Lock Hughes In<\/p>\n
The best gift the Wild can give themselves this summer is cost certainty, whether it\u2019s restrictive or not. The new cornerstone of their defense \u2013 that cost them the equivalent of four first-round picks to acquire \u2013 is entering the final year of his contract at a now-bargain $7.85MM cap hit and becomes eligible to sign an extension in 11 days.<\/p>\n
No one is expecting that news to drop on July 1. There has long been well-founded speculation that Hughes would love to, at some point in his career, link up with New Jersey-based brothers Jack Hughes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Luke Hughes<\/a>, whether that\u2019s with the Devils or elsewhere.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say he isn\u2019t interested in extending his stay in the State of Hockey. He made it clear after the Wild\u2019s season ended last month<\/a> that he was open to extension discussions this summer.<\/p>\n A max-term deal to keep him committed to Minnesota for his whole prime seems unlikely for reasons mentioned above. The Athletic\u2019s Michael Russo reported that the Wild tried to acquire Luke to join him this season but were unsuccessful. With that very real storyline in mind, most are expecting a three-year extension to align the expiry of Quinn\u2019s next deal with Jack\u2019s current one, allowing those two to pick their next destination together in 2030.<\/p>\n Of course, that would be a rare choice for a player in his position, but the desire to play with his brothers is an extenuating circumstance. AFP Analytics\u2019 extension projection<\/a> is an eight-year term at just north of $15MM per season. That cap hit likely wouldn\u2019t change much on a shorter-term deal to make him the league\u2019s new highest-paid defenseman by a wide margin. It would also leave the Wild with around $30MM in projected cap space for 2027-28 with half their roster unaccounted for. That\u2019s worth monitoring.<\/p>\n Find A Top-Six Center<\/p>\n Acquiring Hughes came at the expense of thinning out Minnesota\u2019s already fragile center depth, just as\u00a0Marco Rossi<\/a>\u00a0was beginning to hit his stride. With Rossi out of the picture, there\u2019s no clear-cut top-six option outside of two-way standout\u00a0Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a>\u00a0who\u2019s better cast as a high-end second-liner.<\/p>\n Danila Yurov<\/a>, a late first-round selection in 2022, could be an option long-term after seeing some significant time down the middle last year. But he\u2019s a natural winger and only managed 12 goals and 27 points as a rookie, not the type of production worthy of earning a look down the middle next to Kaprizov.<\/p>\n He\u2019s coming off a fifth straight 30-goal, 60-point season and won\u2019t be back in Detroit next season after requesting a trade. Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press<\/a> believes the Wild are one of three teams on the initial list of clubs for which he\u2019s willing to waive his no-move clause, so that\u2019s one obstacle out of the way.<\/p>\n Rebuild Wing Depth<\/p>\n Aside from their center question, this offseason will still see notable change to Minnesota\u2019s forward group. They have several veterans hitting the free agent market, particularly on the wings.<\/p>\n One of them, recent second-line mainstay\u00a0Marcus Johansson<\/a>, has already opted to return to his native Sweden<\/a> and won\u2019t be back. Also hitting the open market are\u00a0Mats Zuccarello<\/a>,\u00a0Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a>, and trade-deadline pickup\u00a0Nick Foligno<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tarasenko is the youngest of that group at age 34. It\u2019s fair to question whether any of them should be brought back. With that bit of organizational depth needing replenishing, it\u2019s fair to wonder if Guerin will target several younger names on the open market \u2013 potentially some non-tendered RFAs in need of a fresh start \u2013 to fill those support slots up and down the forward lineup.<\/p>\n Improve Possession Play<\/p>\n The Wild\u2019s strong special teams on both ends were a big reason behind their 104-point record. Their 5-on-5 possession numbers \u2013 which the past several Stanley Cup champions have now shown are usually a great marker of postseason success \u2013 were uncharacteristically poor.<\/p>\n Minnesota\u2019s defense-oriented identity through most of their franchise history has usually served them well in that regard. Yet they only controlled 48.8% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 last year, 24th in the league and their second straight year under the 50% mark.<\/p>\n The Wild will need to decide whether their possession struggles, coinciding with head coach John Hynes\u2019 hire in late 2023, are a coincidence or not. After back-to-back playoff appearances, they\u2019re not overly eager to make a coaching change.<\/p>\n Analytics-forward front offices such as Florida\u2019s and Carolina\u2019s are fast becoming the mark of consistent championship contenders. It\u2019ll be up to Guerin now whether he decides to follow that increasingly proven path.<\/p>\n Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason\u00a0is now in full effect following Carolina\u2019s Stanley Cup title.\u00a0 Accordingly, it\u2019s now time to examine what\u00a0teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,38,4,63047,697],"class_list":["post-603408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-hockey","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-offseason-checklist-2026","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116784983292548070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/USATSI_28630003-1-215x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Minnesota\u2019s large existing financial commitment to Kaprizov and their pending one to Hughes, plus the assets they already gave up to acquire him, likely take them out of the picture for any truly marquee No. 1 piece \u2013 not that there are even any available at the moment. A lower-end first-line option, though, like the Red Wings\u2019\u00a0Dylan Larkin<\/a>, is feasible.<\/p>\n