Article: How Do the Wild Maximize Quinn Hughes?

[Luke Sims]

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[FredJohnson]

Great article, Luke! Thanks for sharing.

Does anyone know what Jo Bro's injury status is?

[Enforceror]

9 minutes ago, FredJohnson said:

Great article, Luke! Thanks for sharing.

Does anyone know what Jo Bro's injury status is?

I believe he's day to day. I'm guessing they rested him for Edmonton/Colorado but what the hell do I know?

[B1GKappa97]

Put him with Jiricek! All gas, no brakes (literally xD)

But for real, I think putting him with Fabes is best. Its getting Faber to step into the play more too and he's got some underrated offensive chops.

Real question, to me, is what you do with the rest of them. Brodin-Spurgy would be a great shutdown pair, and I think Middsy-Bogo is a good 3rd pairing, but we also know that a Middsy-Spurgy combo can be great too. And if you put Brodin with Bogo/Jiricek, then those guys can focus on shooting bombs from the blueline more. 

I suppose Hynes could always just mix and match with the bottom-4 too, depending on who he's going up against. 

Edited December 20, 2025 by B1GKappa97

[FredJohnson]

22 minutes ago, B1GKappa97 said:

I suppose Hynes could always just mix and match with the bottom-4 too, depending on who he's going up against

Probably this^^^

Who is healthy...who just needs rest...who needs to sit??

[mnfaninnc]

Along with BK97, I also think Faber is his best partner. Faber can defend 2/3rds of the gaps defensively, but has shown the ability to hit another level with someone who can keep up with him.

It's one thing to play in structure, and Faber has done that. It's another thing to play with a dynamic partner where you have the ability to keep up and see the game much like the other guy. Structure tends to then be a suggestion rather than a rule. 

There's still quite a learning curve on both sides. It appears as if Hughes has downshifted a lot, and is trying to play the game within the structure. However, he has game breaking ability and the only other partner to deal with this is Faber + Faber is right handed furthering the partnership. That D pair has extra jump that I think is sustainable. And, both can eat minutes well.

As far as being a 1 man breakout, I do think this is where Hughes has slowed the most on the PP. They keep trying to do that stupid drop pass thing when Hughes is more than capable of bringing the puck up himself. To date, they are not taking full advantage of the player's strengths, and our special teams coach needs to change this. Let Hughes come up the ice with speed and get some of the other guys to come up with speed with him. Having guys standing at the blueline leaves them flat footed, they need to be moving when Hughes or others get there. 

With the lack of practice days right now, changing this up is going to be a challenge. It might not be able to be done until after the Olympic break. But, that also gives the coaches time to redesign. This should be a tremendously potent PP, but right now it looks to me like they're spinning their wheels in sand. That is a sign of mentally not knowing what the other is going to do.

I wouldn't mind tinkering with Faber on PP1, and putting Zuccy on PP2. Kaprizov stays for the full 2 minutes, but I think having Zuccy and Hughes together is redundancy. PP2 lately has been the better unit, mainly because they know each other.