finish the biggest trade in franchise history<\/a>. Guerin\u2019s first and only offer was massive \u2014 prized defense prospect Zeev Buium, top-six center Marco Rossi, wing prospect Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick. But the Wild considered it well worth it, even if there wasn\u2019t a promised extension as part of the package (Hughes is an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027).<\/p>\nWhat the move did was send a shockwave through the Wild dressing room. They were already a really good team without him. Now, they were a legit Cup contender. Guerin and owner Craig Leipold were signaling they were in win-now mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it gave a huge vote of confidence in their belief in the team, and I think within the group of guys, when you add a player like him, that was a boost,\u201d coach John Hynes said. \u201cI would say the second part of that is who he is. How he plays. The type of character he has fit in really well with the group. He\u2019s a great teammate. So you\u2019re adding a superstar player that\u2019s a superstar person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes has been described a hockey nerd or hockey junkie by many of his former teammates and coaches. He knows a ton about players and teams all over the league. Tendencies. It\u2019s what gives him an elite hockey IQ. And it\u2019s what led Hughes to be very open to coming to Minnesota in the trade, knowing the core in place of Boldy, Kaprizov, Faber, Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello could compete. Hughes said Thursday that they were all \u201cbeasts\u201d this series. Their depth scoring showed up, including Vladimir Tarasenko\u2019s tying goal in Game 6. Foligno and Michael McCarron each had key goals earlier in the series.<\/p>\n
What Hughes appreciates is the style they play, sparked by the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey kind of just preached continuing to attack,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of, \u2018Keep it safe,\u2019 \u2018Do this, do that.\u2019 We were trying to win, which I love. Every time I talk to my dad and call him and ask him how my game was, he\u2019s always talking about that fourth line and how much he loves them. It was a full team effort. The pressure they apply on the other team and then we can roll out and kind of play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having a franchise-caliber defenseman like Hughes was a game-changer in a series in which the Stars had their own all-world blueliner in Miro Heiskanen, who was terrific. The top-seeded Avalanche, awaiting Minnesota in the second round, have their own version, as well, in Cale Makar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s special players that do something special, and we had an abundance from (Hughes) and (Boldy) and (Faber) and (Kaprizov),\u201d Foligno said. \u201cWe\u2019re pumped to have him here and, I mean, just to see the excitement the fans have with him every time he touches a puck, it\u2019s so much confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes appreciates players like Kaprizov, Boldy and Faber \u2014 \u201cultra competitive\u201d guys who try to take over games. He believes the experience he gained at the Milan Olympics, including scoring the overtime goal against Sweden in the quarterfinals and then winning the gold, will help him in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t have a bigger moment than what we had definitely in the quarters playing against Sweden, who is an unbelievable team, but then Canada,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cJust Hall of Famers all over that game. A game that happens every 16 years. So a lot of pressure. And I think that\u2019s allowed us, or at least for myself, just to continue to grow in games like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes became the first Wild defenseman to score a series-clinching goal, matching a franchise record for most points in a potential series-clinching game. There\u2019s is usually a sense around the team, captain Jared Spurgeon said, that when Hughes is on the ice, something special is going to happen. And while Hughes had been relatively quiet, at least production-wise, going into Game 6 (zero goals, five assists), there were so many subtle moments where he made a play happen. For example, Hughes\u2019 slick ability to keep the puck in the offensive zone on Boldy\u2019s goal in Game 5.<\/p>\n
Thursday was just Hughes\u2019 maestro performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best defensemen \u2014 if not the best defenseman. I think he\u2019s the best,\u201d Faber said of Hughes. \u201cThat\u2019s what we expect of him, what he does night in, night out. It\u2019s a confidence boost. When he\u2019s on the ice, good things happen. It\u2019s incredible what he does.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Quinn Hughes\u2019 series-clinching goal on Thursday was far from a fluke or a lucky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1052,8,1055,9,92,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-23325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-dallas-stars","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-minnesota-wild","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116502087706715705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}