By now, everyone knows the story. At the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, the Detroit Red Wings selected Filip Zadina with the 6th overall pick, one pick before Quinn Hughes.
At the time the pick seemed logical, as Zadina was actually projected to go even as high as top-three, behind Rasmus Dahlin and Brady Tkachuk, given his dynamic offensive abilities as lamented by his 44 goals in 57 games during his final year of Junior with the Halifax Mooseheads.
This seemed like a steal at the time for the Red Wings, but as it turns out, the scouts got this one wrong. Quinn Hughes is actually the leading point getter from the 2018 draft, and has done so playing many less games than the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Andrei Svechnikov and Rasmus Dahlin, all 2018 draftees.
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has “confirmed that the Canucks have held discussions with both the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils regarding potential trades for Quinn Hughes.”
The New Jersey Devils have been implicated time and time again given the fact that Quinn has two brothers playing on New Jersey, but Friedman went on to say that “I do believe that if Vancouver and Detroit wanted to make a deal, I do believe there is a deal to be made there.”
As it stands, the Red Wings have plenty of cap space, are just one point out of the playoffs, have a lot of high quality young roster players and could use another scoring force on their team, especially on the back end. Detroit has nearly all of their draft picks for the upcoming seasons, have plenty of prospect capital to trade from, and do not have a player making over $8.7 million for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps this is the perfect storm for Hughes to ultimately end up with the team that should have selected him at the 2018 NHL entry draft, only this time it would probably cost you some combination of Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Simon Edvinsson, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, and possibly draft picks.
Given the Canucks goaltending situation, it is even possible that young goaltender Sebastian Cossa is in the conversation, but one has to believe that the Red Wings would try and make a trade like this while trying to avoid subtracting from their current lineup.
With the possibility of playing with Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, who will soon become the all time leading point getter by an American born player, will this be enough to entice Hughes to forego the potential of uniting with his brothers in New Jersey?
As of now all is quiet in the Quinn Hughes camp, but if the Canucks continue the organizational decent they are currently on, Hughes may decide to move on from the them sooner rather than later.