Red Wings named number one landing spot for disgruntled Canucks defenseman

Defenseman Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks has been one recent name in trade talks ramping up after the team issued a memo. The document stated that the team would be listening to all its veteran players, as a rebuild could be in the cards.

One disgruntled player among them, Quinn Hughes, may not necessarily be a part of that group. Considered one of the core Canucks players the team hopes to build around, speculation of a future trade continues with podcasters and writers, including an NHL Insider who fueled speculation on his arrival to the Red Wings , Jeff Marek.

While a potential trade for Quinn Hughes might be stark, the Detroit Red Wings have been linked to the former Michigan Wolverine.

The former 7th overall pick in 2018 has led an exciting career in Vancouver since the 2019-20 season and has played 454 games as a Canuck.

What could the Red Wings have that the Canucks would want?

While this trade could ostensibly fix the Red Wings' 2018 draft, in which they selected Filip Zadina, the team would have to give up a key piece in the lineup for someone like Hughes, who was drafted 7th overall in 2018.

On The Sheet with Jeff Marek, a trade between the Vancouver Canucks and Detroit Red Wings would begin with forward Lucas Raymond.

Raymond was drafted 4th overall in 2020 and has been a star player for the team. In the 2023-24 season, he set a career high, scoring 31 goals and 72 points.

He's been a staple on Dylan Larkin's right and thrived, scoring 80 points last season, and hasn't stopped producing at an exponential rate.

This year, he's on pace for 90 points with 27 points scored (8-19). But as one of the team's top three forwards, there's a question on whether or not the team would part ways with him, given how underdeveloped some of the talent in the Red Wings system is.

With goal-scoring forwards scattered across the world in Russia (Dmitry Buchelnikov) and the WHL (Carter Bear), we're unsure where Steve Yzerman would go with this path should it become available to him. It seems unrealistic, given there's no replacement at the moment for Raymond.

The last time we reported on a projected trade, the Red Wings would send defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka to Vancouver for Quinn Hughes, according to one insider.