The domino finally dropped on Friday night as superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes was traded from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild in a blockbuster trade. And the Penguins should be thankful that he was not traded into the Eastern Conference or Metropolitan Division.
Quinn Hughes is one of the best current defenseman in the NHL and it was rumored that he was going to be traded to the New Jersey Devils for a while. It was rumored that he wanted to be reunited with his brothers Jack and Luke, but that was not the case Friday night.
Dubas and company should be breathing a sigh of relief. If Quinn had been traded to the Devils or anywhere else in a really competitive Eastern Conference, it would have made for craziness. It would have made things in the East that much tougher.
But Hughes stays in the Western Conference and goes from Vancouver to Minnesota and is going to help them with their playoff push. Insider Elliotte Friedman had said not long ago that he thought the Penguins had what it took to get Hughes, but in no world should the Penguins have even tried.
The Penguins are in the middle of a rebuild or retool and do not need to be sacrificing young NHL players or first-round picks as of the current moment. They need to keep stacking prospects and picks and keep this movement going.
Dubas is doing a very good job with restocking the farm system and having a ton of draft picks at his disposal for the future. This team is not ready to be a full contender right now and trying to swing a Hughes trade would have sacrificed a good chunk of the future that Dubas has put together.
At minimum, it would have cost them Ben Kindel, Harrison Brunicke, Rutger McGroarty, and more. It would have been a massive price to pay, but was not a move that the Penguins should have tried. Props to Dubas for staying away from this one and keeping the Penguins on the current plan.