The Athletic Hockey Show - Quinn Hughes traded to the Minnesota Wild | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler give their instant reaction to the massive Quinn Hughes trade which sent the Norris Trophy-winning defenseman from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick.Hosts: Corey Pronman and Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris FlanneryWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome to The Athletic Hockey Show. My name is Corey Promen. I'm here with Scott Wheeler here on a busy Friday night where one of the biggest blockbuster trades in modern NHL history just occurred with superstar and Norris Schofrey winning defenseman, Quinn Hughes being traded to the Minnesota Wild. It exchanged for Zeeve Boyam, Marco Rossi, Liam Ogren, and an unprotected. protected first round pick is a

2026 at the HL draft. Obviously, a massive move for the wild in an attempt to win right now. They are a team that is high atop the Western Conference standings right now, right below the Dallas stars and the Vegas Golden Knights,

and of course the Colorado Avalanche and points percentage. And Scott, I guess the ultimate question that wild fans are going to be wondering, and I think I hope the wild management think this is true, given they made this massive trade is when you look at the top of the Western Conference, in particular the Colorado Avalanche, are the Minnesota Wilde in the conversation now with those teams?

I'm not sure whether this gets them into the conversation with the Minnesota or with the Colorado Avalanche, but I think this gets them into a much tighter potential series with just about anybody else in the Western Conference. I do still think that the avalanche, if Nathan McKinnon and Kail McCar are at the peaks of their powers, I think the avalanche are still a cut above. They've had some surprising depth stories with Colorado this year. But you look at this wild roster and suddenly you've got the three or four big pieces that a typical contending team, Stanley Cup level team has. Like the emergence of Matt Boldy, we know what Krell Kapparzov is, but the emergence of Matt Boldy and now a real two-headed monster on the back end in Brock

Faber and Quinn Hughes, who could potentially pair together. That's four stunts. And I'm not sure they quite have the depth to match up with a Carolina Hurricanes or a Colorado avalanche. And they might not have the star power to match up with an Edmonton Oilers or a Colorado avalanche. But I don't know. They're firmly in the mix now. The one concern I would have with the wild is you see the skill, like obviously guys like Boldie and Capers off have a ton of ability. Now you add Quinn Hughes. That power play is going to be absolutely deadly. He's already been a very good power play to start the season. their underlying numbers aren't amazing.

This is not a team that tends to tilt the ice. And, you know, probably one of their best players, if not their best player in the first half of the season, has been goaltender. Yesper Wollstead, who has been absolutely phenomenal to start the year. And I think we agree that he's a very good young goalie. However, Scott, I do wonder, if Wollstead ever comes back down to Earth, you know, I do wonder how good this team is as a pure, even strength team right now. even with Quinn Hughes, who will change that conversation significantly. Yeah. Yes.

Certainly the 25 minutes a night that he's on the ice, your even strength metrics are going to change. But I think it's a fair question to ask. Like even Teresanko and some of the sort of quote unquote complimentary pieces that they have are not drivers at five on five. They can score. They can finish. They can make plays. But they don't really have those true, true drivers. And you do still wonder about down the middle.

and just what down the middle looks like when you've got Nathan McKinn on the other side. You've got Carter McDavid and Leon Dreisdell and potentially Ryan Nugenthal. We'll see whether Hopkins sticks on the wing or whether he ends up as a 3C again in Edmonton or that kind of a thing. But that that's still the area of concern for me is that the middle of the ice is not their bread and butter. And playoff hockey is one predominantly down the middle and with hot goaltending. And I still don't know to your point about, I think your point about Walsstett's well made. this is still a kid who's never started a playoff game. So there's still some questions that they have to answer,

but I think you feel so much better about some of the metrics starting to trend back in the right direction when you've got Quinn Hughes out there for half the game when it matters most. If they can or can't get Quinn Hughes extended, how will that change your perception of this trade for the wild? Well, I almost wonder if that's the scenario, they're going to have to make a difficult decision similar to the one that the Carolina hurricanes made on Miko Ranton. Like I do wonder if that's a conversation that we're starting to, if they can't, when the summer rolls around, he's eligible to be re-signed on a new long-term deal.

And those rules on long-term deals are also changing with the new CBA kicking in. I do wonder if a year from now we may be starting to have similar conversations to the ones we had around Miko Rannan, if they can't lock him in. But I'm sure Bill Garen with the relationship that he has with Quinn Hughes feels pretty confident that he's going to be able to get that done. They spent a pretty penny, though, to get that done on Krell Kappersov, which I think also raises the bar. You don't have a sort of high-end talent who signed on a team-friendly deal that you can rely on in order to build that culture like they did in Tampa and in Boston, where the upper limits were the upper limits. The upper limit now is the highest paid player in the league in Karel Kapparzov. Quinn Hughes is going to want to be paid, I would imagine, like Keryl Kappersov is paid.

So it is a tricky dynamic that they've now put themselves in. And you have to recoup. If you can't get that deal done, you have to recoup assets. Like there's just no question you can trade Zev Boyam and Marco Rossi. And we can get to what those guys mean for Vancouver. You cannot give those assets away and then not retain him or not find a way to deal him and recoup a lot of it like Carolina did with Logan Stanco. and in company.

Well, you mentioned Zeeve Boym, so let's get to the Vancouver part of this trade right now. I think Zeev Boyam has been one of the more interesting stories this year in the NHL. He got up to a great start. I think it was a point per game through the first 11, 12 games. He's leveled off a little bit more recently. I think there's been some concerns with his defensive play at times. However, he's still a very young player. This is just one and a half years removed from being drafted in the NHL.

I think the question Canucks fans have is I don't think people are realistically expecting him to replace Quinn Hughes or become what Quinn Hughes has become. I don't think that's ever going to be a real expectation for any young player. But just how good can Boyin B,

you know, how has the first few months of the NHL season colored your perception of this player and where does he go from here? Well, if you're a Vancouver Canuck fan and you were in a a sort of haze after the trade happened or a bit of a panic after the trade happened, not sure what to think. You are, and you're tuning in right now, you are lucky that the two of us

are on this call because we're both very, very high on Zeev. We've both been high on Zeev dating back a year or two years now. I'm still a big believer in Zeev. I know the defending has been a bit of a struggle for him at times, but he just turned, we're recording this on the evening of December 12th. He just turned 20 years old on December 7th. So he's five days past his 20th birthday. Basically every game he's played in the NHL to date has been as a 19-year-old. This is while we watch 21-year-old Simon Nemich still figuring it out. And David Yerechek still figuring it out.

And it takes time. It's very, despite what Matthew Schaefer is doing, it's incredibly hard to play at this level as a teenager. So I think that's going to come. I still love him on the power play. I love him creating offense at five-on-five. His ability to shake pressure actually is, a little Quinn Hughes-esque just in terms of the head fakes and the shoulder fakes and

beating the first layer of pressure. So, and he's got good feet and a good stick and a smart and he's competitive for his size. Like, I do think the defending is going to come. So I think there's, there should be a ton of excitement in Vancouver. I know it's tough to lose your captain and a franchise defenseman the way that they did. You should be retaining those players. They deserve criticism for not retaining him. All of that is true.

But given what they're getting back, like, maybe we can touch on it, but whether it was Simon Edvinson or Simon Nemich in New Jersey, some of the comparable pieces that they would have been asking other teams who were rumored to be in the mix. I think Zeeve is a comparable player

to any of those names that were floated out in terms of pure, pure upside. I don't think he's quite the skater that Quinn Hughes is, and I think that's going to hold him back and be able to defend at the way that Quinn Hughes can defend even at his size, even though I don't think that's what you make get excited about Quinn Hughes's game.

You know, I think of like, Maybe when I've watched Zee, I think of Chris Latang a little bit in terms of, like, the potential comp for him. Like, I still think there's a guy who could be a potential top pair, top power play type of guy, you know, a really impactful young defenseman. But obviously, again, Quinn Hughes is a special, special player. I don't know if getting to that level is quite interesting. It's quite realistic, sorry. And then Marco Rossi. I think Liam Ogren, I think we'll get, we can get them, but I think we kind of agree.

He's kind of, you know, a meat of potatoes, hardworking guy. Complementary. maybe, you know, maybe second line if you're not that good. Offense isn't high. But I think Marco Rossi is going to be one of the most interesting pieces here because he's really been up and down over, you know, really the last five, six years. He's had some really high highs and some lower lows here.

And he's been a productive NHL player. You know, he plays a premium position, even if he's not the biggest or the fastest. You know, you're one of the biggest Marco Rossi supporters. So we'll hear the maybe the pro-Marco Rossi argument here is like, what is the projection? for him going four now into Vancouver? Yeah, I've been a big proponents of Marcos.

Frankly, I was probably too high on Marco in his draft year. I had him around five on my list in his draft year. Obviously, he slips and goes closer to 10. But a big, big fan of him and his game, extremely smart player. Like, that's the defining quality of his game. It's just the way he thinks the game. But he's also, despite not being the biggest kid, he's a pretty strong kid. And he's hardworking.

He's competitive. Like he's willing to be in the mix. He's not always going to win battles and come out with pucks, but it's never, it has never struck me as a lack of effort thing. It's, it's more maybe a physical limitation thing. And to your point, I think it's maybe the skating that has held him back at times. Like when you're that size, you have to be, you don't have to always be a burner, but by and large, they're, their top end skaters or at least strong, like skating is a,

primary element for them. That's not really been the case for, for Marco. works, he gets after it, but it's really this skill level on the puck and the smarts that define him. I think he's, he's kind of that that tweener, two C, three C on a, like three C on a, on a on a, on a contender two or a three. Yeah, I think he's on on the current Vancouver Canucks, he's probably a two C on a Vancouver Canucks team that wants to win a Stanley Cup. He's probably a little bit lower in the lineup.

But can he become what he was last year for for the Minnesota Wilde? Can he become a regular sort of 55 to 60 point guy in the NHL who contributes on your power play and is a solid productive player? Yes, I still believe he's going to have that kind of a career and be an impactful guy. I don't know whether he's a needle mover. Like, I don't think he's a true driver on a cup contending team. When you look at some of the start player trade, the recent history like the Jack Eichael trade, it's a big hall for the Vancouver Canucks, getting potentially three or four NHL players in return for Quinn Hughes. We'll have more on this deal on the Monday show. Thanks for tuning into the athletic hockey show. Talk to you soon.