{"id":346494,"date":"2025-12-13T14:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T14:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/346494\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T14:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T14:22:12","slug":"elliotte-friedman-reports-capitals-are-around-quinn-hughes-but-doesnt-believe-canucks-will-be-able-to-snare-teams-best-young-players-in-any-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/346494\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliotte Friedman reports Capitals are \u2018around\u2019 Quinn Hughes, but doesn\u2019t believe Canucks will be able to snare team\u2019s \u2018best young players\u2019 in any trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals have been connected to Quinn Hughes trade rumors for the past few days<\/a>, and those links don\u2019t appear to be ending just yet.<\/p>\n

Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman, who was one of the first to connect Hughes and the Capitals earlier this week<\/a>, has shared further details on the team\u2019s potential pursuit of the star Vancouver Canucks defenseman.<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s latest comes in the most recent issue of his 32 Thoughts column:<\/a><\/p>\n

Washington is around [Quinn Hughes], but I don\u2019t think the Canucks can snare the Capitals\u2019 best young players.<\/p>\n

A few teams believe Washington, depending on the price, would consider a two-year stay, because there\u2019d be something very special about another Stanley Cup run while Alexander Ovechkin remains a Capital.<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s comment that the Canucks likely won\u2019t be able to pry some of the Capitals\u2019 top young talent from them in any trade comes after Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK\u2019s Donnie and Dhali\u00a0connected 24-year-old forward Connor McMichael and 19-year-old defenseman Cole Hutson to any potential Hughes-related negotiations.<\/p>\n

In the same report, Dhaliwal indicated he was told that 20-year-old winger Ryan Leonard is considered untouchable by the Caps and would not be involved in any discussions. \u201cForget about it if the Canucks are going to ask about that guy,\u201d Dhaliwal said.<\/p>\n

The advantage of acquiring Hughes this season is that his current contract, which includes a $7.85 million cap hit, runs through all of next season (2026-27). Any potential suitor would either get two shots at a Stanley Cup run with Hughes, the chance to sign him to a long-term extension come July, or an opportunity to recoup some assets by flipping him to another team.<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s mention of Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is relevant to those scenarios, as the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer is playing in the final season of his contract with the Caps. Ovechkin, 40, is uncommitted to further seasons in the league<\/a>, so the Caps could push their chips all-in to try and secure him a second Stanley Cup at the end of his illustrious career.<\/p>\n

Hughes\u2019s current contract has no trade protections, so the Canucks do not need his approval for any trade destination. The 2024 Norris Trophy winner has 23 points (2g, 21a) in 26 games this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals have been connected to Quinn Hughes trade rumors for the past few days, and those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-346494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}