Monday afternoon, Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin took part in many interviews at the Minnesota State Fair. Of course, he was questioned many times on the most pressing issue in Wild hockey: Quinn Hughes and his (potential) extension.
His answers were less than ideal, to be sure.
In his first hit, a 3:00 ET appearance alongside Chad Hartman, Guerin said the following:
"I go back to [Kirill Kaprizov], and something that the players go through nowadays when they're coming up on the last year of their deal or coming up on free agency -- they don't have to panic or jump on something right away cause they've already made tons of money... so now they're just figuring out what they want to do in their career, in their life, all this other stuff... It's pretty heavy, so it just takes a while."Bill Guerin
That alone should cause concern for Minnesota fans, but Guerin doubled down hard and, in the process, squashed a common thought for why Quinn has not signed quite yet.
"I don't think that's the case anymore 'cause of what I said before -- these guys are all individual people. Could it affect you financially? Yeah. There's the bar with Cale Makar signing that contract in Colorado, but Quinn might be after different things. He's a different guy. He's not Cale Makar. He's a different personality. He's got different things in his life that are important to him, so who knows what he's really going to want in the end?"Bill Guerin
Bill Guerin continues a streak of bizarre Quinn Hughes interview answers
That notion should send shivers down the spine of Wild fans. Not only did he pour cold water on the notion that Hughes was waiting for Makar's contract extension to further deliberate his starting point from an AAV perspective, but Guerin also let it be known that there are factors outside of money and term that are in play here, a narrative he has repeated multiple times. It's not rocket science to deduce that he's likely alluding to the Hughes family being extremely tight-knit, with the three brothers openly discussing playing with each other at some point.
It's a harrowing couple of quotes from Guerin. For Minnesota Wild fans, this should not sit well. For New Jersey fans, though, it's a breath of fresh air. Clearly, the desire to play alongside his brothers still holds true. The easiest way to do so is to wait out the 2026-27 season.
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