There are moments when everyone understands the situation at hand, and there are moments when front office members say the situation out loud. That’s what is happening with the Minnesota Wild. We all know that their number-one priority is re-signing Quinn Hughes. Every New Jersey Devils fan wants them to fail. Now, we all know what failure looks like.
Hughes isn’t a free agent this offseason. He’s a free agent next offseason. Theoretically, the Wild could have just said they would negotiate, but they were in no rush. Instead, Bill Guerin made it clear what success and failure look like this offseason. If the Wild come out of July with a Quinn Hughes contract, then they succeeded. If they don’t, it’s a failure.
During the Wild’s post-season press conference, Bill Guerin spoke to the Quinn Hughes contract, as we all suspected he would. However, while what he’s saying isn’t surprising, it is surprising that he said it.
"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 1."Bill Guerin, Minnesota Wild GM
We know this is priority one. It would be priority one for any team. The Devils' priority one is signing Nico Hischier. During his introductory press conference, Sunny Mehta mentioned Hischier multiple times, and he alluded to how important it was to re-sign him, but he didn't stake his success on making it happen.
Doing that means if we return to hockey in September and Hischier doesn't have a contract, that's all anyone will talk about. That's the case for the Wild. Anything they do is essentially secondary to Quinn Hughes's contract, so if it doesn't get done, the trade sharks will circle with Wild.
Hughes himself said he'd rather get something done before the season starts. He doesn't want to spend the season answering questions about his contract. Of course, that puts even more pressure on Guerin. Will it force him to open the checkbook for a history-breaking contract?
Guerin’s already built a reputation for going crazy when necessary. Sometimes it works, like when he put together the Team USA roster that won the first Olympic gold medal for the Americans since 1980. He also gave Kirill Kaprizov the largest contract in NHL history.
It’s going to be a.. Ahem… wild offseason in Minnesota. Hughes is the headline, but we have to remember that Minnesota still plays in the insane Central Division. They got destroyed by the Colorado Avalanche. They need upgrades, but they have to focus on the Hughes contract.
This feels like a house of cards for Bill Guerin, but he really should have just kept his comments generic. Then, he would have at least had a little flexibility.
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