tear it down. The Canucks have a lot of veterans and not many future assets but their veterans are tradeable. They can tear things down the rest of this season and head into a rebuild.
The problem is that Rutherford can look at this team and easily talk himself into a retool. Assuming the Canucks keep Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser while maintaining the players with multiple years left on their deals, they can add a few pieces and be a borderline playoff team.
The Canucks got a lot of young NHLers in the return, notably Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium. Both players can make an immediate impact (Buium scored a goal and added an assist in his first game with his new team). Then there’s the first round pick the Canucks received which is fascinating since Rutherford can keep it to help the prospect pool but knowing his tendencies, he’ll flip it for a player. It’s what happened with Filip Hronek and Marcus Pettersson as Rutherford got another pick in trades and flipped them for both. It’s why fans don’t trust the long-time GM with a rebuild.
3. Canucks Front Office Has the Rest of This Season to Figure It Out
The Canucks fanbase was willing to give Rutherford and GM Patrick Allvin a chance to build a contender. Patience is running low with this regime, especially since they’ve moved on from Horvat, Miller, and Hughes, the best defenseman in the team’s history, but don’t have a lot to build around now. This tenure has resulted in only one playoff appearance in four seasons, and even that season is seen as a disappointment (they won the Pacific Division but lost in the Second Round).
The front office will have a few months to get this team back on track. That doesn’t mean the Canucks are pushing for a playoff spot. What it means is that there are enough prospects and young players (plus a top-five pick) to confidently say that this team can eventually compete for a Cup. It might mean trading Kiefer Sherwood, Conor Garland, and Hronek but if it means a good rebuild is in place, Rutherford and Allvin will be trusted with it.
4. How The Wild Will Build in Win-Now Mode
It’s no secret that the Wild are going all-in, not just this season but next season as well. It’s the message they sent the moment GM Bill Guerin picked up the phone while making meatballs (which, as an aside, he shouldn’t be wearing latex gloves to do so). The Wild must keep adding to prove capable of making a run at the Cup.
The Wild have plenty of star power. Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy are two of the best wingers in the game, and with Hughes, they have a defenseman to open things up. What they lack are centers. Up the middle, they have Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman, Danila Yurov, and take your pick on the fourth line. So, expect Guerin to target the position at the trade deadline and in the offseason as well.
5. The Wild Core Stacks Up Against Any
The truth is that the Wild will face the Colorado Avalanche or the Dallas Stars in the First Round and possibly the Second Round in their next two playoff runs. Comparing the four or five best players on those teams to the Wild, they stack up fairly well.
Top Five Avalanche Skaters (Give or Take): Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Devon Toews, Arturri Lehkonen
Top Five Stars Skaters: Mikko Rantanen, Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley
Top Five Wild Skaters: Kirill Kaprizov, Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Joel Eriksson Ek
Throw in the goaltending, and the Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt duo can go head to head with Scott Wedgewood and MacKenzie Blackwood of the Avalanche or Jake Oettinger of the Stars.
The question is whether the Wild have the depth to compete with the Avalanche or Stars. The second and third lines are where these games will be decided, and the Wild don’t have those players. At least not yet. Guerin will address that, knowing he has a core good enough to win it all.
6. Wild Have a Pivot if They Need
The instant reaction to this trade is that the Wild won the deal and everything will work out. There’s always a chance that the deal flops in their face. Injuries or other issues can come up, and the Wild can stumble into the playoffs. If that happens and they get off to a slow start in 2026-27, then they must pivot.
And the good news is that Guerin can always trade Hughes next season to get a great haul. The Wild won’t get four pieces back but still enough to retool on the fly. Rantanen was traded twice in a month’s span, and the Carolina Hurricanes still got a respectable return at the trade deadline for him. The Wild can use the exit ramp if they must.
7. The First Wave of Trades is Here, The Second and Third Aren’t Far Behind
Last season had two “trade deadlines” or two points in the season when the big moves were made. The first came before the Four Nations Faceoff with the first Rantanen blockbuster and the JT Miller deal. Then there was the normal trade deadline while Rantanen went to the Stars and Brad Marchand was sent in the final seconds to the Florida Panthers.
This season will have three waves. It looks that way early on. This is the first wave of trades, with a few teams looking to get their moves done before the holiday break. Then there will be another wave before the Olympics, followed by the normal deadline in March. Rutherford isn’t the only GM who wants to get his work done early, so expect a few deals earlier than expected.
Some might think that the best trade is in the rearview mirror. It’s hard to top the Hughes blockbuster. That said, there are more trades in store, and expect a thrilling trade deadline as well.
8. The Trade Frenzy is the New Free Agency Frenzy
This is something that’s been trending since the offseason. With the salary cap going up and teams having the money to keep pending free agents, they aren’t letting great players walk out the door anymore. Everyone thought the 2026 free agency class, headlined by Connor McDavid, would be incredible, and now, it looks lackluster.
So, all the action instead will shift towards the trades. With a rising salary cap, teams have the space to take on long-term contracts, even the bad ones. Steven Stamkos can go to a contender if they want to take on the $8 million average annual value (AAV) attached to it. Likewise, the Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, or MacKenzie Weegar deals are manageable with more money on the books. Circling back to the Canucks, the Pettersson contract, while expensive, is something a contender can look to take on.
