Can Quinn Hughes Pull Off the "Joe Thornton"?

Joe Thornton is a one-of-a-kind figure in NHL history. It isn't just because of his work-of-art beard, unique status as a playmaking power forward, or his creative goal celebration ideas. (On a related note: congrats on your recent Rooster Trick, old friend Marat Khusnutdinov.)

When Thornton lifted the Hart Trophy in 2006, he secured his own page in the history books. He is the only NHL MVP to win the award in a year he was traded. The San Jose Sharks were 8-12-4 when they pulled off one of the biggest trades of the century. Thornton's presence transformed the team, which went 36-15-7 with him in the lineup. Jumbo Joe led the league with 125 points, propelling the Sharks to the playoffs.

Two decades later, the Minnesota Wild made the biggest mid-season trade the NHL has seen since Thornton, landing Quinn Hughes. The impact has been immediate, even if it's not quite reflected in the team's 8-3-4 record with Hughes in the lineup. Minnesota is a faster, more potent offensive team, controlling play at 5-on-5 in a way it simply wasn't without the superstar defenseman.

Hughes has been at the center of this new-look squad. John Hynes is giving him Prime Ryan Suter minutes; he's averaging 27 minutes, 45 seconds a night. Only Kirill Kaprizov has more points on the team than Hughes' 16 since his arrival, and Hughes is fourth among defensemen in scoring during that time. He's single-handedly fixed the Wild's transition problems.

It's been 15 games, but Hughes has played MVP-level hockey to start his Wild tenure. Evolving-Hockey has Hughes being worth 2.5 Standings Points Above Replacement to the Wild already. That's not just the difference between the Wild being 12 points above the playoff bubble and 9 or 10 points above it. It's tied for 27th in the NHL among defensemen. Again, in just 15 games!

Hughes isn't likely to keep that pace up for the final 35 games, but it's easy to see a world where he's able to double his full-season SPAR (3.3) and end the season around 7.0 SPAR. That would put him in the running for the best at his position in most years. And if he puts up about six points of value in 50 games for the Wild, is that enough to merit MVP consideration?

It'd be fun as hell, but the odds are stacked against Hughes by virtue of his position. The last time the Hart Trophy went to a defenseman was in the 1999-2000 season, when Chris Pronger won the award. We don't have SPAR data for that season. Still, since Pronger was second among NHL defensemen with 62 points and finished the year a ridiculous plus-52 on the President's Trophy-winning St. Louis Blues, we'll assume it was an exceptional year.

Even that factoid doesn't fully communicate how tough it is for a defenseman to win MVP. No defenseman has even been a finalist (that is, in the top three in voting) since Pronger won. The award typically goes to forwards having an insane scoring season, and there is a pretty obvious front-runner. Nathan MacKinnon is on a 66-goal, 148-point pace for the President's Trophy lock Colorado Avalanche. 

Another big issue is one of timing. The Wild may have started the season slowly, but they were playing at a 105-point pace by the time Hughes joined the team. Since then, the team has 20 points in 15 games, a 109-point pace. It's a boost, but not the night-and-day shift that Thornton gave the Sharks in 2005-06.

It's a fun scenario to contemplate, and there's time for it to build hype, but it's going to take Hughes a lot to muster an MVP campaign. They'll have to make a move on MacKinnon and the Avalanche to make it a real conversation, and that's a tall, tall order. The Wild have actually lost ground to the Avs since the trade, being 13 points behind the Central Division leaders, instead of 12 on December 14.

But whether or not Hughes can get an MVP campaign off the ground is secondary to the fact that he's playing like an MVP for Minnesota. He's fundamentally changing the team dynamic and raising their ceiling to heights the franchise has never seen. Joe Thornton's page in the history books is probably safe, but Quinn Hughes is at least looking capable of making this a conversation going forward.