ST. PAUL, Minn \u2014 Bill Guerin had about a 10-minute exit meeting with Quinn Hughes Friday morning at Grand Casino Arena.<\/p>\n
And when the two emerged, the president of hockey operations and general manager was asked if he got a deal done with the superstar defenseman, who can sign as early as July 1, heading into the final year of his deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, $950K a year,\u201d Guerin quipped. \u201cI mean, a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Money shouldn\u2019t be an object when it comes to the Wild trying to extend Hughes when he\u2019s eligible. The Wild are obviously planning on keeping Hughes here, whether that\u2019s three years or eight years, as they\u2019ve seen how the former Norris Trophy winner has transformed them into a Stanley Cup contender.<\/p>\n
More importantly, it appears that Hughes is truly interested in staying here, saying that in an ideal world, they get something done this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say that I really like it here,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cI love the team. I love the city and the fans. Just being in that locker room, it\u2019s a special group. Would definitely be open to re-signing here with the guys that we have in the room and just the people we have in the room. A lot of trust with Billy, as well, and love (coach John Hynes) and (associate coach Jack Capuano) and the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it\u2019s a great spot, great situation for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes said he plans to take time to think and chat with his parents, Jim and Ellen, along with his two brothers, Jack and Luke, both of whom play for the New Jersey Devils. He also plans to spend a little more time in Minnesota before heading to his offseason home in Michigan, knowing how important it is to get to know a place he may live for a longer period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent some time here obviously playing the Gophers, and I always loved coming here and playing them,\u201d said Hughes, the former University of Michigan star. \u201cAnd then I\u2019ve had buddies here I\u2019ve visited in the summer, Brock Boeser, Jack Becker and some of these other guys. So, I saw it a little bit in the summers, but I think it\u2019s an amazing state. So passionate about hockey. I love that there\u2019s other sports teams here, too. Be able to go to some of the nice restaurants downtown. So, I mean, there\u2019s still lots to see. Like to spend maybe a little bit longer than I normally would after a season here and just kind of enjoy the city a little bit. But, yeah, I like it. I enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most important thing to Hughes, as he\u2019s said since getting acquired in mid-December, is winning. He\u2019s never gone beyond the second round in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but he is coming off winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics. The Wild\u2019s loss in five games to the Presidents\u2019 Trophy-winning Avalanche didn\u2019t seem to sway him from how good he thinks this group can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cYou play the third-best team in the league in the first round. You play the best team in the league in the second round. I think that the Dallas series was a massive win for us. They were a great team and tough to beat \u2026 and then we ran into a really good Colorado team that frankly has been in the mix the last five, six, seven years and battle-tested, and they were the better team. Obviously, missing (Jonas Brodin) and (Joel Eriksson Ek), in hindsight, that really hurts. When you\u2019re a player in those situations, you try not to think about it and you just do everything you can control, which is playing and missing those two guys really hurt. I\u2019m not saying we would have won the series, but obviously they\u2019re a big part of our team and it\u2019s just a credit to Colorado. They were really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes said getting a deal done a year ahead of free agency would be \u201cbetter,\u201d but he\u2019d be ready to go even if he went into the season without a new contract. Guerin and the Wild will no doubt try to get a jump on this, as it\u2019s a no-brainer on their end. They\u2019ve invested so much in Hughes, having given up Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick to Vancouver for him.<\/p>\n
And Hughes, who said at the time of the trade he\u2019d always remember how Guerin \u201csacked up\u201d and offered a huge package for him, said his relationship with Guerin will help.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of trust with Billy, respect him,\u201d Hughes said. \u201c I think the way he\u2019s building a championship team or the players that we need. That\u2019s how I view things. And he\u2019s a great person, too. Just takes care of the players. It\u2019s a great organization. I mean, I want to win, right? So, he\u2019s going to, he wants to win more than anyone. I mean, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s many people more disappointed than him right now. He\u2019s going to do everything he can to make us a championship team, and for me, that makes me excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wild teammates, who admired Hughes as opponents, gained a new appreciation for what he brings to the table and see him as a big part of their future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special to see the way he changes the game and the entire dynamic of your team,\u201d captain Jared Spurgeon said. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why he\u2019s such a special player \u2026 he just changed, I think, the dynamic of the team kind of from the back end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Brodin: \u201cSince he came, I feel like he\u2019s dominating every shift he\u2019s out there. It\u2019s crazy when you don\u2019t play with a guy, you know he\u2019s good. But then when he gets here, you see him every day, it\u2019s just unbelievable what he can (do). He changes everything. So, he\u2019s awesome. I mean top D in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirill Kaprizov was in Hughes\u2019 position a year ago, one year away from free agency, and his contract was a dominant storyline. Kaprizov bought in to Minnesota and signed an eight-year, $17 million AAV deal in September, the richest deal in NHL history. Kaprizov said he\u2019s formed a good friendship off the ice with Hughes, having lived in the same building.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Quinn wants to play here and stay here, and we want him so much,\u201d Kaprizov said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best players in this league, maybe (the) best player, how he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s definitely raised expectations with the Wild with Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and potentially Hughes in the fold long term. Hughes could sense that even from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could feel the excitement in the city or the people just that know Billy was making a big move,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cAnd that this whole organization had Cup aspirations, obviously. That\u2019s going to go a long way to fans. I could feel that. Standing ovation when I got off of warmups the first game was pretty special for me. Yeah, I mean since the trade, it\u2019s never really been about me \u2026 we have a great group here. We had aspirations to win a Cup. It didn\u2019t happen. I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re as far as maybe we think or whatnot. I think that we played an unbelievable team in Colorado. A team that, you know, can win a Cup and we\u2019re going to have to get through them next year and teams like that. We\u2019ve just got to keep growing and learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could definitely feel the fan support, the love and the excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn \u2014 Bill Guerin had about a 10-minute exit meeting with Quinn Hughes Friday morning at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-645440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645440","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=645440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}