Trade rumours around the NHL are always best taken with a grain of salt. Especially while trade negotiations are still ongoing. A good example of this came amidst the recent events of the Quinn Hughes trade. Vancouver Canucks fans heard an awful lot of speculation about Hughes’ potential destination in the lead-up to that deal, and very little of that speculation involved the Minnesota Wild…until the trade actually happened, and then Hughes was off to the Twin Cities.

The funny thing about trade rumours, though, is that they tend to become a lot more reliable after the fact. As in, it’s tough to know what is about to go down on the trade market at any given moment, but often a lot easier to know what did go down in the previous sequence.

It makes sense, if you think about it. Teams want to keep their cards close to the vest while making deals, and leaking information to the press can get in the way of that. But after the trade is already made, it’s all about PR and ‘selling’ the trade to a fanbase, and so managerial types are often all-too-willing to share their version of how something went down.

That’s why we knew so little about the Hughes trade before it happened, and know so much about it hereafter. It’s why we know that GM Bill Guerin stepped up with an offer too good to be refused, and that the other suitors either would not or could not put together a package that would compete – at least in the eyes of Canucks’ management, that is.

But it’s not just the Canucks and Wild who have had to do a sell-job in the aftermath of the Hughes trade. So, too, have all the teams that didn’t land the former Norris winner. And so, we’ve since learned an awful lot about various offers made for Hughes’ services that didn’t wind up getting the job done.

It has been said that the Canucks’ return of Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, and a first round pick is about as good as anyone could have expected them to do. But with the rumoured other offers now available to consider, there’s no reason not to compare them and see if the Canucks well and truly did the very best they could.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, and Greg Wyshynski and Rachel Kryshak of ESPN have provided the best coverage of this topic. According to their reporting, many teams were in the running, but only a few of them made pitches that could be considered competitive.

The Buffalo Sabres’ offer may have centred around Zach Benson and Bowen Byram, two players the Canucks have coveted before, but according to Friedman, their offer was not “a serious pitch.”

The Philadelphia Flyers were speculated about heavily due to the Rick Tocchet connection, but “didn’t have the centre,” as Friedman put it. Other rumours had the Canucks asking the Flyers for prospect Porter Martone and defender Cam York, but there has been nothing concrete about any specific offer.

The New York Rangers were surprisingly in on Hughes, but didn’t “have enough.” ESPN speculated that the Canucks had asked for a slew of young players including Gabe Perreault, Will Cuylle, Noah Laba, and the long-sought-after Braden Schneider, but, in the words of Wyshynski, “the Rangers did not want to part with the requisite players to acquire Hughes,” whatever that means.

One of the teams we’ve got the most detail on are the Washington Capitals. According to most of the scuttlebutt there, the Canucks were asking for the likes of Ryan Leonard and one or both of the giant brothers Aleksei and Ilya Protas, but some are saying that the Capitals refused to give up any of the three. The Washington counteroffer reportedly centred around Connor McMichael and Cole Hutson, which didn’t really get them in the running at all.

In the end, it sounds as though only three other teams were well and truly competing with the Wild for Hughes, and they were the Detroit Red Wings, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the New Jersey Devils.

The Red Wings always made sense as a destination for Hughes, who referenced being close to Michigan as a goal of his in the aftermath of the trade. With them, we have an idea of what the Canucks were asking for, and it was big: star LD Simon Edvinsson, one of two young centres in Nate Danielson and Marco Kasper, recent first rounder Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and a first round pick.

Now, this is the first package we’ve heard that even approaches the actual return in terms of value. Edvinsson is one of the few young LDs in the game who could be argued to have a brighter future than Buium, though that’s a matter of personal preference. Both Danielson and Kasper could be said to have higher upside, albeit less certainty, than Rossi. Brandsegg-Nygard is a younger prospect than Ohgren, and has developed a bit better post-draft. The Detroit first round pick will probably end up higher than the Minnesota one.

From a certain perspective, this offer could be seen as better than the Wild’s. Really, it’s a bit of a toss-up, and it largely comes down to that preference between a more offensive young D in Buium or a more all-around talent in Edvinsson. In any case, however, it’s a bit of a moot point, as ESPN reports that the Wings “balked at a portion of that package.” If we had to guess, that portion was Edvinsson.

The Carolina Hurricanes are one of those teams that seems to be in on everything, so it was no surprise to hear their name mentioned. Friedman finds their side of the story interesting, because when it came to their offer, “a few sources indicated Vancouver looked hard at it.” Friedman even describes the Hurricanes as “the frontrunners until Minnesota showed up.”

Friedman speculates that this must have meant the offer included young LD Alexander Nikishin, and it’s hard to dispute that claim. There is really no other piece in the Carolina system that would have made them the frontrunner aside from Nikishin. Like Edvinsson, Nikishin is one of the few younger LDs out there who could be said to be a more valuable asset than Buium. Again, that’s more a question of personal preference, but Nikishin was considered one of the best players outside the NHL before making his debut in the playoffs last year, much like Buium.

One has to imagine that BC-born centre Logan Stankoven was part of the offer, too. A combination of Nikishin and Stankoven, perhaps supplemented with some picks and prospects, should have been enough to grab the Canucks’ attention. That is, until Minnesota grabbed more attention – perhaps because of the quality of the sweeteners in Ohgren and a first, or perhaps because they preferred Buium and Rossi to Nikishin and Stankoven, which is a reasonable conclusion, if not an automatic one.

There will be some who prefer a Nikishin-centred package due to his size and physicality. There are definitely those who prefer Stankoven due to his local ties. But given the actual NHL numbers thus far, it’s not too tough to see why the Canucks chose to go with Buium and Rossi as the centrepieces instead.

That leaves the team that was subject to the most intense speculation, naturally, in the New Jersey Devils. And, as their management has been the one most taken to task about not landing Hughes, their process is the one we know the most about now.

Kryshak and Wyshynski mention a brief ‘Hughes for Nico Hischier’ conversation that went nowhere. Friedman mentions a package centred around young RD Simon Nemec and probably centre/winger Dawson Mercer. Kryshak and Wyshynski reported that Vancouver wanted Anton Silayev, the 6’7” LD drafted 10^th overall in 2024, and a first round pick attached to that package.

What we don’t know is whether or not New Jersey was willing to do that. Both ESPN and Sportsnet agree that the Devils were ultimately unable to clear the salary cap they needed to accommodate Hughes, due to the preponderance of no-trade clauses on their roster.

Most sources speculated that folks like Ondrej Palat and Dougie Hamilton refused to waive their clauses as part of the negotiations, but Friedman wasn’t so sure. The Devils had some 14 players with some form of protection on their contract, meaning it could have been any number of individuals getting in the way of a trade.

In any case, the Devils fell out of talks as a result, and the Wild’s offer stood alone as the clear-cut winner.

On its own, that offer does compare quite well to the Wild return. Though the Canucks probably preferred a LD in a Hughes trade to a RD, Nemec is one of the best young defenders in the sport, and at least in the same realm of value as Buium. Skipping ahead a bit, Silayev is probably considered a stronger prospect than Ohgren, and the Devils’ first could end up higher than Minnesota’s.

But the big gap here is in Mercer to Rossi. At this point, it’s tough to call Mercer a de facto NHL centre, and his future seems more likely on the wing. He’s also just been a lot less productive than Rossi of late.

It seems most reasonable to conclude that Buium, Rossi, Ohgren, and a Minnesota first at least edges out an offer of Nemec, Mercer, Silayev, and a New Jersey first (and that’s without considering any of those cap-clearing complications).

It also seems reasonable to conclude that the Minnesota package also out-values the theoretical Carolina package of Nikishin, Stankoven, a prospect, and a first. It’s closer, there, and more up for debate, but there’s a reason the Canucks quickly took a preference for the Minnesota offer when it hit their table.

The only offer even talked about that had the potential to out-do the Minnesota package was that Detroit package of Edvinsson, Kasper/Danielson, Brandsegg-Nygard, and a first. But then, that’s more of a coin-toss in a head-to-head matchup with Buium, Rossi, Ohgren, and a first. And, in any case, the word is that Detroit turned down that ask, anyway.

In other words, from everything we’ve seen and heard, it seems fair to say that the Canucks probably could not have done any better in a Hughes trade than they actually managed to do. Many said that the Canucks’ priority here had to be absolutely maximizing on Hughes’ trade value, and it would appear they have done so.