Canucks Trade Quinn Hughes To Minnesota Wild! w/ Steve Dangle | Instant Analysis

Canucks Trade Quinn Hughes To Minnesota Wild! w/ Steve Dangle | Instant Analysis

Whether you’re looking for an official jersey, a classic team hat, or the absolute peak of premium gear, Fanatics is your destination. And Steve Dangle right now on your screen has on the Fanatics Lululemon collab collection. Steve, how does it feel? Feels great. I I like creepily touching your arms when you’re wearing this during the show. And I had one of my own. I decided to put it on. Oh my goodness. Smooth as silk. Yeah, you’re wearing the quarterzip Leafs one. It’s so nice because they make it super casual and for everyday wear. It’s just Lululemon clothes with little NHL logos on it and it’s perfect. Right. 100%. It’s my Christmas present to myself. I’m going to wear it and I’m going to be cozy. Yeah. And you can make it a Christmas present to yourself or to someone else by going to fanatics.com, picking up some of the Lululemon Fanatics collab or just like any team gear that Fanatics has. Check out the entire world of NHL merchandise, including the newest sleek Lululemon NHL collection available for all 32 teams. Head over to fanatics.com and gear up with the best. Full disclosure to everyone listening or watching right now, the Steve Dangle podcast like just went up as the trade for Quinn Hughes broke. It’s Quinn Hughes to Minnesota. I’ll read the full trade for you before we start talking about everything. Quinn Hughes to Minnesota for Marco Rossi, Zeve Buham, Liam Ogrand, and a 2026 first round pick. The podcast recorded, everything happens all day. And of course afterwards the biggest news that we’ve had in like what a couple years of NHL transaction talk breaks and continues is a Minnesota Wild. Steve Dangle initial thoughts initial thought is that there will not be a bigger trade this year. Um because I think it’d be impossible you get I mean on his worst day a top three defenseman in the world probably top two if you ask a certain uh pocket of Canucks fans. and now Minnesota Wild fans top one. Um, so those guys don’t become available. Definitely not when they’re 26. Definitely not with a year and a half left on their contract. Going the other way is four legitimate futures. You can you can quibble with Rossi. He’s still very young. Maybe I guess you call him a present. Liam Ogrren, that’s a big deal. uh zero points in 18 games so far this NHL season, but his AHL numbers are very very good. And my guess is the Canucks either develop him on their very very good AHL team or at least it it’s shown to be a good program to the reigning Calder Cup champs or more likely he gets a very large uh uh bit of playing time on the Vancouver Conucks. Uh Zeve Buou is the the big one here. A 2026 first I think is good for both parties. With Minnesota, it minimizes the risk. With Vancouver, you know, we’re rebuilding. Let’s get it on with or let’s let’s get on with it, right? Um it’s not down the road, 2027, 2028, 2029. Zeve Bou in most other seasons there would be more Calder noise around him. I think it’s that Minnesota is so good. Uh he’s buried behind so many guys and Matthew Schaefer is a complete revelation. Um and Lane Hudson is the reigning Calder Trophy winner. Okay, maybe Zoom hasn’t lived up to Lane Hudson. Maybe he hasn’t lived up to Matthew Schaefer who’s been one of the best rookie defenseman we’ve seen in at least a quarter century. He’s performing very very well at a very young age. This is a great player. And the one player Minnesota Wild fans who I’ve spoken to, producer Hayden, um are worried about from this trade. Liam Ogran, you could convince yourself, uh it’s not going to be that big of a deal. Marco Rossi, ah, you know what? We spent all summer thinking he was going to get traded anyway. The 2026 firstrounder, ah, we assumed they were going to trade that anyway. Zeve Boo is the one part that hurts. The reason it doesn’t hurt is you get Quinn Hughes. That’s exactly it. If you if we start with the Minnesota side, cuz I think we can start there and then we can go really deep into everything this means uh for Vancouver and all of the fallout that’s going to happen of you trading one of your best players in franchise history. But on the Minnesota side of things, this is I think such a fabulous trade because you look at the roster like yesterday, what you’re really taking out of the roster is Ogrren who was playing on the third line and but he’s a prospect, but like if we’re trying to win today, it’s a third line winger. His role on this year’s team is super replaceable, right? Exactly. And Rossi was injured, wasn’t in the most recent lineup, so you’re removing that. Plus, that’s a replaceable center. you can find that depth. And then Bouam, as you mentioned, is a left-handed defenseman. So, you’re replacing this project of of a defenseman with Quinn freaking Hughes. So, there’s your upgrade. And this makes their team better today and makes them a serious Stanley Cup contender. Yeah. Like, you’re not going to get Quinn Hughes in this trade for Quinn Hughes. Um, but if you can get 75% of Quinn Hughes, you’re well on your way. The list of guys in the world who could hope to be that is maybe five players long and Z Williams probably one of them. Um I like there’s got to be a morning period for Vancouver Conucks fans. They haven’t had very long to contend with this news. They haven’t had very long to accept that this was an inevitability. Maybe a likelihood. Maybe something that happens by the end of the season. maybe something that happens in the summer or at the draft. This came together very very fast. Yeah. Um so I don’t expect Vancouver fans to be over the moon right now. This is a good hall I think for Quinn Hughes. But if you’re Minnesota, like one thing I’ve mocked all year, and you’ll like this Jesse, is the idea that early in the season in November and early to mid December, oh it’s just it’s impossible to make moves. It’s impossible. Well, now you have to. Mhm. Six, sorry, four of the top seven teams in the NHL are in the Western Conference. Three of them are in the Central Division. Colorado is number one at 51 points. Dallas is number two at 47. Minnesota who’s 72 and one in their last 10. Look out, they’re seventh. Yeah. Tied with uh the Ducks and actually tied with the Vegas Golden Knights and they have more wins than the Golden Knights. Dude, you like unless you feel like getting absolutely pounded in the first or second round, you got to make this move. And this gives you two crazy cracks at it. And what’s more important for the Minnesota Wild in context is it gives you a really good crack at having a good deep playoff run before Kier Capriovv’s contract extension kicks in. Yeah. And I like I love this move because these are the types of moves that win you championships. It’s we gave up a lot of hey this could be really special and we think a couple of those guys will be special but we’re guaranteed one of the best players in the game and to win championships you need the best players in the game on your team and the Minnesota Wild clearly looked at the Western Conference and I love that you brought that up where they are in the standings the the West and how loaded they are at the top and they say we can’t compete with the Colorado of the world. Let’s get better. we need to get better now if this is who we are going to be. And signing Capri off to that giant extension that they did preseason or at the beginning of the season was them throwing their hat in the ring of like we’re serious to be contending here for a long time and then this is doubling down on that. We’re going out here and it might only be a year and a half that they have Quinn Hughes but during this next half year and next year they’re going to be in the conversation amongst every top team in this league. And that’s the position they put themselves in by making this trade here today. I love it. And you can’t be second on this kind of thing. Like people are forgetting the Stars who are second um were are one of the teams rumored to be in on NASA Cadri, right? And in their last 10, so I brought that up. Colorado 71-2. The Stars are 81-1 and Minnesota 72-1. This is an arms race. Yeah, exactly. This is awesome for the division. It’s awesome for the conference. It’s awesome for the league. It’s awesome for hockey. And how funny is it that like we we all had the biggest distraction, the biggest red herring about a week ago with Quinn Hughes going, “Oh yeah, Fitzy talking about Tom Fitzgerald. We got the wrong Team USA executive.” It ended up being Bill Garin who like this is a huge huge move. And and and I like the point that you made like what are you really taking off of the current Minnesota Wild roster? Like we we know we know the ramifications going forward, but like Quinn Hughes is young enough that assuming you sign him to an extension, that’d be very nice. Uh I think it offsets a lot of the hurt there. Mhm. Um he’s you could argue he hasn’t even entered his prime yet. Um and if he hasn’t, he’s right smack dab uh in the middle of it. Like what a we were all barking up the wrong tree. We’re looking at the Metro Division. I don’t remember how many um uh Western Conference teams were even really talked about um in this whole discourse. Everyone’s got their own information or whatever. This came completely out of left field. And what what I got to know is like is the holiday deadline tomorrow or something? But like what happened? Yeah. With the the Oilers with the two trades and uh the PRs and the Penguins and now this huge thing like this is just incredible. And you know, it’s funny. We recorded two extra episodes today and we were talking about uh Team USA and who might be on that team and what the forward lines might be and what the pairs might be. Uh Quinn Hughes and uh Brock Faber playing together is a great point is a decent little guess. Oh yeah. On account of now they’re teammates. One shoots left, the other shoots right. And uh Oh, also uh Baldi. Mhm. on their team. Jeez. Yeah. And the and the GM, as you mentioned, is is GMing Team USA. So, yeah, on the team that is currently 32nd in the league, this is a sad day for Canucks fans cuz this was such a slow burn. The Quinn Hughes looking at the camera like he doesn’t want to be there at all and not admitting that he doesn’t want to be there cuz he can’t do that, but everybody kind of knowing he doesn’t want to be there. And then this player you think is going to be in your life for the next eight years because they’ll sign into a massive extension because he’s that good. All of a sudden, Band-Aid is ripped off. You’re a Canucks fan and that guy’s gone. That’s got to be really sad. But you look at your franchise and you say, “Okay, this is better than being middling. At least we’re not just trying to piece meal together an eight seed team or a 10th seed team. At least now we know we’re trying to be young and kind of bad maybe for a little bit and rebuild this thing up to what it can be and back into a playoff team. Well, here’s where Copium comes into play, Jesse, because I like Calgary Flames fans, the Flames, by the way, the next team uh at 31st in the league. Matthew Kachchuck wasn’t staying. He wasn’t. He did not want to. Um, you get a 100 plus point player in Jonathan Hubedo and a really versatile defenseman in Mackenzie Wager. All things considered, not bad. Mhm. Uh, they made a couple mistakes there. Number one, I don’t think they anticipated Jonathan Hubedo’s point total getting cut in half. Um, point total drop in the history of the NHL. Yep. after the best season, the most productive season by a left winger in NHL history. Um I that’s not happening here because that was present for present. Yes, that was the Florida Panthers trying to take advantage of a situation and paying a very steep price for it and also they didn’t want to pay Hubido the money that uh he wanted. But the Flames, they either won the division or the president’s trophy. They finished very high up in the standings. And could you get futures for Matthew Kachchuck a couple or three years ago, whatever it was? Yeah, you probably could have. They didn’t want futures. They wanted to stay competitive. Now, as far as a futures package goes for the Canucks, you know, the the conversation is, is this enough? And I don’t think that’s the right question. the the right question is who on earth could have offered you a better package. Again, we were barking up the wrong tree with like the metro division. We had an in-depth conversation about the Carolina Hurricanes today. Not them. Yeah, that that’s the example I wanted to bring up because as you mentioned on the on the podcast, I said, “Okay, something like a Jackson Blake, Stanco, a couple first round picks sort of deal gets you something similar, you know, like you’re we’re piece mealing together some sort of package that can look like this package that they accepted for Quinn Hughes, but this is a pretty good hole for that player. Maybe you want a couple more picks in there. you want some just lower draft picks thrown in for the good of it. But in terms of young talent that has a potential to be the cornerstones of a franchise, you’re getting three good chances at that. Very good chances. And not to mention uh the Minnesota Wild 2026 firstrounder. You know what’s crazy is they could be one and done because think about it. Who are the top three in the central going to be? It’s going to be Colorado. It’s going to be Dallas. And it’s going to be Minnesota. You put them in whatever order you want. That means unless Minnesota wins their division, which right now they are 12 points back of Yeah, cuz Colorado can’t lose hockey games. You’re going to be playing against Dallas or Colorado in the first round. Yeah. Oh my god. So that could be a middle of the pack first round draft pick. That could be if you’re out in the first round, that could be like 20th, maybe a little lower than middle, but like it could be relatively early 20s. It could be like I’m I’m getting lost in the weeds here. Yeah. No one was offering you Who’s got a better prospect available than Zeve. And who can justify giving up a prospect like Zeve? Well, probably a team who’s about to acquire Quinn Hughes. Oh, this creates such a such a what like he was gonna be the what of your future. Quinn Hughes, right? So, uh I think this is a you know, we always want to talk about one and lost. I think this is two teams really achieving their purpose here. This is the Wild uh entering a competitive window here for the next two years, you know, for not not uh you know for forget the central division like Conor McDavid signed a contract. Everyone’s ripping on the Oilers this year. The contract is to win the cup next year or the year after when when the salary cap skyrockets and he’s still at 12 a half. The West is a buzzsaw. Yeah. And you can’t just sit there and stay mediocre and and hope something’s going to happen. you got to go out and get the biggest fish available. And this fish doesn’t come around very often at this age, at this point in their career for this cost. Um, and the Canucks, this really speeds their rebuild up. Um, I think like first round picks, even if you hit, when are they coming into your lineup? When are they coming into their prime? Boy, you’re waiting there a long time. Yeah. And Rossy Rossy’s instantly your 1C by the way. Instantly over. Are you sure? Maybe. Like we got we gota we got to ask the question like who’s their is Eve Buham their 1D? Like he might be their their 1LD, right? Like especially if they trade even more and get even younger. Like I This is a tough day. This is a tough day for Conucks fans. If you are a huge Quinn Hughes fan, if you’re a Canucks fan, you probably are. But this is much better than middling. I’m I’m happy that Jim Rutherford has finally picked a path, which is we know we’re bad. Let’s get rid of the talent we have for something else because we won’t be able to lock up this talent. And this is when Quinn Hughes would be the most valuable. This is when you’re going to get the most uh for him because this is the longest he’ll be locked up on this expiring deal. So overall, I’m glad for Conucks fans that it seems like the franchise has finally picked something and Jim Rotherford’s always been one to move early rather than late. So he he follows that here again. Steve, to wrap us up. Sure. Give me your grade on the trade. What are you giving me for each side and then we will end this. I mean, they both get uh A for balls. Um we’re going to give them both A for balls. Um, the Canucks I’m going to give a solid honestly A minus. Like I think they did really really well here. Um, and Minnesota uh you came out of nowhere to get Quinn Hughes. Like how is that not A+? A+. I I wanted to uh just reiterate the excellence of Quinn Hughes since he came into the league. Mhm. He is fourth amongst defensemen in points behind only Kale Mar at 465, Roman Yosi at 444, Headman at 442, Quinn Hughes has 432, but he’s done it in something like 75 fewer games than Hedman. He’s played fewer games than Yosi. He’s at 0.94 points per game. Hedman is at 0.85. Yosi is at 0.89. Uh, as far as I can tell, the only guy with a better one is Kale Mar. So, it’s those two, one and two. And however you rank them, Minnesota just got the one or two defenseman in the world. Steve, Steve Dangle, thank you for joining and and giving the world some content on your Friday night. Um, you as well, Jesse Blake. Let’s hope that uh for your sake and your sanity, Brad for Living gets in on the action. I no I’m worried about him making a trade of this magnitude. We saw what happened. You brought up the Kachchuck trade so uh maybe not. Yeah. No, no. Love the spirit though.

The Vancouver Canucks have traded Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for Liam Öhgren, Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, and a Minnesota’s 2026 1st round pick.

Steve Dangle and Jesse Blake are here to break it all down.

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Visit this episode’s sponsors:

Add flair to your game-day attire with official lululemon x Fanatics NHL Sports apparel from Fanatics! Visit https://www.fanatics.com/ to wear your pride on your sleeve.

Watch all episodes of The Steve Dangle Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEidkgWpSiHVkYT7HrIzLPXlY

Watch clips of The Steve Dangle podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEieOJuIrqWyZPWSIJtVMCbLz

Buy SDP merch https://sdpnshop.ca/

Check out https://sdpn.ca/events to see The Steve Dangle Podcast live!

Watch hockey with us! Live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLk7FZfwCEifCTX0vkKEaGg9otrW4Zl2k

Subscribe to the sdpn YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@sdpn?sub_confirmation=1Join

Subscribe to SDP VIP!:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0a0z05HiddEn7k6OGnDprg/join
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/thestevedanglepodcast
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sdpvip/subscribe –

Follow us on Twitter: @Steve_Dangle, @AdamWylde, & @JesseBlake
Follow us on Instagram: @SteveDangle, @AdamWylde, & @Jesse.Blake

Join us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/MtTmw9rrz7

For general inquiries email: info@sdpn.ca

Reach out to https://www.sdpn.ca/sales to connect with our sales team and discuss the opportunity to integrate your brand within our content!