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<\/p>\nST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 For three months, every beat writer, radio personality, blogger, podcaster and nameless, faceless fan account on X has offered their takes on what\u2019s next for Quinn Hughes.<\/p>\n
Every Instagram photo of the superstar defenseman spending time with his brothers, Jack and Luke, on the Jersey Shore or skating in Florida or taking in the U.S. Open has been decoded in different ways.<\/p>\n
But finally, on Wednesday, we should get to hear from Quinn himself on where things stand between him and the Minnesota Wild regarding negotiations on what the Wild hope is a contract extension beyond the upcoming season. Hughes will join Wild teammate Matt Boldy as part of the NHL\/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas, and we all know where the line of questioning will start and end.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been Minnesota\u2019s No. 1 priority this offseason to extend Hughes, who is entering the last year of his current contract ($7.875 million average annual value) and due to make mega money on his next one (think about the neighborhood of Cale Makar\u2019s $20.4 million AAV deal).<\/p>\n
So Wednesday morning, will Hughes play ball?<\/p>\n
Will he tell reporters he intends to sign with Minnesota beyond this season? Or will he indicate he\u2019s waffling, which would put the pressure squarely on the Wild to eventually trade him if they can\u2019t reach an extension?<\/p>\n
Or will he simply dodge the questions, which, for somebody as straightforward as Hughes, doesn\u2019t seem in his nature, considering it was at this media tour last year that he and Jack went on record saying that at some point, somewhere, they wanted to play together.<\/p>\n
The Wild have remained confident they will sign Hughes to an extension before the start of this season, which is only three weeks away. They\u2019ve insisted these kinds of deals take time and have insinuated they\u2019ve been given no indication that he doesn\u2019t intend to sign.<\/p>\n
But until Hughes actually signs, there\u2019s going to be a cloud of doubt over the potentially franchise-altering negotiations, just like with Kirill Kaprizov a year ago.<\/p>\n
When it comes to Kaprizov and now Hughes, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin\u2019s M.O. is that he likes to meet face-to-face.<\/p>\n
He barely negotiated with Kaprizov last summer until the superstar returned to the Twin Cities in September. Guerin met with Kaprizov and agent Paul Theofanous in Minneapolis, and after a tough back-and-forth, Kaprizov signed on the eve of the season.<\/p>\n
It was the same thing four years earlier when Kaprizov signed a five-year, $45 million deal. After a drawn-out contract squabble, Guerin flew on Craig Leipold\u2019s jet to Miami to meet with Kaprizov and Theofanous. Kaprizov agreed to the $9 million-a-year deal the day before training camp, then flew back to Minnesota with Guerin.<\/p>\n
Hughes returns to Minnesota on Thursday, one day after the media tour. Guerin\u2019s hope is to sit down with Hughes and button up an extension in the coming days. Though Guerin has talked all offseason with agent Pat Brisson and met with Hughes in New Jersey and Michigan on two occasions, we\u2019re getting to decision time for Hughes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can say that I really like it here,\u201d Quinn Hughes said after the season. \u201cI love the team. I love the city and the fans. Just being in that locker room, it\u2019s a special group.\u201d (Nick Wosika \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Guerin has preached patience to anxious fans and reminded them it took until the start of last season to sign Kaprizov. Unlike Kaprizov\u2019s then-record-breaking eight-year, $136 million contract signed Sept. 30, though, Hughes\u2019 AAV is pretty much set regardless of the term he desires.<\/p>\n
Makar recently signed an eight-year, $163.2 million deal, the richest contract in NHL history, making him the league\u2019s first $20 million man. Kaprizov had a much wider range of possibilities last year than Hughes this year, rejecting offers of $15 million and $16 million per year and countering at $18 million before agreeing to $17 million.<\/p>\n
Hughes, meanwhile, can sign for a maximum of $20.8 million per year \u2014 20 percent of this season\u2019s $104 million salary-cap ceiling.<\/p>\n
Makar gave up future raises by signing for the maximum of eight years, but if Hughes wants three years at $20 million per, the Wild almost surely would do it. That\u2019s the leverage he possesses after the Wild mortgaged a huge part of their future to acquire the 26-year-old Norris Trophy and gold medal winner from the Vancouver Canucks in December.<\/p>\n