The Quinn Hughes era is officially over in Vancouver, as the Canucks Captain has been traded to the Minnesota Wild in a blockbuster.
In return the Canucks will receive centre Marco Rossi, defenceman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, and a 2026 first-round pick from the Wild. In effect, the Canucks have acquired four first-round picks in exchange for Hughes, as Rossi, Buium and Ohgren were all selected inside of the top 20 of the NHL Entry Draft between the 2020-2024 seasons.
This is a quality return that helps the Canucks get younger, addresses some of their depth concerns, opens the door for them to sell off other veteran players, and most importantly rids the Canucks of the narrative and distractions surrounding Hughes and his contract situation.
From an asset standpoint, four first-round picks seems like an equitable return for a player like Hughes, especially when you consider that the compensation attached to signing a restricted free agent to an offer sheet of $11.7 million or more is exactly four first-round picks. But more importantly in this case, this does not give the Canucks four blind first-round draft selections as Rossi, Buium and Ohgren have all appeared at the NHL level in their careers.
And when you consider the fact that this opens the door for the Canucks to continue to trade their veterans for younger assets or draft picks, which should help them maintain high 2026 draft lottery odds in a draft with good high end talent, this seems like a logical move for Patrik Allvin and company to make in order to help steer the Canucks in the right direction going forward.
Marco Rossi:
Connected to the Canucks during the summer, their offer was not good enough to persuade the Wild to trade their young centre to Vancouver amidst the Wild’s stalled contract talks with Rossi.
In the end, Rossi signed a thee-year $15 million deal to stay with the Wild, which raised more questions than answers as the Wild continuously played tug of war with Rossi regarding his contract, but had no problem giving long term extensions to Matt Boldy and Brock Faber.
Rossi has displayed his talent at the NHL level, scoring 40 points in 2023-2024 and 60 points last season, including over 20 goals in each of those seasons. Rossi was off to a hot start to this season, scoring 13 points in 17 games before suffering a lower body injury last month, but was seeing over 18 minutes of ice time per game, and doing so in all situations. Even before getting injured, Rossi was leading the Wild in Corsi For % at even strength, and the Canucks belief is that he can help to fill what is currently their biggest need on the ice, second line centre.
The Canucks were in desperate need for another skilled centre who can drive offence, play-make, and open up the ice for the wingers on the team to have more time and space, and with 45 assists in his last 99 regular season games, Rossi helps to satisfy that need, while also providing strong two-way play given his competitive personality on the ice and strong skating ability.
Zeev Buium:
Arguably the most intriguing player in the return for Hughes, Buium could potentially be Hughes’ successor in terms of offensive role from the back end. It is definitely too early to say that Buium will be putting up a 90 point season like Hughes has, but he has put up excellent offensive numbers on his way to the NHL, and has shown glimpses of that offence so far in his rookie season with the Wild, tallying 14 points in 31 games with eight of those points on the power play.
As a rookie, Buium has appeared in all 31 of Minnesota’s games averaging 18:28 of ice time per game, and is fourth on the Wild in power play ice time, as he has been the lone defenceman on the ice with the top power play unit, clearly a testament to what the Wild think of his offence.
Situationally, Buium has been paired up with with almost every other defenceman on the Wild at some point this season, but mainly with Zach Bogosian and Jared Spurgeon, as the Wild likely wanted to give him a safety net by way of a veteran defenceman so he could focus on his offensive game and play driving.
Buium’s strengths lie in his skating ability, puck handling, passing and puck distribution, perhaps trying to embody some of the game of his fellow countryman, Quinn Hughes.
Here is a sneak peak of Buium's game:
Liam Ohgren:
Selected 19th overall at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild, winger Liam Ohgren has the least amount of hype with respect to prospects coming back in the Quinn Hughes trade. This is likely to do with the fact that Ohgren has zero points in 18 games this season, and just seven points in 46 career NHL games.
With that being said, he is still just 21 years old, and scored 37 points in 41 AHL games last season with the Iowa Wild. Ohgren will likely find himself in more of a depth role to begin his Canucks career, but if more veterans are traded from the team he could potentially climb the depth chart as the season goes on and continue to develop his game.
The Wild have had a knack for identifying quality young talent, and perhaps Ohgren just needs more time to continue to develop, even Marco Rossi began his career with just one point in his first 21 NHL games, and as mentioned Ohgren has shown some quality statistical performances at non NHL levels, likely to do with his excellent speed, acceleration and ability to put the puck in the net in high danger areas.
Even if he does not become a scorer for the Canucks, he can use his athleticism, skating ability and hockey IQ to carve a role for himself in the Canucks lineup while he continue to develop his game.
2026 First-Round Pick:
Likely to be outside of the top 20 in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, as the Minnesota Wild have a strong team on the ice. That being said, The Western Conference can be extremely unforgiving come playoff time, as there are several contenders within the conference, with that number continuing to grow. With the Central division officially loaded up, the best the Canucks can hope for here is an early playoff exit by the Wild in order to pick around 20th overall at the draft.
Verdict: A- return for the Canucks
As Kenny Rogers once said, “you’ve got to know when to fold’em,” and it appears the Canucks have. There have been many instances where a star player has wanted to leave his team and the team in question has had to settle for a less than stellar return, but in this case it appears the Canucks have at the very least acquired some quality young talent.
Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford said that the indication he received was that it was “highly unlikely” that Quinn Hughes would sign another contract with the team, and given the direction the team has gone in, that makes perfect sense to me.
If the Canucks continued to wait for this situation to play out and wasted more time and lost some potential suitors, who knows what their return could have ended up being. The Wild will now have at least two playoff runs with Quinn Hughes, provided he is not moved by the Wild next year, and will also have the opportunity to hold exclusive negotiations with Hughes on a contract extension.
Jim Rutherford has been around the game long enough to know how contract and trade situations can play out with superstars, and said it perfectly as he did not want to get “painted into the corner with one team and wait till the trade deadline or wait till next summer,” and that he felt that doing a deal now would give the Canucks the “most leverage.”
Rutherford went on to say that “there were different teams that inquired and we talked to and made offers,” but that “out of the blue in the last five to seven days” the Minnesota Wild called and that their offer was “clearly the best one,” as Wild General Manager Bill Guerin was ready to go all in on acquiring Hughes.
A trade the Canucks like. A trade the Wild like. A good hockey trade.