Quinn Hughes missed his second consecutive practice Friday because of an illness, but the Wild still expect him to be in the lineup for Game 1 against the Dallas Stars on Saturday evening. John Hynes said Hughes was en route to Dallas later in the day, after sitting out practice and staying off the ice again.
Hynes had said Thursday that Hughes was dealing with an illness and would not fly to Dallas with the team that day. On Friday, the coach said the extra rest made sense and that the club’s expectation remained that Hughes would play. “So he’s en route to Dallas today. Our expectation is for him to play,” Hynes said.
Hughes has not been on the ice since he logged 29 minutes, 58 seconds in a loss at Nashville last Saturday. He also did not skate Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Thursday or Friday, and he skipped the “Jersey off our backs” event after Tuesday’s regular-season finale against Anaheim. The absence is notable because Hughes arrived from the Vancouver Canucks in a mid-December blockbuster and quickly became one of the Wild’s most heavily used players.
He finished with five goals and 53 points in 48 games for the Wild, setting a new single-season team record for points by a defenseman and also breaking the team mark for assists by a defenseman with 48. Hughes reached 50 points in his 43rd game, the fastest any player has done that in franchise history. Across the season, he had 76 points in 74 games, which ranked fifth among NHL defensemen, and 69 assists, which ranked second. He also led the NHL with an average ice time of 27:44 per game.
The illness comes at a moment when the Wild are trying to line up their goaltending and blue-line depth for the opening game of the series. Jesper Wallstedt will make his playoff debut in Game 1, Filip Gustavsson will not start, and Zach Bogosian is expected back from a lower-body injury after not playing since April 4. For Hughes, the key issue now is less whether he can play than whether he can recover enough to handle the workload that has defined his season.
Hynes said the break could help Hughes physically and mentally, and the Wild are proceeding as if Saturday evening still belongs to him.
