LAS VEGAS — Just listening to Quinn Hughes describe his 2025-26 season was exhausting.Imagine living it.“I got traded in December, I was (in Minnesota) for six, seven days, then you go home for Christmas for four days,” Hughes said Wednesday at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “You come back, we have the longest road trip in Wild history because of the World Juniors being at the rink. And then you go home for two weeks. And then you go to the Olympics for a month. … It was a lot.”So it’s not difficult to understand why Hughes chose to spend his summer diving headfirst into the Atlantic Ocean with his brothers in a rented house on the Jersey Shore rather than diving headfirst into life-altering contract negotiations with Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin.While the State of Hockey is holding its breath waiting for any indication — a post, a quote, a sign from the hockey gods — Hughes intends to stick around St. Paul, Minn., for the foreseeable future, Hughes himself is in no rush. And while the rest of the league’s fans dream up potential futures in which Hughes and his brothers engineer a team-up in New Jersey or New York or South Florida or anywhere else, the Hughes boys say they aren’t.The hockey world is seriously stressed about Hughes’ future. Hughes, it appears, is not.“This is going to be done whenever I feel like it needs to be done,” Hughes said. “I don’t feel backed up against the wall. I’m very thoughtful. I want to take my time on everything and make sure I’m making a decision that is going to be good for everyone. That’s kind of where my head’s been at. We haven’t had that many conversations because of how I wanted my summer to go, in terms of just being fresh and resetting and just focusing on enjoying (myself), and then training, and being around friends and family. But as we get going here, I’m sure (negotiations) will heat up. But I don’t really feel backed up against the wall where I have to sign before camp.”Hughes, whom the Wild acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for a king’s ransom of young talent and a draft pick last season, is entering the last year of his contract. And clocks are ticking all over the place. He’s been eligible to sign an extension since July 1. Training camp opens in a week. And next Wednesday, the new collective bargaining agreement kicks in, dropping the maximum contract length from eight years to seven years. So every day that passed without an extension could be interpreted as a product of Hughes’ disinterest in making Minnesota his long-term home. Cale Makar’s record-breaking eight-year, $163.2 million contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche only upped the stakes — and the price.But the 26-year-old defenseman sounded plenty interested in sticking around.“I really enjoyed my time in Minnesota last year,” he said. “I’m excited to get going at camp here. Really excited. I think we’ve got a great team. I love (coach John Hynes). I love (winger Kirill Kaprizov). I love playing with Brock (Faber). I’ve always said I’ll probably play another three, four years in the league just because of how well he skates and we make it easy on each other. Those are all massive draws for me.”