The Wild are going to be tough to score on with Hughes addition

The Minnesota Wild shocked the hockey world late Friday night, acquiring elite defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade that saw the Wild give up Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick.

With the addition of Hughes, Minnesota beefs up a blue line that already deployed a talented group which includes Jared Spurgeon, David Jiricek, Jonas Brodin and Jacob Middleton. When you factor in their top goaltending duo in Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, who have a combined goals saved above expected of 19.8, the Wild could arguably be the toughest team to score on in the second half of this season.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Hughes trade and what it means for Minnesota’s blue line.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Hughes debuted on the top pair with Brock Faber over the weekend. The Wild also have Jared Spurgeon and David Jiricek, whom you paid a lot to get, as well as Daemon Hunt and Zach Bogosian. While Jonas Brodin and Jacob Middleton are hurt, they will eventually be rocking a third pair of Middleton and Jiricek, and that’s better than most second pairs in the league.

Couple that with the fact they have Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt, one of the best goaltending duos in the league. I just look at having to go up against this Wild team in a playoff series, how in the world are you going to score enough goals on this group to win four out of seven games?

Carter Hutton: I know, it’s been insane, right? It feels like this run by Wallstedt has platooned into Gustavsson, as he’s been playing better as of late. For this defensive corps, you’re going to see these goalie numbers inflate as you see the mobility and predictability in how Minnesota can defend.

Then you look at Middleton and Brodin still being out. Every pair that goes over the wall will be rock solid, right? That’s what it’s going to take in that Central Division, which is absolutely loaded when you look at the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.

For Minnesota and the fans, it’s been a lot of years of making the playoffs and having a first-round exit.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…