play1:47Why Quinn Hughes’ trade to Wild puts rest of NHL on noticeGreg Wyshynski breaks down why he loves the trade of Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
Why Quinn Hughes’ trade to Wild puts rest of NHL on noticeGreg Wyshynski breaks down why he loves the trade of Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
Ryan S. ClarkJan 18, 2026, 07:26 PM ETCloseRyan S. Clark is an NHL reporter for ESPN.Follow on X
Dec. 12: Wild land Hughes in a December blockbuster
Dec. 12: Oilers land Jarry, send Skinner to Penguins in goalie swap
Previously, the Vancouver Canucks traded Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, in exchange for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick. Earlier, the Pittsburgh Penguins sent goaltender Tristan Jarry and forward Sam Poulin to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for goaltender Stuart Skinner, defenseman Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick.
Throughout the season up until the March 6 deadline, ESPN reporters will be grading each side on all of the big swaps, with the latest deals highest up on this page.
Trading for a top-pairing defenseman from the Calgary Flames is something the Vegas Golden Knights have done before, landing Noah Hanifin in 2024.
This trade had quite a few angles. It starts with why the Golden Knights felt it was necessary to trade for the most sought-after defenseman weeks before the Olympic break.
Their underlying metrics show that their defensive structure was finding success. They entered Sunday giving up the fewest shots against per 60 minutes, the second fewest high-danger chances allowed per 60, and the ninth fewest scoring chances allowed per 60.
It’s one of the major reasons they enter this week sitting atop the Pacific Division standings, with the eighth-most points in the NHL.
The disconnect has been with their goaltending throughout most of the season. The Golden Knights have a .884 team save percentage in all situations, tied for the third-lowest percentage in the NHL.
Maybe more could have been done in net — with the idea that there’s still time ahead of the March 6 deadline. Alternatively, they might believe they have the answer in Akira Schmid, considering he has 15 wins, a 2.45 goals-against average and a 2.90 goals saved above average that is 26th among the 56 goalies with more than 700 minutes played.
But there’s another question: Is there such thing as a team being too good on defense? Especially when there has been a need to find more consistency in net?
That presents another reality within all the angles of this deal: the Golden Knights’ presumed second defense pairing is good enough to be a top pairing elsewhere.
Using that duo did more than just give the Flames a trusted top partnership. It gave them two defenseman who could each score more than 10 goals, facilitate the puck, and be trusted to play in every possible situation.
It’s a similar situation the Golden Knights had a few years ago with, you guessed it, Hanifin before he signed an eight-year contract extension worth $7.35 million annually.
Let’s say Anderson does end up signing an extension. This trade would become another one that lands the Golden Knights front office an “A” grade in their win-at-all-costs pursuit for the second title in franchise history
It’s becoming an all-too familiar script for the Flames over the past five or so years: moving on from some of their best players with the mission of finding a deal that helps the franchise in the short and long term.
Whitecloud helps them now, in that they get a proven right-shot, top-four Stanley Cup winner who can play heavy minutes. He has two years left on his contract after this season, worth $2.75 million annually. It’s the sort of contract that allows the Flames to explore a few options.
The first is that they keep him given his experience and contract value for a team that now has $8.545 million in salary cap space, per PuckPedia. The second is they could seek to trade him either this season or in the future to a contender in need of defensive help; again, he provides extensive Stanley Cup playoff experience at a team-friendly price.
Now they have two first-round picks in 2026 and again in 2027, with both of those extra first-rounders coming by way of the Golden Knights. (And potentially another one down the road if Vegas wins the Cup.)
Wiebe was a seventh-round pick in 2022 who is currently in his third year at the University of North Dakota. The 6-foot-3 Wiebe has three goals and 14 points in 24 games for UND. He becomes added defensive depth for the Flames’ system.
Everything was quiet Friday … until it wasn’t. Because that’s when the first blockbuster trade of the season happened, with an expected name going to an unexpected place.
The Vancouver Canucks traded captain and star defenseman Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild with defenseman Zeev Buium, forward Liam Ohgren, forward Marco Rossi and a 2026 first-round pick going in the other direction.
How did both general managers perform in what is easily the biggest trade of the season to this stage?
Why Quinn Hughes’ trade to Wild puts rest of NHL on notice
Greg Wyshynski breaks down why he loves the trade of Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
In recent years, the Wild built one of the best farm systems in the NHL. Investing in their system and in player development gave them options … and they used three of those options to land one of the NHL’s best defensemen.
Hughes gives the Wild a Norris Trophy winner who can be used in every situation, starting with the offensive zone. Finding ways to consistently score goals has been a challenge for the Wild over the past few seasons.
Not that Hughes can single-handedly solve for that one problem. But he can definitely help, considering he has had four straight seasons of more than 60 assists and is projected to finish with 56 having missed a portion of this season with an injury.
How crucial is that for the Wild? Hughes’ 60 assists alone would have been tied for second on the team in points last season. His 76 total points also would have led the Wild outright in that category. The 21 assists that he has this season would already be the most if he played the whole season for the Wild, and his 23 points are tied for the third most on the roster.
Hughes also provides the Wild with another option — in addition to Brock Faber — who can be trusted to play in every key situation for long periods. The Wild could even pair them together if needed to form a combination that can defend and then quickly break out into transition.
The Wild’s top-four defensive unit also features Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon and Faber, while Jake Middleton is logging more than 18 minutes per game.
Of course, adding Hughes came with a premium package going the other way. Buium was in his first full NHL season, having been a first-round pick in 2024. Ohgren was a first-round pick in 2022, and Rossi was a first-round pick in 2020.
The thought was that Buium would be part of the long-term plan, whereas Ohgren was a bit more of a work in progress given he had spent part of the season in the AHL. Rossi re-signed with the Wild having just spent the 2024-25 season and the early portion of the offseason as a possible trade target before agreeing to that new deal.
But there was also the matter of where those three fit into the Wild’s current lineup. Buium was on the third pairing, with the idea that he could be elevated into the top four at some point. Ohgren was playing amid the Wild’s injury crisis — Rossi and others had been on IR this season — but has zero points in 18 games.
Parlaying a sizable part of their future to get Hughes signals that the Wild are intent on breaking into that collection of teams that are in a championship window. Two of them — the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars — are ahead of the Wild in the Central Division standings right now.
Hughes has one more year left on his current contract at $7.85 million before hitting free agency in the summer of 2027, but he can sign an extension as of July 1, 2026. Whatever happens between now and then could play a role in defining one of the biggest trades in Wild franchise history.
Going from being a game away from the Western Conference finals in 2024 to potentially winning the lottery over a two-year period prompted some difficult questions in Vancouver.
Figuring out whether the franchise needed to move on from Hughes might have been the most difficult.
They went with the second option, which has a chance to potentially start paying dividends now for a franchise that entered Friday with the worst record in the NHL — but that is also the owner of two first-round picks in this summer’s draft.
Ohgren is a potential top-nine option who has shown promise with what he has done at the AHL level. By skating more minutes with the Canucks, he could possibly find offensive consistency. He has two years remaining before becoming an RFA.
Rossi has a chance to establish himself as the Canucks’ second-line center upon his return from injury. Trading J.T. Miller last season created a void that was slated to be filled by a player who came over in that deal, Filip Chytil. Chytil had three goals through six games before sustaining an upper-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup since Oct. 19.
Rossi, who is in the first year of a three-year bridge deal, could return as soon as Sunday to provide the Canucks with another top-six option down the middle.
The Edmonton Oilers finally addressed their multiple-season problem in goal by acquiring Pittsburgh Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry.
The Oilers sent goalie Stuart Skinner, defenseman Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick to Pittsburgh for Jarry and forward Sam Poulin.
The 21-year-old, who was a fourth-round pick by the Penguins in 2022, has grown into potentially their most promising prospect. He starred in the MHL, the premier Russian junior league, for two seasons after he was drafted. He also won four of his seven KHL games while posting a .928 save percentage in those stints.
Murashov came to North America last season where he posted a .922 save percentage over 26 ECHL games before a .913 mark in the AHL in 16 games. He has a .943 save percentage in 11 AHL games this season, while having a .912 save percentage and a 1.90 goals-against average in four games with the Penguins.