Minnesota Wild owner's comments on Quinn Hughes are not concerning for New Jersey Devils' fans

The number one player that New Jersey Devils fans are paying attention to outside their roster is still Quinn Hughes. All signs pointed to the Devils having a chance to acquire the top defenseman last season, but Tom Fitzgerald dropped the ball, and now he’s on the Minnesota Wild. Some Devils fans were fine with this at first because the Devils could just wait until the eldest Hughes brother becomes a free agent in 2027 and sign him without draft pick or prospect compensation. 

Unfortunately, the Wild have a unique situation that is intriguing to Hughes. For one, he trusts the GM. Bill Guerin is not only the Wild GM, but he’s Team USA’s GM for the 2026 Winter Olympics. That team won the gold medal, the first big win of Quinn Hughes’s professional career. Not only that, but Jack Hughes scored the Golden Goal, the biggest moment the Hughes brothers have had on the ice together. 

The Wild have also been known to make big moves when necessary. Hughes’s trade in the first place shows that. When it seemed like a formality that the Devils were going to get the trade done, the Wild swooped in with a Godfather offer to the Vancouver Canucks. And now, Hughes is in a situation where his rights and his future is with Minnesota, at least in the short term.

That’s why we’re not surprised in the confidence coming from Wild ownership. Majority owner Craig Leipold went on Minnesota Public Radio, and when the topic of Hughes came up, Leipold did not hold back.

"We had to give up a lot to get him in this past year. We are going to re-sign him. The question will be for how long. We would like to go as long as we could. He will probably want it to be a little shorter; shorter being maybe three years. We hopefully will end up at five, I don’t know, and the reason I can openly talk about this is that I’m not doing the negotiating."

Craig Leipold, Minnesota Wild owner

Minnesota Wild owner makes bold statement on Quinn Hughes negotiations

There are a few red flags here. For one, he’s openly admitting to not doing the negotiating. Guerin is trying to make this contract work, but we also know that Leipold going public with this also works as a mandate to get the deal done. Pushing for a five-year deal removes some of the pressure since the new CBA doesn’t impact it. Starting in September, players will no longer be eligible for eight-year extensions, but if Hughes won’t go over five, then it’s irrelevant. 

This likely pulls a Quinn Hughes deal off the table for this offseason, but these negotiations can change in an instant. We saw that with Nico Hischier’s negotiations. When teams started circling the Devils, many thought this would turn into a negative experience, but just a few weeks later, it seems the framework of the deal is done, and a July 1st signing is more than likely. 

The same goes for Quinn Hughes’s deal. It doesn’t sound like they are close to a resolution, and this confidence can quickly turn into frustration. It’s not like the Wild were on the doorstep of contention. They slipped past the Dallas Stars, who hope to improve their roster this offseason, only to get the doors blown off by Colorado. Meanwhile, Colorado go swept by the Vegas Golden Knights, who then lost to the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Wild lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that won it all. 

Minnesota has serious roster issues, especially at center, and they are low on assets after the Hughes trade. Leipold’s answers are getting a lot of attention, but they are just what they sound like: comments from someone who hasn’t been in the room for negotiations. 

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