Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold expects to re-sign star defenceman Quinn Hughes, he told Minnesota Public Radio on Wednesday.
Hughes, 26, was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster deal in December that saw blueliner Zeev Buium, forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, and a first-round draft pick go the other way.
“First of all, Quinn Hughes is an extraordinary player and an extraordinary person,” said Leipold. ”We had to give up a lot to get him in this past year. We are going to re-sign him. The question will be for how long. We would like to go as long as we could.
“He will probably want it to be a little shorter — shorter being maybe three years. We hopefully will end up at five. I don’t know, and the reason I can openly talk about this is that I’m not doing the negotiating.”
Hughes registered seven goals and 76 points in 74 games last season, including five goals and 53 points after joining the Wild in December.
He added four goals and 15 points in 11 playoff games, averaging 30:57 of ice time before the Wild was eliminated in the second round.
Leipold is leaving the negotiations to general manager Bill Guerin and said that any voice he has in the room is meant to be taken as a fan.
“I have a voice and [Guerin] knows it’s just a voice,” said Leipold. “I am first a fan of the Wild, and I’m second the owner. And when I give him recommendations and ideas, I’m giving it to him as a fan.”
Prior to joining the Wild, Hughes played eight seasons with the Canucks, registering 61 goals and 432 points in 459 games in Vancouver.
His time in Vancouver culminated with the Canucks winning the Pacific Division in 2023-24 with a 50-23-9 record and Hughes was recognized as the league’s best defenceman by winning the Norris Trophy.
After playing 48 games in Minnesota last season and going through a playoff run, Hughes told reporters after the season that he was open to re-signing with the club.
“I mean, I really like it here,” Hughes said on May 15. “We’ll see what [general manager Bill Guerin] wants to do.”
For his part, Guerin said he was very happy with Hughes’ performance as a member of the Wild in his season-ending statements but wanted to take some time to evaluate his team after an emotional six-game loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the second round.
“We loved having Quinn,” said Guerin. “He was so impactful, he’s extremely dialled in on what’s going on here. I know he liked it here, I know he likes the team. The team really embraced him.
“I love having him here, and the impact that he had on our team was incredible. These are things that take time and I think everybody needs a little bit of time to decompress, but that’s priority No. 1″
