Quinn Hughes has made his intentions clear to the Minnesota Wild, and it didn't start this week.
Michael Russo says the groundwork got laid back in early June, when Hughes sat down with GM Bill Guerin.
Hughes told him then he wanted to stay in Minnesota. That message didn't come and go once.
It got repeated. Russo, speaking on the Worst Seats in the House podcast, said the two sides met again in Detroit last week, and Hughes reiterated the same stance.
There's a reason Guerin wants this in writing. Hughes posted 76 points, 7 goals and 69 assists, over 74 games this season.
That production came on a $7,850,000 cap hit, which looks like a bargain at that level of usage.
Hughes and Guerin met again in Detroit last week
Minnesota finished the season 46-24-12, good for 104 points and seventh overall in the league.
Locking up a defenseman logging that kind of workload before he even hits the open market is the smart move here. Waiting only drives the price up.
Why hand term to a rival GM when you can get ahead of it now?
Hughes carried that production into the postseason too, piling up 15 points across 11 playoff games.
A defenseman quarterbacking that much offense is like running a second power play from the back end, someone touching nearly every possession.
Nothing is signed yet. Guerin has the assurances and Russo has the reporting, but the term and the number still have to get hammered out.
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That gap between intention and ink is where these stories usually stall.
Should the Wild lock up Quinn Hughes with a long-term extension right now?
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