Wild’s Quinn Hughes, Canucks’ Zeev Buium score in first games with new teams

Well, that didn’t take long.

Two of the key pieces in hockey’s biggest trade this season wasted no time making an impact on the ice, as both Quinn Hughes and Zeev Buium scored in their first games with their respective new clubs.

Hughes, acquired by the Minnesota Wild on Friday, scored less than a minute into the third period of the Wild’s Sunday matchup against the Boston Bruins. After taking a pass from Ryan Hartman, he fired a wrister through the five-hole of Jeremy Swayman, giving Minnesota a 4-0 lead and Hughes his first goal with the new club.

The Wild would defeat the Bruins 6-2. Hughes finished the game with a goal, three shots and 26:56 of ice time.

Meanwhile, Buium, traded to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, already recorded an assist just one minute into his Vancouver debut on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils. Just over six minutes later, the Canucks’ new blueliner took a shot from the faceoff dot, which found its way past Devils’ netminder Jacob Markstrom to give him his first goal with Vancouver and the Canucks a 2-0 lead.

Vancouver would win 2-1, with Buium recording a goal and assist, two shots on net and 19:50 of ice time.

The blockbuster trade happened Friday night when the Canucks shipped Hughes, their captain and longtime face of the franchise, to the Wild in exchange for Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and Minnesota’s 2026 first-round pick.

While there was plenty of chatter among hockey fans and insiders as to where Hughes may go, as the struggling Canucks made it clear they were open for business, few expected a trade to take place at this point of the regular season, especially with a Minnesota group that is also in the Western Conference.

Many had speculated that the Devils would be among the teams pursuing Hughes, as his two brothers Jack and Luke play for New Jersey.

Make sure you read Daily Faceoff’s Mike Gould’s trade grades for the deal.