Futures and Draft Picks2 of 3
Minnesota gets: Two first-round picks, defense prospect Anton Silayev
New Jersey gets: Quinn Hughes
Figuring out trade values can be tricky, especially for the NHL’s best players, because so few are traded during their primes.
We do, however, have some idea as to what a Hughes trade might look like because we have already seen one.
The Wild traded a first-round pick, top defense prospect Zeev Buium, young center Marco Rossi and prospect Liam Ohgren to acquire him with a year-and-a-half remaining on his contract.
We also saw Brady Tkachuk get traded earlier this offseason for three first-round picks. He had a lot of say in where he went and pretty much dictated his destination, limiting Ottawa’s leverage in trade talks.
Any potential Hughes deal would fall somewhere in between these two scenarios.
With only one year remaining on his contract, that already knocks the value down a little bit from the initial trade involving him.
There is also going to be a far more limited market for him, given that every team in the league knows the contract situation. He might not have veto power over any deals, but he will still have full control over his long-term spot.
The Devils have the draft capital to pull off such a deal, as they own multiple first-round picks in each of the 2027 and 2028 draft classes. They could easily move two or even three of them to secure Hughes in advance.
Does anybody clearly say no to this deal?
The Devils would jump at it because they have the additional draft pick assets to move a few of them, and it would give them an additional year of Hughes without having to move anything off of the NHL roster (including, most specifically, a player like Hischier).
Anton Silayev is a fascinating prospect due to his size and skill and has the potential to be a really good NHL player, but he is still a prospect.
Sometimes prospects fail, or are not as good as you hope they will be. It’s also arguable that the Devils have the defensive depth at the NHL level to take that chance, especially if it brings you Quinn Hughes in return.
The Wild, meanwhile, would likely say no because the deal does little to help them in either the short or long term.
They know they might lose Hughes after this season, but they also knew that going into it when they traded for him. They knew they were getting two Stanley Cup runs, hoping he would sign some kind of short-term deal to stay longer.
And who knows, maybe he still will.
But there’s not really much incentive for them to put a dent in their Cup chances for this season to get future assets that might not pan out. The only potential value in those assets would be to turn around and flip them for another proven player in the short term.
Will you get a better player who fits better than Hughes? Not likely, but maybe.
Speaking of which, that brings us to the third potential idea….