Quinn Hughes Trade Analysis: Minnesota Goes ALL IN, Vancouver Rebuild Begins

Peter Klein

LOCKBUSTER. Quinn Hughes has been traded from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild in a massive deal that sends shockwaves through the NHL. The Wild gave up three very good young players and a first-round pick to land one of the league's elite defensemen. Are Minnesota now legitimate Cup contenders? Did Vancouver get enough back? And what does this mean for the Flames and Rasmus Andersson? Let's break it all down.  I LOVE this aggressive move from Minnesota. So many teams would see Dallas and Colorado dominating the Central and just fold - "rebuild and hope they decline." That's loser mentality. Bill Guerin recognized they have a GOOD team and said "they have to worry about US too." Now with Faber and Hughes on the blue line, that's as good a 1-2 punch as you'll find in the NHL.  🏒 MINNESOTA WILD PERSPECTIVE: Why This Move Makes Sense: - Stuck in division with Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche (two best teams in NHL) - Could fold and rebuild OR go all-in - they chose aggression - Already have good team with Kirill Kaprizov leading the way - Solid pieces throughout lineup - Blue line now elite with Faber, Spurgeon, Hughes - Both goalies playing insane right now  Are They Cup Contenders? - Better than Dallas? Not quite yet - need more secondary scoring - Dallas playing at juggernaut level but have weaknesses - Still attached to Nazem Kadri rumors for reason - In VERY good spot now - aggressive mentality wins  🏒 VANCOUVER CANUCKS PERSPECTIVE: You Don't Win These Trades BUT: - Very difficult to make 4 quarters equal a dollar - This is REALLY GOOD return for situation they're in - Got significant value back  The Bigger Picture: - For sale sign is UP in Vancouver - Screwed up the young core, finally recognizing it - Moving in more youthful direction now - Rebuild officially underway  🔥 CALGARY FLAMES LOCAL ANGLE: Rasmus Andersson Now Prettiest Girl at Bar: - Elite defenseman on trade market - Very reasonable contract - season rental at good price - Teams were going for Hughes, what about Andersson now?  How This Helps Calgary: - Teams had discussions about players for Hughes - Maybe those players now available in Andersson talks - "We were gonna give that for Hughes, what if we do that + one more thing for Andersson?" - Market clarity helps Flames negotiations - Ups their leverage knowing what teams were willing to give  💬 Who won this trade? Are the Wild Cup contenders now? What should the Flames ask for Andersson? Drop your takes!  👍 If you want more NHL trade analysis and hockey content, hit that like button and subscribe!  🔔 Turn on notifications - December has been all over the place for content, don't miss uploads!  #NHL #QuinnHughes #MinnesotaWild #VancouverCanucks #NHLTrade #CalgaryFlames #RasmusAndersson #KirillKaprizov #NHLNews #HockeyTrade #CentralDivision #NHLAnalysis #CouchPotatoDiary  🎧 Listen on: Apple https://apple.co/49NGm2L | Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM?si=icY7NEBvT7yZadv_JFlT6Q

Transcript

00:00There was a gigantic trade that happened over the weekend that I think sends a pretty big

00:06shock throughout the league. Let's talk about Quinn Hughes on his way to Minnesota.

00:18Quinn Hughes is on his way to the Central Division, traded to the Minnesota Wild for

00:24three very good young hockey players and a first-round pick. Let's start on the Canucks

00:34side of this. Actually, no, no, because that one can get a little down. Let's go on the Minnesota

00:39side of this conversation. They are in a very unenviable spot because the Dallas Stars are a

00:46really good hockey team, and the Colorado Avalanche are playing at an elite level right now. You could,

00:52again, you could make the case those are the two best teams in the National Hockey League,

00:57and they are both in Minnesota's division. And Minnesota has a good hockey team. We had them

01:03come through Calgary here a little bit ago, and they didn't do well against the Flames,

01:07but they were playing unbelievable hockey leading up to that. And you can see where this is a dangerous

01:13group with Kirill Kaprizov, obviously, at the head of all of that, but just some solid pieces

01:20throughout the lineup. And then on that blue line, there's a lot to be excited about. With Faber,

01:25Spurgeon is just solid, and he's getting more and more recognition as the year goes on. And then both

01:30goalies are playing insane right now. So, honestly, I credit Minnesota and Bill Guerin greatly for making

01:37this move. There are so many times in sports you will hear, well, you know what? We got, like,

01:43Blue Jays for forever. We would hear, well, you got the Yankees, you got the Red Sox.

01:50What? You may as well just rebuild. And hopefully you can kind of come back at a time where they're

01:54not the juggernauts. That's such a loser mentality. There would be, I think, a lot of teams that would

01:58see those two at the top of it and be like, you know what? This ain't our time, man. Let's try to

02:04kind of regroup. Now, you can't do that with $16 million for Kaprizov coming up, or $17 million or

02:08whatever it is. So, you obviously have to make a real go of it. But I do think a lot of teams would

02:14kind of fold up shop a little bit and just, you know what? Let's see where we land and not give

02:18up a few futures to try to be competitive with them. But Minnesota recognized, hey, we're a good

02:22team too. They got to worry about us. So, can they? And go out and make this move. And now with Faber

02:29and Hughes on the blue line, that is about as good of a 1-2 as you're going to get in the National

02:34Hockey League, this makes them a real player. Does it make them better than Dallas? I don't think so.

02:39I still think that a little bit more secondary scoring is needed to have that be the case. And

02:45then Dallas is just playing at a juggernaut type of a level. But even them, they have some

02:49weaknesses as well. So, I think it is clear why Minnesota is still attached to rumors about

02:55Nazem Qadri. But I still think that this is a team that is in a very, very good spot. And I love

03:03how aggressive they are being here. For the Canucks, you don't win a lot of these trades.

03:09It is very difficult with a move like this to make four quarters equal a dollar. That being said,

03:15this is a really good return. Like, Bouyem is not going to be Quinn Hughes. But he can be a pretty good,

03:23he's the Quinn Hughes we have at home. Sort of a thing. Like, that is, that's a real strong upgrade

03:30to the youth and kind of the core of this team. Marco Rossi, I'm, I have my concerns about him

03:38turning into that, like, real number one center. But they need Elias Pettersson to turn into a

03:43number one center. If Rossi can be a number two that they haven't had in a really long time out

03:47since, like, I don't know, like the Sedin twin times. Obviously, you know, they were not in the

03:53number two line. But you know what I mean. Going back to that time, that's kind of all they need

03:59him to be right now. And there's a little bit more pressure, a little bit less pressure, sorry,

04:04on him than in Minnesota. And an opportunity, I think, for him to kind of grow into a good role

04:09there. And then the prospect they got, you hear a lot of talk about how injuries kind of hit at the

04:16exact wrong time in his development. But we'll see what would they kind of turn into. But this

04:19certainly does signal that the for sale sign is really up in Vancouver. And we can talk till we're

04:25blue in the face about how they screwed up this young core. But they have at least kind of

04:29recognized it and are at least moving now in a more youthful direction. It was nice to see the

04:33Canucks get a first round pick and not flip it for a defensive rental who is a 3-4 defenseman right

04:37away. So smart out there for Van, I suppose. Just quickly, because you can kind of see a bit of a

04:47local angle to this one. Obviously, Rasmus Anderson is now once again the prettiest girl at the bar

04:53in terms of the defensive market in the NHL, and maybe just the trade market in general,

04:57because very reasonable contract to take on this season. Rental, but very reasonable contract to

05:03take on this season. Talked about this on radio out here in Calgary. I don't think that you can

05:09just copy and paste whatever Buffalo was going to give Vancouver and just be like, well, we'll take

05:13it. Or the New Jersey offer. And yeah, we'll take that. That's not going to be the case. The one thing

05:20though, is that maybe in these discussions, teams that were going for Quinn Hughes maybe recognize

05:26that the list of untouchables wasn't as long as they thought. And so maybe that does kind of pry

05:32another person loose that the Flames didn't have at their disposal in some of these negotiations

05:36before. So I don't think that you can compare the two even a little bit. But sometimes it just,

05:43okay, well, we were going to trade that guy for Quinn Hughes. So what if we just did that and one

05:47more thing for Rasmus Anderson? And we're good. And we can kind of delete a few of the things we had

05:52in the Hughes offer. But this big one that we didn't think we'd get to, maybe we do that for

05:56Anderson. So I do think it kind of helps out the Flames here a little bit that you can kind of see

06:00where the market is at with a few of these teams. And they've had a few discussions about guys they

06:04maybe didn't think they would have discussions about before. So just a really interesting trade

06:09and a Minnesota team that I've always kind of liked. Very excited to see them now and what they can be

06:15even after just a couple of games here with Quinn Hughes. So let me know in the comments who won this

06:20trade. Feels like Minnesota, they got the best player, but the Canucks did really well for a team

06:24in this spot. Let me know your guys' thoughts down in the comments section below. Or if you're

06:29listening, find me on social media at PrimetimeKline and we can talk about it. It's been a bit of a

06:35all over the place December for Couch Potato Diary. So you're going to want to hit that notification bell

06:39so you know when we're going live and when videos are coming out from Couch Potato Diary. Every time

06:44you do that, it helps out the show quite a bit.

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