It appears as though the Vancouver Canucks are in the initial stages of preparing to sell off assets as they’ve slogged through yet another subpar start to their season, and the Detroit Red Wings could be in prime position to right a wrong from 2018.
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As you may recall, the Red Wings selected forward Filip Zadina with the sixth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. The Canucks followed by selecting Hughes, who was bred in the nearby suburb of Ann Arbor by playing for the University of Michigan Wolverines.
As a freshman, he set a school record with 24 assists, the most ever by a first-year defenseman, and earned selections on both the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and the All-Big Ten Second Team.
Hughes also played for the U.S. National Team Development Program, based in Plymouth.
While Detroit’s selection of Zadina seemed like a steal at the time, both players could not have gone in more opposite directions during their respective NHL careers.
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Zadina never panned out as expected and ultimately finished his time with the Red Wings having scored just 28 goals in 190 games. He played a lone season with the San Jose Sharks in 2023-24, scoring 13 goals in 72 games before returning overseas, where he now plays in Switzerland with Davos HC.
Meanwhile, Hughes has blossomed into not only the best defenseman in Canucks history, but also one of the most talented blue liners in recent NHL memory. He has already become the franchiseâ€s all-time leader in both assists and total points by a defenseman, and set a new NHL record for a defenseman by reaching 300 career assists in just 376 games.
He also won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman in 2024.
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Hughes, who is under contract for one more season at a reasonable $7.85 million cap hit, was linked to the Red Wings amid the uncertainty facing the Canucks. The speculation came from Insider Tyler Yaremchuk during a Daily Faceoff Live segment with fellow Insider and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton.
Yaremchuk said the following:
“If you were to go get Quinn Hughes in the middle of this season, maybe a team like Detroit would be willing to pay a lot for him, going, ‘You know what? We’re going to be ablde to get him in our organization for a year and a half. Even if he walks at the end of it, we get two playoff runs out of him, or we have 18 months to convince this guy to stay and show we’re serious about contending.'”
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The Red Wings, who have not played beyond the 82nd game of the regular season since 2016, would benefit significantly from Hughes†presence on their blue line. His ties to the metro-Detroit area could make a potential move appealing to him, and his addition could provide the substantial boost needed to push the club over the top in its pursuit of a playoff berth.
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Detroit also has ample salary-cap space to facilitate not only a trade for Hughes, but also a contract extension for him ahead of the 2027-28 season. That, combined with the expected rise in the salary cap and several contracts set to come off Detroitâ€s books by then, makes the scenario all the more feasible.
However, it would be contingent on what kind of package the Canucks would request in return, which could potentially include rookie defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka.
While Sandin-Pellikka has the potential to become a top-pairing defenseman later in his career, Hughes has already established himself as one of the best players at the position in the NHL today.
The Red Wings are likely keeping close tabs on the situation in Vancouver, and acquiring Hughes would be the crown jewel of GM Steve Yzermanâ€s NHL player-acquisition repertoire.
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