The Minnesota #wild beat the Ottawa #senators 3-2 today on a Joel Eriksson-Ek goal with less than 30 seconds remaining. As good as the win was, it pales in comparison to the news from yesterday as the GM Billy Guerin pulled off a blockbuster deal to acquire Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver #canucks.

The Wild sent three former 1st round picks in Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, and Liam Ohgren, plus their '26 1st round pick in exchange for Hughes. Hughes is considered a top-2 defenseman in the world (with Cale Makar from Colorado) and is 6th ALL TIME in assists per game. He brings a much-needed offensive punch to a Wild D-corps that was headed towards not even having one d-man rated with a +average offensive rating. All of the things that Hughes excels at are (or were) big deficiencies on the Wild. In spite of that, the Wild currently have the 3rd most points in the #nhl.

This trade vaults Minnesota into serious title contention. Immediately. Now they just have to get out of the 1st round..