{"id":900314,"date":"2026-09-18T10:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/900314\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T10:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:12:11","slug":"quinn-hughes-not-sweating-contract-talks-with-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/900314\/","title":{"rendered":"Quinn Hughes not sweating contract talks with Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014\u00a0Quinn Hughes<\/a>\u00a0unwound after an especially eventful hockey season with the usual retreat to his lake home in Michigan, soaking up the summer with his brothers and their friends.<\/p>\n

Hughes would prefer if everyone would relax about his contract situation, too.<\/p>\n

As the star defenceman and Olympic gold medalist reported to his first training camp with the\u00a0Minnesota Wild<\/a>\u00a0without an extension, raising the anxiety level at least within the fan base. Hughes said after the team’s first practice on Thursday that he’s plenty satisfied with the direction and state of the organization and simply hasn’t gotten around to thinking hard about the next phase of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith planning out my future, I don\u2019t do that. I don\u2019t really plan out my summer,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cJust kind of went about it and enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughes is in the final year of his current deal with a $7.85 million salary cap hit. His agent, Pat Brisson, and Wild general manager Bill Guerin have begun talks about a new contract, but for Hughes the start of the regular season on Oct. 1 is just a superficial deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t feel stressed to do something before the season,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cAnd that’s not saying that something won’t happen, but that’s just how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow defenceman Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche set the bar for annual average value at $20.5 million by signing the\u00a0richest deal in league history\u00a0last month, but Hughes might well top that, particularly on a shorter-term contract.<\/p>\n

Hughes has\u00a0fueled some speculation\u00a0about desiring to play with younger brothers Jack and Luke, who are both with New Jersey, but he’s only 26 and should have ample time left to link up with them down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy here. I love the guys. I love the team, and I fit in really well,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a draw to play with those guys at some point, but I think Jack said it perfectly: I\u2019m not going to sacrifice a great spot for me to play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left wing Marcus Foligno, whose older brother Nick was acquired by the Wild right before the trade deadline last season, has been reminding Hughes that he can wait to figure out where to play with Jack and Luke. Marcus is 35 and Nick will turn 39 next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the best when it\u2019s toward the end of the career,\u201d Foligno said. \u201cYou do it too early, you don\u2019t appreciate it as much. It\u2019s great when you\u2019re just hanging on.\u201d<\/p>\n

After arriving in Minnesota near mid-season in a\u00a0trade with Vancouver, Hughes helped lead the U.S. national team to the gold medal at the Olympics in Italy about two months later. Then in just 48 games with the Wild, he set the franchise defenceman record with 53 points and was an integral part of their first-round victory over Dallas that was the first playoff series win in 11 years.<\/p>\n

Guerin was general manager of the U.S. team, too, so he’s developed a strong relationship with Hughes, who offered no hint of dissatisfaction, impatience or uncertainty on the subject of wanting to re-up with the Wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much trust in Billy. He\u2019s a great GM. He\u2019s always going to address the needs of the team. It\u2019s not like I have to freaking poke at Billy to do something,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cBilly\u2019s kind of a shark. He\u2019s going to be trying to make our team better at every point he can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014\u00a0Quinn Hughes\u00a0unwound after an especially eventful hockey season with the usual retreat to his lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-900314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}