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Quinn Hughes traded by Vancouver Canucks to Minnesota Wild

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Dec 13 2025, 1:44 am
Quinn Hughes traded by Vancouver Canucks to Minnesota Wild
Bob Frid/Imagn Images

Quinn Hughes has been traded.

The Vancouver Canucks captain is off to the Minnesota Wild.

In return, the Canucks are receiving Minnesota’s first-round pick in the upcoming 2026 draft, 24-year-old centre Marco Rossi, 21-year-old left winger Liam Öhgren, and 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium, per TSN’s Darren Dreger and other insiders.

Rossi, Öhgren, and Buium are all former first-round picks, and are all currently playing in the NHL.

“We would like to thank Quinn for his time with the Vancouver Canucks,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. “Quinn is a great person, a great player, and one of the greatest Canucks of all time. With the circumstances surrounding J.T. and now Quinn, we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota.

“They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later.”

Rossi is the most accomplished of the three, having scored 60 points (24-36-60) in 82 games last season. The ninth overall draft pick in 2020 has 13 points (4-9-13) in 17 games this season.

A native of Feldkirch, Austria, Rossi had been involved in numerous trade rumours involving the Canucks over the summer. The Canucks reportedly rejected a trade proposal for the 5-foot-9 centre that involved Vancouver’s first-round pick (Braeden Cootes), Aatu Räty, and Arturs Silovs.

Öhgren was drafted 19th overall by Minnesota in 2022. The Swedish winger has just 46 games of NHL experience, scoring seven points (3-4-7). Listed at 6-foot-1 and 187 pounds, Öhgren has produced well at a young age at the AHL level, scoring 42 points (22-20-42) in 53 games.

Buium, a left-shot defenceman in his rookie season, appears to have the most upside of the trio of young players heading to Vancouver.

The San Diego product has 14 points (3-11-14) in 31 games with the Wild this season and was trusted to appear in four playoff games with Minnesota last spring.

The 6-foot-0, 183-pound blueliner piled up points in two seasons of NCAA hockey, scoring 98 points (24-74-98) in 83 games with the University of Denver. He also produced offensively with Team USA at the World Juniors, scoring six points (2-4-6) in seven games in 2025, and five points (3-2-5) in seven games in 2024.

Buium and Öhgren are each on entry-level contracts and will be restricted free agents when their current deals expire after the 2026-27 season. Rossi is in the first year of a three-year contract paying him $5 million per season. He’ll be a restricted free agent when that contract ends in 2028.

“Like Jim, I would also like to thank Quinn for everything thing he has done in Vancouver,” said Canucks GM Patrik Allvin. “Quinn played hard, lead by example and did a lot of very good things for the Canucks. Trading away a player of this caliber is never an easy decision to make, but it was one we had to do to make our team better.

“We are so excited to add a solid centre in Marco, a good young blueliner in Zeev and a versatile forward in Liam. This year’s draft is a strong one so acquiring a first-round pick was also a big part of this deal.”

Hughes can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 season. The greatest defenceman in franchise history, it has been widely believed he would be unwilling to re-sign with the Canucks this summer, and not many people blamed him. Vancouver currently sits dead-last in the NHL standings.

It’ll be interesting to see if Minnesota can sign him to an extension this summer. The Wild are tied for the sixth-best record in the NHL currently, but many wonder if Hughes is destined to join his brothers in New Jersey.

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