Jack Hughes Traded to the Wild: Reporters Suggest the Possibility

Michaël Petit
Jack Hughes Traded to the Wild: Reporters Suggest the Possibility
Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images

The Minnesota Wild are actively looking for a top-6 center, ideally for their first line.

It's not always easy to add a player of that caliber, but the team has been strongly linked to Dylan Larkin ever since he requested a trade.

The team was also very interested in Robert Thomas, but the Blues rejected a trade that would have sent Danila Yurov and Jesper Wallstedt to St. Louis.

Now, the Wild are reportedly in the running for a bigger name than Larkin and Thomas.

In fact, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic recently wrote an article suggesting that Jack Hughes could be a target for Bill Guerin.

It comes a bit out of the blue, but it would certainly be a huge coup for the Wild.

Not only would they land a top-10 NHL center, but they'd also be bringing in Quinn Hughes' brother.

However, when you think about it, this is going to cost the Wild a LOT…

For starters, the team needs a center, so they can't trade Joel Eriksson Ek. Plus, there aren't exactly a lot of wingers to choose from, so Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy wouldn't be logical trade candidates.

(Credit: Daily Faceoff)

 

On the other hand, there's always the option of acquiring, in addition to Jack Hughes, another lower-tier winger if a player like Boldy is included.

So the package would likely include Boldy, top prospect Danila Yurov, and probably promising young goaltender Jesper Wallstedt.

Remember that Jacob Markstrom was traded to the Panthers, and the Devils now have Jake Allen and Nico Daws as their goalies.

However, the Devils would likely want another center in return as well to support Nico Hischier.

A trade could look something like this:

To Minnesota: Jack Hughes + Connor Brown or Arseni Gritsyuk

To New Jersey: Matt Boldy + Danila Yurov + Jesper Wallstedt + Ryan Hartman + a first-round pick

And even then, I wonder if the Devils would be interested in the offer. Would it be absolutely necessary to include Kaprizov? At this point, the salary cap could very well be an issue for the Devils, since Kaprizov has an annual salary of $17 million.

It's still interesting that the two journalists from The Athletic have opened the door to this possibility.


In a Nutshell

– Worth a read.

– Interesting.

– Well.

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