'He goes 110 per cent': Wild's Hughes taking game to another level in playoffs

ST. PAUL, Minn. — There are two things Brock Faber didn’t know about Quinn Hughes until he started playing with him.

“One, just how good he is,” Faber said of his defence partner on the Minnesota Wild. “Like, you don't even realize how good he is until you play with him, and then you realize how much he actually changes the dynamic of a team, how much he takes control of the game every single night. 

“And then, just how competitive he is. He wants the puck on his stick at all times. He wants to be the difference maker. He wants to compete, wants to win. He goes 110 per cent every single time he steps on the ice, which is ... it’s awesome. His inner drive and will to win and be better every single day is something like I've never seen.”

From the time Hughes arrived in the National Hockey League in 2019 and raced Cale Makar for the Calder Trophy, starting a rivalry that we hope will last another decade, his world-class skating and passing skills were obvious.

But Hughes’ competitiveness, that drive Faber had never seen, is what has always been harder to gauge.

Hughes is too small to hit anyone, rarely gets drawn into scrums, sees ghosts from the bench as he stares straight ahead, emotionless, between shifts, and smiles about as often as Darth Vader or Connor McDavid.

Sometimes you have to wait for the gold-medal game at the Olympics or the Wild’s Game 6 closeout-win against the Dallas Stars last series for an overt measure of Hughes’ competitiveness. Or maybe Minnesota’s must-win home game Saturday against Makar and the Colorado Avalanche, who lead this second-round Stanley Cup series 2-0 and stapled Hughes a couple of times during their 5-2 win Tuesday in Denver.

“I feel like we have a really good team here, so ... it'd be tough if we didn't play the way we want to play and lose,” Hughes said Friday about the Wild’s playoff run. “You’d be like, ‘Damn, that was a good team and we could have done something.’ You know, if we lose to Colorado and we play great, it is what it is and you tip your cap. I think I can live with that. But it would be nice to give them a push here.”

In other words, the Wild have not yet played the way they can in this series — not played like they did the final three games against Dallas in the first round.

Maybe they can’t. Minnesota has badly missed injured shutdown defenceman Jonas Brodin and top centre Joel Eriksson Ek, whose one-legged return to practice Friday — and Wild coach John Hynes' insistence that Eriksson Ek could play Game 3 — sure looked like a ruse. We’ll see. 

But the Wild have been bleeding goals on special teams, haven’t dictated play with their heavy, physical game, and are getting out-goaltended.

Hughes, however, has been playing some of the best hockey of his life during these playoffs, which sees him in the second round for only the second time after losing Game 7 with the Vancouver Canucks against McDavid’s Oilers two years ago.

“I mean, you’re just a little bit older, a little bit more experience than seeing it the first time,” Hughes, 26, told Sportsnet after Friday’s practice. “I don't know, just understanding things a little bit better. Obviously, I had the Olympics in February, so I’ve played in some big moments now and just feel comfortable.

“I don't really look back on the past, like, ‘this is what I learned and now I'm going to apply it.’ I'm just kind of always trying my best. Maybe I approach (playoff hockey) a little bit more aggressively, attack more and not think just be defensive and safe. That's probably a little bit of a difference.”

And has this been his best playoff hockey?

“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “Down 2-1 (against Dallas), I just felt like we needed to win the series, obviously, and I knew I was going to have to be a big part of that. So I was just trying to elevate my game.”

In case you hadn’t heard, the Canucks encountered a couple of problems after their 2024 playoff run and traded Hughes to the Wild in December for a four-piece ransom that Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin happily paid to acquire a truly game-changing defenceman.

As of Friday morning, Hughes co-led the NHL in playoff scoring with 11 points in eight games, one ahead of five others, including MacKinnon, who has played two fewer games because the Avalanche have needed only six games to make it to six wins.

The Wild have been close to dominant at five-on-five with Hughes, outscoring opponents 13-4. Without him on the ice, Minnesota has been outscored 9-8. Its shot share with Hughes is 56.7 per cent, 41.7 when he’s on the bench. 

Hughes and Faber, of course, were part of the American team that beat MacKinnon and Makar and Team Canada at the gold-medal game in Milan.

Hughes has always measured himself against the best players in the world.

“I mean, to me that's fun,” he said Friday about going up again against MacKinnon and Makar. “I am excited for that, I want that. I think that Game 1, I felt pretty good. Game 2, I was a little bit tired, so this little (three-day) break here has been good. I should be able to get right back into it tomorrow. But they're going to make great plays. They're smart, they're competitive, and, yeah, it's going to be a really hard series.

“I think they're an unbelievable team. They were the best team in the league in the regular season. So, I mean, if you want to challenge yourself, this is the team probably. I know there's a lot of people saying, like, ‘this shouldn't just be a second-round (series).’ But we would have to go through them at some point. We’ve got to win tomorrow; that’s all we have to focus on.”

On Makar, Hughes said: “The truth is, it's not about me or him. He wants to win just like I want to win. And whoever wins this goes to the conference finals and you have a great chance to win a Cup. That's what it's all about. But do I want the challenge, do I like playing against Cale? Yeah. I think it's fun to watch him, fun to play against him. He's an excellent player and we're going to have to be really sharp on him.”

There is a lot of pressure on the Wild and, especially Hughes, whose acquisition was specifically intended to help Minnesota get through Dallas and Colorado in the playoffs. 

He cost Guerin four assets: elite defence prospect Zeev Buium, second-line centre Marco Rossi, 22-year-old winger Liam Ohgren and Minnesota’s first-round pick in June. The blockbuster made the Wild a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and tipped the Canucks into a rebuild.

It’s important to remember that Hughes, like most of Minnesota’s players, has never skated past the second round of the playoffs. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022. MacKinnon has logged 101 NHL playoff games, Makar 85. Hughes has played in 38, and 17 of those were in the artificial playoff bubble in 2020.

“A lot of people haven't had the experiences I've had,” he said. “I mean, even if guys have played 800 or 900 games, they haven't played in the Olympics or, honestly, had the pressures of what I've dealt with. Not everyone's been a captain in a Canadian market at a young age. I hit 500 games this year so I feel like I'm well on my way. But obviously you never stop learning. The game is always teaching you lessons.

“I feel like I'm comfortable with who I am as a player and know what I can bring. So I don't really feel too much pressure in that regard. But obviously, you know, I love the guys here, love Billy, love the coaching staff, and I just want to keep playing. I don't want it to stop. And a little bit, obviously, they made the trade and you want to make sure it's worthwhile. We're trying to win. That's why (Guerin) did it. We won the first round. Now, obviously we're in a dogfight here, so I just want to keep going.”