ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A “Welcome to Minnesota” message played on the video board during a first period break, and Minnesota Wild fans loudly welcomed Quinn Hughes to the self-proclaimed “State of Hockey.”
Hughes did not seem to notice because he had his head turned to the right and was talking defensive strategy with assistant coach Jack Capuano.
It was almost apropos that Hughes didn’t know which way to look after what could be described as a head-spinning couple of days.
“It’s been a whirlwind for sure. I’m just looking forward to kind of getting my feet on the ground and get with the team here and get in a day-to-day lifestyle here,” he said after scoring once in Sunday’s 6-2 win over Boston. “The last 48 hours have been a lot, but I was excited to go play the game.”
The comments were his first since Hughes was acquired in a blockbuster trade with Vancouver on Friday. The Wild gave up three former first-round picks — Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and Liam Ohgren — and a 2026 first-round pick to acquire one of the league’s top blueliners.
“It felt a little bit like we had a little more swagger out there today,” goalie Filip Gustavsson said.
Wild coach John Hynes noted Hughes didn’t get as much as a pregame skate before playing for real with his new teammates. Puck drop was 5 p.m. local time.
“Overall, I thought it was exciting to have him, and obviously you see the type of player he is. I think he fits in well with our group and the way that we wanna play,” Hynes said.
Hughes received rousing ovations when he hit the ice for warmups and when he was the last player to leave the frozen surface.
“I wasn’t expecting that. But that was very cool. I know it’s a hockey market but that was exciting,” Hughes said.
“Warm-ups I think was the loudest I’ve ever heard it since I’ve played here,” said Brock Faber, who was paired with Hughes as the Wild’s top defensive pairing. “It doesn’t happen often that a guy like that gets moved, so it was really cool and it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch for our fans.”
There’s been speculation Hughes would like to join in his two younger brothers in New Jersey, when his contract expires after the 2026-27 season.
Hughes remains open minded.
“I’ve only been here four hours but getting to know some of the guys and how energetic and positive guys are and then Minnesota being so close to Michigan and just the State of Hockey and the passion here,” Hughes said, before referencing what general Manager Bill Guerin gave up for him.
“There are other teams that probably could have thrown in certain packages like that, too, but at the end of the day they didn’t want to do that or they didn’t want to trade two or three assets from their team. Billy did, so I’ll remember that.”
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