Куинн Хьюз NHL-ийн хэвлэлийн аялалын үеэр Миннесота Уайлдтай хийж буй гэрээний нөхцөлөө тайлбарлана

ST. PAUL, Minn. — For three months, every beat writer, radio personality, blogger, podcaster and nameless, faceless fan account on X has offered their take on what’s next for Quinn Hughes.

Every Instagram photo of the superstar defenseman spending time with his brothers, Jack and Luke, on the Jersey Shore, or skating in Florida, or taking in the U.S. Open has been decoded in different ways.

But finally, on Wednesday, we should get to hear from Quinn himself on where things stand between him and the Minnesota Wild regarding negotiations on what the Wild hope is a contract extension beyond the upcoming season. Hughes will join Wild teammate Matt Boldy as part of the NHL’s Player Media Tour in Las Vegas, and we all know where the line of questioning will start and end.

It’s been Minnesota’s No. 1 priority this offseason to extend Hughes, who is entering the last year of his current contract ($7.875 million) and due to make mega money on his next one (think about the neighborhood of Cale Makar’s $20.4 million AAV deal).

What happens with Hughes, whom the Wild acquired in December in a blockbuster with the Vancouver Canucks, has been among the biggest stories in the hockey world this summer.

So Wednesday morning, will Hughes play ball?

Will he tell reporters he intends to sign with Minnesota beyond this season? Or, will he indicate he’s waffling, which would put the pressure squarely on the Wild to eventually trade him if they can’t reach an extension?

Or will he simply dodge the questions, which, for somebody as straightforward as Hughes, doesn’t seem in his nature, considering it was at this NHL media tour last year where he and Jack went on record that at some point, somewhere, they wanted to play together.

The Wild have remained confident they will sign Hughes to an extension before the start of this season, which is only three weeks away. They’ve insisted these kinds of deals take time and have insinuated they’ve been given no indication — yet — that he doesn’t intend to sign.

But until Hughes actually signs, there’s going to be a cloud of doubt over the potentially franchise-altering negotiations, just like with Kirill Kaprizov one a year ago.

When it comes to Kaprizov and now Hughes, Wild president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin’s M.O. is that he likes to meet face-to-face.

He barely negotiated with Kaprizov last summer until the superstar returned to the Twin Cities in September. Guerin met with Kaprizov and agent Paul Theofanous in Minneapolis, and after a tough back-and-forth, Kaprizov signed on the eve of the season.

It was the same thing four years earlier when Kaprizov signed his five-year, $45 million deal. After a drawn-out contract squabble, Guerin flew on Craig Leipold’s jet to Miami to meet with Kaprizov and Theofanous. Kaprizov agreed to the $9 million-a-year deal the day before training camp, then flew back to Minnesota with Guerin.

Hughes returns to Minnesota on Thursday, one day after the NHL media tour. Guerin’s hope is to sit down with Hughes and button up an extension in the coming days. Though Guerin has talked all offseason with agent Pat Brisson and met with Hughes in New Jersey and Michigan on two occasions this offseason, we’re getting to decision time for Hughes.

Guerin has preached patience from anxious fans and reminded them it took until the start of last season to sign Kaprizov. Unlike Kaprizov’s then-record-breaking eight-year, $136 million contract signed Sept. 30, though, Hughes’ AAV is pretty much set regardless of the term he desires.

Makar recently signed an eight-year, $163.2 million deal, the richest contract in NHL history that made him the league’s first $20 million man. Kaprizov had a much wider range of possibilities last year than Hughes this year, rejecting offers of $15 million and $16 million per year and actually countering at $18 million before agreeing to $17 million.

Hughes, meanwhile, can sign for a maximum of $20.8 million per year — 20 percent of this season’s $104 million salary-cap ceiling.

Even though Makar signed for eight years, if Hughes wants three years at $20 million per then the Wild almost surely would do it. That’s the leverage he possesses after the Wild mortgaged a huge part of their future to acquire the 26-year-old Norris Trophy and gold medal winner.

There’s been plenty of speculation Hughes would prefer a short-term deal : three years on top of the final year of his current contract would align his free agency with Jack’s. Yet it would make sense for the Wild to push for the maximum eight-year term.

You can bet Guerin plans to do everything in his power to persuade Hughes to take it. Kaprizov’s deal last year was groundbreaking, and the Wild are willing to give Hughes $3.5 million more per year.

The Wild hope Hughes takes the guaranteed money. And if it’s not working out four years from now, Guerin would almost surely oblige Hughes and trade him wherever he wants — New Jersey, hometown Detroit, wherever.

It takes a lot of courage to turn down a guaranteed $164 million, and the Wild hope to nudge him in that direction.

One reason the Wild probably would want to go eight years? They see where the cap is headed.

Remember, one of the holdups in the 2021 Kaprizov negotiations was he wanted eight years at more than $9 million per year, and the Wild didn’t want to go beyond five years for a player who had only 55 games of NHL experience, all during the pandemic-shortened season. And not going eight years turned out to be costly.

If the Wild can convince Hughes to sign for eight years, though, it has to happen by Sept. 15. The new collective bargaining agreement takes full effect the next day, reducing the maximum term for players re-signing with their own teams to seven years and for unrestricted free agents signing elsewhere to six.

However, Hughes gave no assurances to any teams trying to acquire him last season that he’d sign an extension with them. Though the New Jersey Devils and the Detroit Red Wings, among others, wouldn’t take the leap, Guerin and the Wild still made the blockbuster move — giving up top prospect Zeev Buium, top-six center Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick.

The Wild went into this with open arms and open hearts, believing if Hughes got a chance to spend time with the organization, to play with the likes of Kaprizov, Boldy and Brock Faber, he’d like it enough to stay.

And, from everything Hughes has said publicly, it’s been a great fit. After the Wild’s exit meetings in mid-May, he said he’d “definitely” be open to re-signing with Minnesota, pointing out on more than one occasion how much he respected the haul Guerin was willing to give up for him, and how he’d “remember” that.

“I can say that I really like it here,” Hughes said after the season. “I love the team. I love the city and the fans. Just being in that locker room, it’s a special group. Would definitely be open to re-signing here with the guys that we have in the room and just the people we have in the room. A lot of trust with Billy, as well, and love (coach John Hynes) and (associate coach Jack Capuano) and the coaching staff.

“I just think it’s a great spot, great situation for myself.”

But it’s Sept. 8, and Hughes hasn’t signed yet. That adds interest to what he will say Wednesday. He and Jack are usually quite candid in these relaxed settings and, judging by paparazzi photos and social media sightings, seemingly spent every minute of the offseason together.

As of now, Quinn is supposed to talk to reporters Wednesday morning with Jack, representing the Devils, soon after. Brisson is also slated to be in Las Vegas to meet with Quinn.

At this tour last year, Jack created quite the stir when he told our Pierre LeBrun, “Honestly, I’m not afraid to say it. … Eventually I’d love to play with him, and whether that’s in New Jersey, or at what time that takes, at some point I want to play with Quinn.”

The next day, Quinn said, “I mean, he’s my brother. What’s he supposed to say, first of all? ‘I don’t want to play with him?’ We have contracts and whatnot. He’s on a different team. Would it be fun to play with (Jack and brother Luke) at some point? Of course.

“I think if you guys have brothers, you guys would say the same thing. But we do have contracts. I’m excited to be in Vancouver, and I feel like last year was a little bit of a failure. So I feel like I got things to do there. And I know Jack, he loves Jersey, and he’s got stuff to do also.”

For three months, everybody else has had their say about what Quinn Hughes wants. On Wednesday, finally, it’s his turn.

He has a chance to calm some nerves in the Twin Cities, or cause a full-blown panic.