Pressure mounts on Wild and Quinn Hughes as regular season draws near.

There were a lot of reasons to feel extremely positive as a Minnesota Wild fan when Wild general manager Bill Guerin made a bold move to acquire star defenseman Quinn Hughes, especially after Hughes expressed a willingness to sign a new deal with the team that gave up several major assets to get him.

Now however we find ourselves several weeks into free agency with the 2026-27 National Hockey League regular season rapidly approaching, and Hughes still has not come to terms on a new deal with the Wild. Recently NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed he believes it's still too early to panic, but the time for panic may not be that far off.

"I don't have any panic about it yet... I would worry about this if it's not done by the start of the season," said Friedman on the NHL Network. "That's just my personal feeling. If it's not done by the start of the season then I'll start to say 'Hey what's going on here?'"

Although the NHL insider is preaching patience, he did admit during his appearance that he had expected this deal to be done already.

"I thought it would have been done by now, I admit I am surprised," admitted Friedman.

The insider initially predicted that Hughes would sign a short term deal at a big number, but that number may go even higher now given some of the contracts we have seen handed out this summer.

"I have believed that Hughes is gonna sign 3 x $18 million in Minnesota, that is my prediction," said Friedman.

Are you starting to panic yet?