Avalanche Star Excited About Wild's Quinn Hughes Trade

The Colorado Avalanche look like the NHL’s measuring stick right now. Night after night, they skate teams into exhaustion, overwhelm them with speed, and leave little doubt about who controls the game. Through the opening stretch of the season, they’ve looked less like contenders and more like inevitabilities.

The numbers are staggering and support it. Colorado has just two regulation loss, the best goal differential in hockey at +50, more than double the second-place Dallas Stars at +24, and and they lead the NHL in goals scored and least allowed so far this season.

They’re dominant in subtle ways, too. The Avalanche lead the NHL in shots on goal per game, penalty kill efficiency, and fewest penalty minutes per game. Even their only flaw stands out because everything else is so strong: a power play filled with superstar talent that somehow ranks near the bottom of the league at 15.3 percent.

In short, this team is terrifying — and they might not even be in peak form yet.

Nov 28, 2025; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (8) skates with the puck against the Minnesota Wild during the first period at Grand Casino Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Speed, Skill, and an Unfair Trio

A major reason for Colorado’s success is the pace they play with. When Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Nečas, and Cale Makar are on the ice together, the game tilts sharply in one direction. Their chemistry is instant, relentless, and exhausting for opponents.

MacKinnon and Makar, in particular, look like the best forward-defenseman duo in hockey by a wide margin. MacKinnon’s speed forces defenders back, while Makar slices through coverage with effortless confidence. Both are early favorites for major hardware — MacKinnon for the Hart Trophy, Makar once again for the Norris — and neither looks close to slowing down.

That dominance, though, may soon be tested more often.

mackinnon + necas + makar = not fair pic.twitter.com/ftotvDXxoj
— Liam McHugh (@liam_mchugh) November 21, 2025

Quinn Hughes Raises the Stakes

The NHL was rocked recently when Quinn Hughes was traded to the Minnesota Wild. Suddenly, Kirill Kaprizov has an elite defenseman to match his dynamic offense, creating a duo that could challenge Colorado’s supremacy.

The Central Division was already the league’s toughest, with three of its teams among the top four in the overall NHL standings. Now, with a Norris winner joining one of its strongest teams, it’s officially unforgiving.

Before Colorado’s December 13 matchup against the Nashville Predators, Makar was asked about the deal during a pre-game media scrum.

“Obviously a big deal,” Makar said. “Both teams kinda get stuff that fills their needs. Vancouver is obviously going in a different direction, while Minnesota addressed a need on the backend that any team in the league would want. Crazy deal that makes our division tougher, which should be more fun.”

Makar didn’t sound concerned about having another Norris contender in the Central; he sounded more intrigued than anything as he responded in a monotone voice

Nečas shared a similar sense of enthusiasm as Makar about the Quinn Hughes trade, viewing it as another opportunity to test himself against the league’s best.

Most games played in a season before hitting 2 regulation losses:

37 games — Philadelphia Flyers | 1979/80
25 games — Chicago Blackhawks | 2012/13
24 games — Colorado Avalanche | 2025/26

Philadelphia and Chicago both made the Cup Finals that season. pic.twitter.com/43OztJj0T3
— Big Head Hockey (@bigheadhockey) November 28, 2025

Elite Matchups Make Everyone Better

For stars like Makar, facing elite competition isn’t a burden. It’s fuel. He later explained that the Hughes trade only adds to the excitement of in-division matchups, especially with the chance to face another elite defenseman more frequently.

Those games, he suggested, are how players test themselves and grow. Playing against top-level talent forces sharper decisions, quicker reads, and a higher standard every night.

And when you add the Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen duo in Dallas to the conversation, the Central Division suddenly features three of the best forward-defense pairings in hockey — all battling for position, pride, and playoff survival.

Rank these forward-defenseman-goalie trios:

1. Mackinnon-Makar-Wedgewood
2. McDavid-Bouchard-Jarry
3. Rantanen-Heiskanen-Oettinger
4. Kaprizov-Hughes-Wallstedt

There's a new big-3 in the NHL. pic.twitter.com/Aa6j5berSa
— Big Head Hockey (@bigheadhockey) December 13, 2025

With this much elite talent concentrated in one division, it raises a familiar question. How many great teams will be forced to eliminate each other too early under the current playoff format?

If this trade becomes the spark that pushes the league back toward a true 1–8 playoff structure, it might be doing the NHL a favor. Because if Colorado, Minnesota, and Dallas are all peaking at the same time, fans deserve to see those matchups as late as possible, not decided in the very first round.

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