ST. PAUL, Minn. — Quinn Hughes wanted to be respectful to his Canucks teammates, so the Vancouver captain didn’t know if it would be a good idea to pack a ton of suitcases and bring them on the team plane for a cross-continent trip to New Jersey just in case the trade he knew was being ironed out with the Wild came to fruition.
So he called his mom, Ellen, on Friday morning and asked her advice: “Would it be a good look?”
She was only a 90-minute flight away in Edmonton, so they decided she’d fly there Sunday and pack up his entire life if a trade got done. So Hughes instead packed two giant suitcases and flew with the Canucks one final time. After touching down in Newark late Friday afternoon, Hughes learned the trade with Minnesota was indeed complete.
How’d he respond? By going immediately to his younger brothers, Devils players Jack and Luke Hughes, to hang out before Bill Guerin personally picked him up Saturday afternoon.
In what was a whirlwind 48 hours, Hughes wore his usual No. 43 Sunday, only in a green Wild sweater rather than a white Canucks sweater. Then he became the sixth defenseman in franchise history to score a goal in his debut. After receiving a standing ovation from a jacked-up Wild crowd after his first warmups, Hughes later received yet another Standing O after being named “First Star” for helping deliver an exhilarating 6-2 win at Grand Casino Arena over the Boston Bruins.
“I know it’s a hockey market but that was exciting,” Hughes said of the fan reception.
The Wild scored a season-high in goals and cruised to their 16th victory in their past 21 games (16-3-2) despite losing two more players Sunday and being inundated with injuries, and having a lineup littered with minor leaguers due to the banged-up players. That includes Friday’s trade that sent Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and Liam Ohgren to Vancouver.
They are 10-0-2 in their past 12 home games.
Ryan Hartman scored a goal and two assists, and Kirill Kaprizov scored two goals and an assist. Matt Boldy scored a goal and an assist, Jared Spurgeon scored a power-play goal, Brock Faber had two assists and Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves.
The Wild will take Monday off and wrap up a four-game homestand Tuesday against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
Hughes-Faber could be magic
Faber has played great for six weeks, to be fair. He has scored six goals and 17 points and is plus-8 in his past 24 games.
But boy oh boy did Faber play great alongside his new defense partner, Hughes, on Sunday. There was his setup of Spurgeon’s power play and his split through the Boston defense to set up Hartman’s beauty.
However, it was his play alongside Hughes that was appetizing when one considers this could be a tandem for many years to come, and maybe even one we see in Milan for Team USA at the Winter Olympics.
“As a D partner of his, you can really do no wrong,” Faber said of playing with the former Norris Trophy winner. “How gifted of a skater and player he is. Great communicator too. So, it was a lot of fun to play with him.”
Faber still thinks it’ll be a work in progress as they get to know each other’s intricacies, but he loved the way Hughes communicated and believes it won’t take long for them to mesh. Still, he wasn’t surprised by how Hughes was able to settle in quickly after a jittery first power-play shift.
“When you’re that good, it’s easy for him just to treat it as a hockey game,” Faber said. “But it’s different. You know, for his personal life, he’s just had to up and leave and 48 hours later he’s playing for a new team. That’s hard, and he made it look pretty, pretty dang easy. So it’s gonna take time for him to adjust and we’re obviously gonna be here for him, but it’s so cool to have a guy like that.”
In Vancouver, for a long time, it felt like Hughes was alone on an island on the back end. Yet, Faber is an elite young defenseman, and when healthy, Jonas Brodin and Spurgeon will be as good as it gets as a second pair.
So he looks forward to getting to know Faber.
“I just think as I get the systems, (I’ll start) understanding what we’re supposed to do closing guys off the rush, is the D supposed to go, is the forward supposed to go,” Hughes said. “But I think the more and more I play with Brock, we’re just going to continue to get better. I thought we were really good tonight but as we continue to read off each other and get to know each other, I think it’s going to be pretty special because he’s a fantastic player. So, it’s going to be exciting for me.”
art. pic.twitter.com/g9aR48hAS3
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 14, 2025
Kaprizov climbing charts
Kaprizov scored his 204th and 205th goals to tie Mikko Koivu for second in franchise history. He also reached the 20-goal mark for the sixth time, passing Zach Parise and Marian Gaborik for the most in franchise history.
His first goal was a fortuitous bounce off the end wall of Boldy’s shot. He grabbed the puck and scored a pretty one from a tight angle.
Kaprizov’s second, he came off the bench as an extra attacker on a delayed penalty. Hartman found him.
Injury update
The Wild played Sunday’s game without Brodin, Marcus Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, Jake Middleton and Vinnie Hinostroza. So naturally, they’d sustain two more injuries to Marcus Johansson and David Jiricek. Johansson, one of the Wild’s best players this season and on pace for almost 60 points, was hurt in the second period, while Jiricek was hurt late in the game when he lost an edge and fell hard into the boards with the help of Sean Kuraly.
Coach John Hynes didn’t have an update yet after the game on either player.
As for the others, Foligno has been skating and could perhaps practice Tuesday. Hynes also thinks Hinostroza may try to skate Tuesday. He hopes to learn Monday if Zuccarello and Middleton have progressed since their head injuries last week in Seattle.