Quinn Hughes unlocked new gear for Wild
Congratulations to the Minnesota Wild, who won their first playoff series since 2015 on Thursday when they defeated the Dallas Stars 5-2 in Game 6, advancing to the second round to face the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche. A ton of credit has to be given to Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who made the bold and aggressive move to acquire star defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks back in December.
Since coming over to Minnesota, Hughes has formed a dynamic defense pairing with Brock Faber that is able to dominate possession through skating and puck control. The Wild have never had a defenseman quite like Hughes, and his three-point performance on Thursday underscored the importance he has had to Minnesota’s success.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Locked On Wild host Seth Toupal to discuss how Hughes and Faber have raised the ceiling for the Wild.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to talk about that D-pairing of Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes. With the two of them on the ice at 5-on-5, the score was 7-1 for the Minnesota Wild. They are not a pairing that is the traditional, throw-back, get a big, strong defenseman to shut down the other team’s stars, but man, the results were just unbelievable there. What about those two players and their styles just complement each other so well? And just talk about how much fun they are to watch.
Seth Toupal: Unbelievable, to say the least, to watch those guys do their thing every night. Quinn Hughes came in and just single-handedly gave this Wild team a new gear. That pairing between him and Brock Faber, it’s been so fun watching them. They started off as kind of a high-event pairing, where there were a lot of chances for the opponent because I think they were just playing a faster style than we’re used to seeing in Minnesota.
Those guys were incredible in this series. You’ve got Quinn Hughes making key defensive plays throughout to course of this series. I think as the games started to carry more weight, they found a way to kick it up to another level. For as many people here in Minnesota are wondering if Quinn Hughes is going to stick around, I’m pretty emphatically “yes” in that category, by the way. That pairing is going to be key for this Minnesota team for the next several years, and seeing them really find what has made them great, and watching them just destroy their opponents has been awesome.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…