Article: Wild Making History With New Broadcast

[Thomas Williams]

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[B1GKappa97]

Middsy, 2026 1st, Rossi for Hughes! 

Imagine a PP that can roll out Hughes AND Buium on the different units. Goalies would never get a break! And he produces in the playoffs, 26 points in 30 games. 

Hughes-Faber would be an epic tandem. And then you could leave Zeev with Spurgy. Brodin-Jiri starting next year. DO EET.

[mnfaninnc]

From what I saw, it was the vets who are UFAs at the end of the year that Vancouver is looking to trade. I don't think they're considering Hughes yet. Although, Hughes has made it known that he'd like to go play with his brothers when UFA status hits. 

[raithis]

4 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

Middsy, 2026 1st, Rossi for Hughes! 

Imagine a PP that can roll out Hughes AND Buium on the different units. Goalies would never get a break! And he produces in the playoffs, 26 points in 30 games. 

Hughes-Faber would be an epic tandem. And then you could leave Zeev with Spurgy. Brodin-Jiri starting next year. DO EET.

I don't see that happening without Buium going the other way.

I also don't think it's wise to trade out Rossi when we are weak at center already.

And lastly, I don't think it's wise to trade for Hughes at this point in time.  It's known that the Hughes brothers would like to play together.  Hughes is in year 5 of a 6 year contract and is a UFA at the end of it.  I could see him re-sign in Vancouver since he has a bit of a history there.  He won't have that same history with the Wild.  So the Wild would trade some of their best young players for a 1-2yr rental and he probably walks at the end of his contract or we have to trade him next year by the TDL just to get something for him - and we won't get back what we gave up.

All that would be a net loss for the Wild.

Hughes is a great player, but that ends up being a bad trade.  If he had 3-4yrs left on his contract, maybe I'd be more for it, but I just really doubt he'd re-sign given that there's a distinct likelihood that he's already looking toward signing in New Jersey in 2027.

[B1GKappa97]

47 minutes ago, raithis said:

I don't see that happening without Buium going the other way.

I also don't think it's wise to trade out Rossi when we are weak at center already.

I don't think we're weak at center. If we trade Rossi, we still have Ek, Yurov, Hartman and Sturm. 

I think its worth it to add a guy who can contribute 70+ points from the blueline myself. I mean that's Brent Burns level offensive production and he was a huge piece of the San Jose teams that were Cup contenders (even if they never made it.)

[raithis]

46 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

I don't think we're weak at center. If we trade Rossi, we still have Ek, Yurov, Hartman and Sturm. 

I think its worth it to add a guy who can contribute 70+ points from the blueline myself. I mean that's Brent Burns level offensive production and he was a huge piece of the San Jose teams that were Cup contenders (even if they never made it.)

If you ignore everything else I said, then sure that seems like a compelling argument.

If you don't ignore it, then you quickly realize that it's a short-term gain that ends up being a long-term loss.

70+ points sounds great, but we'd likely be trading that much out and thinning out who puts up points.  Hughes might put up points while he is here, but soon he would be gone and you lose out on all that as well as what Rossi and Buium would have become.  Again, if Hughes still had 3-4yrs on his contract, then that's different, though I would try to do it without Rossi.

Regarding Center:  Hartman can play center, but isn't a true center and sometimes isn't a factor at all for long stretches.  Yurov is solid for a young player but is still learning how to take a faceoff.  Ek has gotten hurt a lot in the last few seasons and I think it has helped having more centers and not having to lean on him so much.  And Sturm has just become healthy enough to play, but who knows whether the issue won't come back.  Hartman and Rossi are both currently hurt and the team is making do.  If Rossi was gone and two centers were down, the team would struggle.  The team is adequate for centers now.  Trading one out makes them weak and hinges the season even more on the health of the team.  The Wild are just starting to build depth.  It would not be wise to trade out the best young center on the team (and arguably the best center overall) for what would basically be a one year rental.  As enticing as someone like Hughes is, that's Fletcher-style roster management and this team does not need that.

 

[Beast]

I don’t think trading for a high end defenseman is a terrible idea.

I’d prefer to see a true lock down guy, though.  We’ve seen this team have success by prioritizing preventing goals, not out scoring the opponent.  Sacrificing some of that by trading a forward (center no less) that can score to get more offensive minded on the blue line might not work.

Id rather see a winger brought in.  But, the blue line will look different at some point.  There’s too many injury prone guys.  A Spurg or Brodin long term injury seems inevitable.  So, I could get on board with a defenseman.  I don’t think Hughes would be wise for the reasons stated by another above, or that he’d want to come here.

Obviously a true top line center would be ideal.  But that’s not happening.  Next best for me would be a big, physical power forward for the top 6.