![\"Quinn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026-02-22T163331Z_1265069505_MT1USATODAY28314253_RTRMADP_3_OLYMPICS-ICE-HOCKEY-MEN-FINALS-GOLD-MEDA.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLAS VEGAS \u2014 Just listening to Quinn Hughes describe his 2025-26 season was exhausting.<\/p>\n
Imagine living it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got traded in December, I was (in Minnesota) for six, seven days, then you go home for Christmas for four days,\u201d Hughes said Wednesday at the NHL\/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. \u201cYou come back, we have the longest road trip in Wild history because of the World Juniors being at the rink. And then you go home for two weeks. And then you go to the Olympics for a month. \u2026 It was a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s not difficult to understand why Hughes chose to spend his summer diving headfirst into the Atlantic Ocean with his brothers in a rented house on the Jersey Shore rather than diving headfirst into life-altering contract negotiations with Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin.<\/p>\n
While the State of Hockey is holding its breath waiting for any indication \u2014 a post, a quote, a sign from the hockey gods \u2014 Hughes intends to stick around St. Paul, Minn., for the foreseeable future, Hughes himself is in no rush. And while the rest of the league\u2019s fans dream up potential futures in which Hughes and his brothers engineer a team-up in New Jersey or New York or South Florida or anywhere else, the Hughes boys say they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The hockey world is seriously stressed about Hughes\u2019 future. Hughes, it appears, is not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be done whenever I feel like it needs to be done,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel backed up against the wall. I\u2019m very thoughtful. I want to take my time on everything and make sure I\u2019m making a decision that is going to be good for everyone. That\u2019s kind of where my head\u2019s been at. We haven\u2019t had that many conversations because of how I wanted my summer to go, in terms of just being fresh and resetting and just focusing on enjoying (myself), and then training, and being around friends and family. But as we get going here, I\u2019m sure (negotiations) will heat up. But I don\u2019t really feel backed up against the wall where I have to sign before camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes, whom the Wild acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for a king\u2019s ransom of young talent and a draft pick last season, is entering the last year of his contract. And clocks are ticking all over the place. He\u2019s been eligible to sign an extension since July 1. Training camp opens in a week. And next Wednesday, the new collective bargaining agreement kicks in, dropping the maximum contract length from eight years to seven years. So every day that passed without an extension could be interpreted as a product of Hughes\u2019 disinterest in making Minnesota his long-term home. Cale Makar\u2019s record-breaking eight-year, $163.2 million contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche only upped the stakes \u2014 and the price.<\/p>\n
But the 26-year-old defenseman sounded plenty interested in sticking around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoyed my time in Minnesota last year,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to get going at camp here. Really excited. I think we\u2019ve got a great team. I love (coach John Hynes). I love (winger Kirill Kaprizov). I love playing with Brock (Faber). I\u2019ve always said I\u2019ll probably play another three, four years in the league just because of how well he skates and we make it easy on each other. Those are all massive draws for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And after everything he went through last season, from an acrimonious ending in Vancouver to a crushing second-round loss to the Avalanche in the Western Conference playoffs, Hughes isn\u2019t the least bit concerned about the contract situation hanging over his head during the 2026-27 season. The way he sees it, that\u2019s something for other people to worry about.<\/p>\n
\u201cVancouver weighed heavy on me (last year) just because we were 31st or 32nd in the league,\u201d he said. \u201cThat ain\u2019t fun. I don\u2019t see that happening in Minnesota. I think we\u2019ve got a great team. So it\u2019s not going to weigh over me personally. I\u2019m excited to play hockey. I think if I can stay healthy, I\u2019m going to have my best season. I feel great. So I don\u2019t have it weighing over me.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Quinn Hughes, left, and Jack Hughes actually do not spend all of their time figuring out ways to play on the same team. (Geoff Burke \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Jack Hughes chuckled when asked whether the brothers spend their days quietly plotting their futures together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe honestly don\u2019t,\u201d said Jack, who plays for the Devils with his younger brother, Luke. \u201cI think people think we\u2019re at home all day, just talking about it. We\u2019re not. We\u2019re not. because we\u2019re enjoying the summer. That\u2019s what the summer\u2019s for, is to get away from it and enjoy yourself and do things that you normally can\u2019t do during the season. Obviously, we talk, but it\u2019s not like we\u2019re breaking it down every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, it\u2019s hard not to look at Brady Tkachuk\u2019s forcing his way out of Ottawa and onto the team of his brother, Matthew, in Florida, and wonder whether the Hugheses will someday do something similar. Guerin undoubtedly wants to lock in Hughes for eight years \u2014 or seven years, if it\u2019s signed after the new CBA kicks in Sept. 16 \u2014 but a three-year contract would put Quinn and Jack into free agency in summer 2030.<\/p>\n
But Quinn and Jack downplayed the idea that they\u2019re envious of the Tkachuks now.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not at all because there\u2019s so much that goes into play, right?\u201d Jack Hughes said. \u201cBrady\u2019s making $8.1 (million). I mean, that\u2019s a much easier contract to move. Me and Luke are playing together. Matthew and Brady are now playing together. It\u2019s much easier for two brothers to play together than three. And then on top of that, Quinn is one of the best players in the league and has a huge deal that\u2019s going to be coming. Yeah, I\u2019m happy for Matthew and Brady because I know how much fun they\u2019ll have because I get to do that with Luke, and I\u2019m excited for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a new age of player empowerment in the NHL, with players such as Tkachuk, the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 Dylan Larkin and the Winnipeg Jets\u2019 Connor Hellebuyck asking their way out of long-term contracts in their longtime markets, for various reasons. But Quinn Hughes said the Wild have nothing to prove to him. Guerin\u2019s aggressiveness in acquiring Hughes in the first place \u2014 sending Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam \u00d6hgren and a first-round pick to Vancouver \u2014 showed him the Wild are in it to win it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do I need to see from the team? Nothing,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cI\u2019m happy with that aspect, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Boldy said he and Hughes\u2019 Minnesota teammates have largely stayed out of the star\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a personal thing,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cAs much as I would love to have Quinn, it\u2019s not up to me. It\u2019s not up to what I think. Obviously, as players, we hope that deal gets done because we know how much value Quinn brings to our team and how much of a difference-maker he is. But you can\u2019t really weigh too much into it because you got no say. Hopefully it all works out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless, Hughes won\u2019t feel pressured into signing. Whatever he decides to do, wherever he decides to go, whenever he decides to do it, and for however long he decides to sign for, it\u2019ll be his call, and nobody else\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to do anything to make someone else happy. \u2026 Everyone\u2019s got to do what makes them happy, and then where the chips fall, they fall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Just listening to Quinn Hughes describe his 2025-26 season was exhausting. Imagine living it. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":["post-842675","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\/842675","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=842675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}