The blockbuster trade that saw Quinn Hughes moved to the Minnesota Wild on Friday didn’t directly involve the Calgary Flames, but it will likely have some implications for the local club.

The Vancouver Canucks, now languishing at the bottom of the league, learned recently that Hughes was disgruntled at the direction of the team and didn’t intend to re-sign when his current contract ended.

Although there is still a year and half left on his deal, Vancouver decided to kickstart their rebuild now rather than wait until he was a pending free agent.

In return for Hughes, the Canucks landed 19-year-old blue-chip prospect Zeev Buium, 23-year old former ninth-overall pick Marco Rossi, 21-year old 21st-overall pick Liam Ohgren and the Wild’s first-round pick in 2026.

With Hughes off the board, Rasmus Andersson becomes the best defender available. Andersson is not a Hughes-level talent (few are), so the return is not necessarily going to be comparable.

This trade does establish a high bar in the market, however. If Hughes had moved for a first-round pick and a prospect, that would have signalled a softer return for Andersson in the future.

This move also shifts the balance of power in the West. Minnesota’s addition of a legitimate superstar on the back-end gives them a formidable blueline and shows that GM Bill Guerin is willing to go all-in with this roster.

Hughes joins superstar Kirill Kaprizov and burgeoning starting goaltender Jesper Wallstedt as franchise pillars in an effort to challenge the dominance of the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche that currently sit atop the Western Conference.

This especially will put pressure on the Stars, who have been a rumoured trade partner for the Flames since the off-season. With Tyler Seguin injured for the rest of the season and Thomas Harley battling a lower-body injury, the Stars are a good bet to become aggressive in pursuit of quality depth as they gear up for a Cup run. Suddenly, acquiring a player like Andersson (or maybe Nazem Kadri) might take on even more importance.

Beyond Dallas, the Hughes trade applies pressure to other contenders in the league to improve their depth charts. Beyond the aforementioned Stars and Avalanche, there also are the Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights, Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals — all of whom are looking to make a deep run this year.

Calgary’s trio of noteworthy trade assets (Andersson, Kadri and Blake Coleman) could draw a high-level interest from any or all of these clubs.

This blockbuster trade also shows that major deals can be made in-season. Teams don’t necessarily have to wait until the trade deadline to get their business done.

The Flames have preferred a more passive “wait-and-see” approach to shopping their notable trade assets this year, perhaps waiting for an “offer they can’t refuse” to materialize out of the ether.

But with the Hughes deal breaking the seal on the market and (potentially) prompting other contenders to respond, now would be a good time to get more active in establishing a bidding war.

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In terms of the pursuit of the first-overall draft pick in 2026, the Canucks instantly become favourites to win the race to the bottom. While Rossi and Buium are highly talented players who can step right into the Vancouver lineup, losing one of the most impactful skaters in the league in Hughes can only make them worse in the short-term.

The club is also looking to flip pending UFA Kieffer Sherwood (third on the team in scoring) and likely will shop 27-year-old Elias Pettersson as well (although his declining results and $11.6 million per year price tag make moving him a lot more complicated).

A continued sell-off would make it difficult for the Flames to match Vancouver’s “lack of success” for the remainder of the season.

Hughes’ push for a trade made it clear to the Canucks leadership that a rebuild was inevitable. Over the next 12-plus months, expect them to dismantle their roster and liquidate other key veterans as they search for their next era-defining talent (who they may select in June if they indeed finish last overall).

For now, their surprising blockbuster deal benefits Calgary by igniting what was an inert trade market.

But in the long term, Vancouver is now less of a rival on the ice and more of an obstacle at the draft as Calgary tries to find its own next superstar talent.