The New Jersey Devils and Quinn Hughes will be tied together as long as his brothers, Jack and Luke Hughes, are taking the ice in Newark. There’s constant conversations around them from the fans perspective, and we just addressed some of the “mock” trades that were proposed (and how crazy they were getting).
Those conversations often move into the actual reporting around the Vancouver Canucks. Every time reporters get time with someone from the front office, the ties to the New Jersey Devils and Quinn Hughes comes up.
So when Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet got a chance to sit down with Canucks president Jim Rutherford, the topic came up again. To his credit, it wasn’t the headline or even a large part of the discussion, but he did ask the question: Quinn Hughes’ future will be a subplot all season. Will his decision next summer, whether to re-sign with the Canucks or ask out to play with his brothers, determine which direction the team-building takes?
Rutherford answered the question about as directly as he could without going as far as he did last offseason.
"No, I don’t think so. I think as long as we stay the course and keep getting younger players that we feel will play (in the NHL) and contribute to a team that can become a consistent playoff team and a contender, then that’s what we would do."Jim Rutherford, Canucks president
It’s clear, with their captain or without him, that the Canucks want to avoid a rebuild at all costs. We understand why Rutherford would say that. If the Canucks rebuild, he’s probably not the one executing it. He’s been given the keys to make this team competitive, but they haven’t been this season. They are injured, but they aren’t even as injured as the Devils are, who are at the top of the Eastern Conference.
But it also sounds like all options are on the table between the Canucks and Quinn Hughes. They seem more open to the thought of a trade. Did Hughes say something to them to change their tune? We’ll never know until said trade is done, but for now, there is some writing on the wall.
The question then turns to what the New Jersey Devils would have to send to the Vancouver Canucks for Quinn Hughes.
It sounds like Rutherford isn’t interested in draft picks as compensation for Quinn Hughes. He wants young players who can contribute to the Canucks now. Luckily for the Devils, they do have that in spades. The Canucks will want Nico Hischier or Jesper Bratt in the Hughes trade, but they just don’t have the cards to demand that.
We’re looking at players like Simon Nemec and Dawson Mercer when talking about this trade. The Devils have seen huge bounce-back seasons from Mercer and Nemec. The young defenseman is coming off a hat trick and overtime winner, and Mercer has 16 points in 17 games.
With the blueprint in place, and with so many injuries on the Devils’ blue line, we might see a Quinn Hughes trade well before we expected.