Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin made an appearance on the Judd's Hockey Show podcast Tuesday morning, a show hosted by two Minnesota Wild media members.
Naturally, the first topic that was brought up was Quinn Hughes and his future in Minnesota. Guerin was asked if he was still confident that the superstar defenseman would be re-signing with the Wild. Instead of answering with a simple, unrevealing "yes," the GM responded with the following:
"I’m not gonna get too far into it, but I have been talking to his camp all along. These things take time... they are big decisions for players and teams, so it’s a process to work through it."Bill Guerin
That doesn't exactly inspire a ton of confidence, does it?
Especially given that the narrative before the off-season began was that Hughes was almost a sure-shot to re-sign with his current team, at least according to his General Manager and the team owner. Since then, the goalposts have gradually shifted, inch by inch. The conversation has gone from "done deal" to "very confident" to "still likely" to, now, this sentiment.
It's the second-latest happening in a concerning string timeline for Wild fans, but perhaps the most condemnatory. Of course, contracts of this nature are inherently complicated, and Hughes' situation is pretty unique, so that has some gravity in that regard as well, but if it were as straightforward as the Wild executives and major insiders thought it was not even two months ago, the contract would have been signed by now.
After all, players with this significance have already gone through their negotiations and landed at high-dollar amounts. Macklin Celebrini already signed a five-year extension worth $18.8 million per year. Connor Bedard signed a $15 million AAV deal. Hell, Devils' captain Nico Hischier signed a five-year deal on July 1st.
So the timeline should certainly be concerning. Hughes isn't waiting for anyone else to sign a contract -- his situation is unique and he will be asking top dollar regardless of who else signs and which team he is asking from. He also isn't toying with the idea of a long-term contract, and the Wild know that. The notion that a three-year contract is already verbally agreed upon is nonsensical.,
The reality of the situation is simply that he doesn't seem decided on staying in his current situation, when he can very easily walk to his brothers -- the very same ones he openly expressed a desire to play alongside -- in less than a year.
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