The Minnesota Wild came out of nowhere to acquire Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks, and for a while the Detroit Red Wings were one of the frontrunners, but NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has the answers on why the deal fell through.
“While it’s still probably too early to say, it wouldn’t shock anyone if the New Jersey Devils are the frontrunner for Quinn Hughes, because his brothers Jack and Luke suit up for the club, but there are other teams interested as well including the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings.”-Jaxon
Why did the Detroit Red Wings fail with Quinn Hughes?
“The Canucks got rookie Zeev Buium from the Minnesota Wild to potentially replace Hughes on their blue line. So, it makes sense that the Canucks wanted someone similar from the Red Wings. While Detroit wasn’t going to give up Moritz Seider, there’s a good chance that Edvisson could have been the piece in question.”-Quixtan
For the Red Wings as well, re-signing Hughes would have been a tall task, while they experienced some early season success, sitting atop the Atlantic division, with how tight the conference is, one bad week and the Red Wings could see themselves out of a playoff position. Meanwhile the Wild are clear contenders this season, they have all the pieces needed to win the Stanley Cup and now they added Hughes as the icing on the cake. Hughes is more likely to sign in Minnesota than Detroit.
The Red Wings may have dodged a bullet altogether with Hughes, if he doesn’t sign in Minnesota, and the Wild do not win a Cup in the two years he’s there, it’ll be a failed trade for them. And the Red Wings can keep their promising prospects watching it all happen.