Minnesota Went Out Like Punks… Does Hughes Extend?

[BleedingBleu]

Minnesota won 3 straight against Dallas to take Round 1, but were pretty much abused by Colorado in Round 2, going out in 5 Games. Do you think his time post-Olympics with Minnesota is worth an 3-year extension?

I wouldn’t consider this Wild team a particularly young team. Yes, they have Boldy (24), Faber (23), & Wallstedt (22), but they’re average age puts them at 14th (29.2) and their 25/26 nucleus (<17:00 ATOI) is over 30 (Hartman, Middleton, Zuccarello, Eriksson Ek, Spurgeon, Brodi). Even their bit players (Tarasenko, Johansson, Bogosian, the Folingos, and Sturm) are over the hill. There’s a lot of roster turnover to be had and not much in the hopper, post Vancouver trade.

NHL Rumours; Update on Minnesota Wild D-Man’s Next Deal

Rumour: We go back to speculation on what the next contract for Quinn Hughes may look like. The Wild defender is eligible for a contract extension on July 1. This is part of the collective bargaining agreement that says any player entering this last year of a contract can ink an extension with his current team.

One insider has gone out of a limb and at least come up with a contract length for Hughes. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said that Hughes will likely sign a three-year deal to stay in the Twin Cities.

Analysis: Hughes was seen as of one of the big prizes in and around the trade deadline. Many were expecting the New Jersey Devils to land the elder Hughes brother to reunite the trio of Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes. However, Wild general manager Bill Guerin came up with the better deal and was able to get the future gold medalist from the Vancouver Canucks.

Some point to Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald failing to get Hughes as one of the reasons that he was ousted from his post. However, the fallout now moves onto how long Quinn’s next deal with his new team may be and how his brothers could still be a factor in that new deal.

The Wild are notorious for early-round knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and this grouping hasn’t changed that narrative. I don’t see that changing w/Quinn on the Roster.

I think this was their best shot and they ran into the freight train that was the Colorado Avalanche and got obliterated

[STL fan in MN]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

[Harry S Deals]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

To their credit Col starting to gain zone time working a little harder a little more desperate. Seemed like once Col scored one goal they started to gain steam

[STL fan in MN]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

To their credit Col starting to gain zone time working a little harder a little more desperate. Seemed like once Col scored one goal they started to gain steam

Well sure. Colorado deserves credit for sticking in there and they were clearly the better team in this series but the Wild should’ve won last night. Up 3-0 16 minutes into the game? The Wild gave that one away but going into a defensive shell pretty much the entire rest of the game.

[Harry S Deals]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

To their credit Col starting to gain zone time working a little harder a little more desperate. Seemed like once Col scored one goal they started to gain steam

Well sure. Colorado deserves credit for sticking in there and they were clearly the better team in this series but the Wild should’ve won last night. Up 3-0 16 minutes into the game? The Wild gave that one away but going into a defensive shell pretty much the entire rest of the game.

Nate Macs shot was a thing of beauty by that time i just had a feeling it was going to OT somehow some way. Im kinda happy Minny is so upset right now probably my least favorite Central div rival. Let them soak in it all summer

[MiamiLaw]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

To their credit Col starting to gain zone time working a little harder a little more desperate. Seemed like once Col scored one goal they started to gain steam

Well sure. Colorado deserves credit for sticking in there and they were clearly the better team in this series but the Wild should’ve won last night. Up 3-0 16 minutes into the game? The Wild gave that one away but going into a defensive shell pretty much the entire rest of the game.

Nate Macs shot was a thing of beauty by that time i just had a feeling it was going to OT somehow some way. Im kinda happy Minny is so upset right now probably my least favorite Central div rival. Let them soak in it all summer

How do you dislike them more than the Kadrilanche?

[netboy65]

That’s why I wanted Dallas to win that series. They would have put up more of a fight against Avs

[Frank Underwood]

Agreed on the defensive shell. It's one thing to play a little safer and not take chances, but it's another thing to basically give up playing offense all together. That is especially a bad idea against a team like Colorado.

I would also say that the outcome of this series was pretty much determined at the end of Round 1 when Erickson Eck got hurt. Everyone knew that Minnesota needed another center at the trade deadline and while he did get McCarron, your team can't lose Eck for a series against a team like Colorado. So while Guerin deserves a ton of credit for pulling off the Hughes deal, he messed up, in my opinion, by not getting a solid center at the deadline.

[skilles]

Last night was perhaps the worst and longest defensive shell I’ve ever seen. It was tough to watch. Minny essentially stopped playing as soon as they got up 3-0. What a pathetic way to lose. I absolutely despise defensive shells. Not making overly risky plays that tend to lead to turnovers is one thing but essentially letting the other team come at you in waves for 40+ minutes is just downright stupid.

As for Hughes, who knows what he’ll do. He has 1 year left on his current deal so the Wild have a little time to get it figured out. My guess is he ends up elsewhere but hard to say.

I just don't think its that simple, you get up 3-0 and the other team changes what they are doing and when that team is Colorado its pretty fricken tough.

[TheJackBurton]

The 3-0 lead on the road in the NHL is the worst lead in all of sports. Just about every single team goes into a defensive shell and just takes their foot off the pedal.

That being said, I think Hughes is considering it more than initially, but I think ultimately he's joining his brother.

[Hazelwood72]

I was listening to Jake Hahn & Victoria Matiash on Sirius XM Hockey Channel yesterday afternoon. Victoria noted that the Wild and the Stars are both in “win now” mode. To me this seems like they need to trade for any piece that gets them to championship mode.

I think their goaltending is solid with the development of Wallstede, but as Frank noted above, Minny could use another good center.

Regarding going into a defensive shell too early, that’s what drove me nuts with the Blues so often over the last couple of years. Regarding last night’s game, I wonder if Minny’s injuries plus the Denver altitude just rendered them out of gas.

[dhsux]

Avoiding the shell at all costs was critical not just for the game last night but for the series going forward itself for Minnesota. Kaprisov seemed to be the only guy on the ice the last two periods that realized this.

Avs shut them down but Minny pretty much seemed good with that with the lead.

I too thought Dallas the better opponent for Denver but alas they did not show up either when they had to.

[skilles]

The shell thing is so overblown, When you get up on a world class athlete and hey get desperate you have no choice but to defend and counter with defend being the priority and it work most of the time but not always.

If there was a problem its not defending/countering well enough.

My kid has had this go both ways a a few times against world class athletes, it is extremely difficult. 2 years ago she scored 6 points back to back twice in a row to beat 2 world class competitors(one was a literal U.S. world team member down by 4 with 30 seconds left and the other was down by 4 with 12 seconds left) and last year it happened to her on the same stage.

When you get up on a world class athlete and the time is running out on the biggest stage in the world you have to defend and focus on defending and just because it doesn't work every single time against the very best in the world does not mean it was a bad idea.

You hope to counter the over aggressiveness for sure but if you are not putting defense first your going to get in big trouble even more often than you do in the "defensive shell"

Of course when you lose on a stage of that magnitude its always going to be "should have done this or that" but you certainly can't get caught deep and lose when you are up late.

[LGB73]

When you're up by 3 in the 1st period the message needs to be don't do anything different. Just keep playing like we planned to from the start which is obviously working. Coach needs to instill in his players that he's the one that will tell them when to change the game plan and to just keep going until he does. You don't back off until the 3rd period with that lead.

[skilles]

When you're up by 3 in the 1st period the message needs to be don't do anything different. Just keep playing like we planned to from the start which is obviously working. Coach needs to instill in his players that he's the one that will tell them when to change the game plan and to just keep going until he does. You don't back off until the 3rd period with that lead.

No it don't, thats crazy. The other team is going to start doing things very different and you have to adjust to that.

When you go up by 3 the game changes entirely and you have to adjust.

This is what they do at top levels every single time, the Wild just didn't do it well enough.

You came in with a strategy for a 0-0 game and it worked, that hardly means that same strategy will keep working in a 3-0 game.

[STL fan in MN]

When you're up by 3 in the 1st period the message needs to be don't do anything different. Just keep playing like we planned to from the start which is obviously working. Coach needs to instill in his players that he's the one that will tell them when to change the game plan and to just keep going until he does. You don't back off until the 3rd period with that lead.

No it don't, thats crazy. The other team is going to start doing things very different and you have to adjust to that.

When you go up by 3 the game changes entirely and you have to adjust.

This is what they do at top levels every single time, the Wild just didn't do it well enough.

You came in with a strategy for a 0-0 game and it worked, that hardly means that same strategy will keep working in a 3-0 game.

Well sure. If your opponent adjusts and the adjustment is effective, then you need to counter-adjust, but IMO, the counter-adjustment should pretty much never ever be a 48 minute defensive shell. Up 2 goals with a few minutes left? It can be somewhat defensible there. But you’re simply going to exhaust yourselves trying to rope a dope for 45+ minutes of a game.