The Minnesota Wild opened the regular season with a 3-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night, and Quinn Hughes, perhaps on a mission to play out the final year of his contract before becoming a free agent, earned his first assist of the 84-game regular season.
Hughes hasn’t signed a contract extension with the Wild after an entire summer of speculation. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet serves as an indicator that Hughes is seriously considering playing out the season and becoming a free agent next summer, when he’d be free to join his brothers, Jack and Luke Hughes, in New Jersey.
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“I think the Wild continue to be patient. I think they feel they still have a lot of time to figure this out, but let’s be real: GM Bill Guerin, had you told him three months ago that Quinn Hughes would not be extended as the puck drops on their season, I think he would’ve been surprised and disappointed, quite frankly,” Pierre LeBrun said Thursday on TSN’s Insider Trading.
“The reason this is not yet done is that Quinn Hughes, as it’s explained to me, is in no rush to make this decision. He could absolutely still extend at some point with the Wild, but he’s just not there right now, where he’s ready to give his agent the green light to keep going in negotiations. There have been multiple conversations between the Wild and Pat Brisson, the agent for Quinn Hughes, but nothing gets done for real until the player himself says, ‘Okay, I’m in that place.’ Until that happens, yeah, there’s anxiety in the Twin Cities; there should be.”
It’s a brutal reality for the Wild, who gave up the equivalent of four first-round picks to acquire Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks last December: Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, and a 2026 first-round pick, which turned into the 24th selection, Adam Novotný.
Rossi already has three goals and one assist in two games this season. Öhgren, playing on the same line as Rossi and Minnesota native Brock Boeser, also has two assists in two games, while Buium is part of the Canucks’ top defensive pair with Filip Hronek.
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If the Wild are offering Hughes a chance to be the highest-paid player in the NHL (a reported $20.5 million annually) and he’s not taking it, then doesn’t simple logic suggest that his decision has nothing to do with money and everything to do with what’s best for him personally?
And if Minnesota isn’t the answer now, what are the chances it suddenly becomes the right place for him beyond this season?
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This story was originally published by Bring Me The Sports on Oct 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN Wild section. Add Bring Me The Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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