Minnesota
Minnesota United Sells Oluwaseyi, Shows Need For MLS Calendar Switch
Tani Oluwaseyi #14 of Minnesota United points in the air after scoring at the Seattle Sounders during the second half at Lumen Field on June 01.
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In the end, Minnesota United Sporting Director Khaled El-Ahmad had no good options as Villareal pursued Loons star striker Tani Oluwayesi.
He could either separate his squad from its most productive attcking player just in time for the MLS stretch run and next month’s U.S. Open Cup final. Or he could risk alienating the 25-year-old Oluwaseyi by denying a preciously rare chance to move from MLS directly to a Big Five European league, not to mention leaving a club record transfer fee of reportedly $8.5-$9 million on the table.
In the end, El-Ahmad did what was definitely in Oluwaseyi’s best long-term interest, and probably the club’s as well, officially sending the Canadian international on to an enticing new opportunity in a move announced Friday.
And in doing so, he also illustrated why so many clubs – even those who experience frigid winters like those in Minnesota – are coming around on a potential MLS calendar switch that feels like an eventuality more than a question.
Dollars Out Require Dollars In
With the close of the league’s incoming window earlier this month, MLS smashed its previous record for outlay on new players, with 30 clubs combining to spend roughly $336 million in deals during the league’s two 2025 windows.
But the long-term sustainability of such an approach depends on MLS also to increase its volume as a player exporter. And the only real way to continue that work is to be willing to sell when most clubs with money are doing most of their buying: the summer season that precedes the beginning of most European seasons.
Minnesota is far from the first MLS club to suffer from this misalignment. And in particular, teams with in-form strikers like Oluwaseyi have repeatedly found the terms of mid-season sales too good to refuse.
In 2022, the New England Revolution sold striker Adam Buksa to RC Lens in early June. Later that year, New York City FC loaned Valentin Castellanos to Girona for the start of their La Liga campaign.
Last summer, the Philadelphia Union sold Julian Carranza to Feynoord just hours before the calendar turned to July. Not long after Real Salt Lake sold Andres Gomez to Stade Rennais.
All four of those clubs made genuine attempts to reload before the year ended. Only 2022 NYCFC won a playoff match. Neither 2022 New England nor 2024 Philadelphia reached the postseason.
Weathering The Storm
Minnesota’s sale comes even later, meaning the Loons can no longer make incoming transfers and can only add to their rosters via free agent signings. That said, the club were clearly planning on this eventuality when they added forwards Mamadou Diengo from Hartford Athletic and Kenyel Michel from LD Alajuelense.
They were also one of the few MLS teams with two productive center forwards, and Kelvin Yeboah will now perhaps get more chances to add to his haul of nine goals and two assists. But there’s bound to be a drag on the Loons’ performances for the rest of the season with Oluwaseyi’s departure.
Switching the schedule will come with challenges. Playing through the coldest part of the winter in Minnesota is not only inadvisable, it’s more or less impossible, as an infamous World Cup qualifier between the United States and Honduras in early February of 2022 proved.
But the combination of a winter break, some additional scheduling imbalances to help the league’s coldest markets, and perhaps even the shifting of Leagues Cup on the annual schedule should make those challenges solvable.
In exchange, clubs like this year’s Loons or last year’s RSL wouldn’t have to face the prospect of sandbagging their season for a club-record payday nearly as often. Instead, they could do much of that business at the start of their own campaign, giving sporting directors, managers and even fans a lot more time to adjust to their side’s new reality.
If MLS is serious about becoming a league that rivals some of the world’s most famous, that change needs to come as soon as is reasonably possible.
Minnesota
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Minnesota
Minnesota weather: How cold it got on Saturday
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Temperatures dropped into the negative Saturday, with the coldest temperatures in the morning.
How cold it got in Minnesota Saturday
By the numbers:
Here is how cold the temperatures got in Minnesota:
- Hinckley: -20 degrees
- Bemidji: -20 degrees
- Ely: -18 degrees
- Brainerd: -18 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -18 degrees
- Hibbing: -17 degrees
- International Falls: -17 degrees
- Duluth: -16 degrees
- Alexandria: -12 degrees
- St. Cloud: -12 degrees
- Cambridge: -11 degrees
- Grand Marais: -10 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -6 degrees
- Red Wing: -6 degrees
- Morris: -6 degrees
- Hutchinson: -5 degrees
- Rochester: -5 degrees
- Mankato: -3 degrees
- Windom: 0 degrees
- Marshall: 0 degrees
Here are the lowest wind chills across Minnesota from Saturday:
- Bemidji: -37 degrees
- Ely: -35 degrees
- Duluth: -34 degrees
- Brainerd: -32 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -32 degrees
- Hibbing: -31 degrees
- Alexandria: -29 degrees
- Hinckley: -27 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -24 degrees
- St. Cloud: -24 degrees
- Willmar: -22 degrees
- Cambridge-21 degrees
- Grand Marais: -21 degrees
- Hutchinson: -21 deegres
- Morris: -20 degrees
- Faribault: -18 degrees
- Mankato: -18 degrees
- Marshall: -17 degrees
- Red Wing: -16 degrees
- Owatonna: -16 degrees
- Windom-12 degrees
Cold continues Sunday
What’s next:
The Twin Cities are under a cold weather advisory that is expected to last through Sunday morning, so residents should prepare for frigid conditions if they have plans to be outdoors.
Sunday will be slightly less frigid with temperatures climbing above zero. However, it will still feel like 10 below zero in the afternoon.
Milder and warmer temperatures are expected to return for the work week.
Minnesota
Minnesota Wild acquires NHL star Quinn Hughes from Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade
The Minnesota Wild made an all-in move for one of the NHL’s best players in his prime, acquiring defenseman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in a blockbuster trade — their boldest action yet toward ending a decade-long skid of playoff series defeats.
The teams announced the seismic move on Friday night, after the 2024 Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenseman had been the most talked-about trade candidate over the past couple of weeks. Minnesota sent center Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft to suddenly rebuilding Vancouver to complete the deal.
The trade was the second major swap of the day, after two-time Stanley Cup Final runner-up Edmonton finally made a move for a goaltender, acquiring Tristan Jarry from Pittsburgh.
Rossi (24), Ohgren (21) and Buium (20) fit the mold of the young talent the Canucks were speculated to be targeting if they were going to trade Hughes. Rossi (2020), Ohgren (2022) and Buium (2024) were all recent first-round draft picks by the Wild.
“Quinn played hard, led by example and did a lot of very good things for the Canucks,” Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin said. “Trading away a player of this caliber is never an easy decision to make, but it was one we had to do to make our team better. We are so excited to add a solid centre in Marco, a good young blueliner in Zeev and a versatile forward in Liam. This year’s draft is a strong one, so acquiring a first-round pick was also a big part of this deal.”
Hughes had no trade-blocking protection in his current deal that pays him an average of $7.85 million annually. Hughes, who is 26 and widely considered the best at player on the blue line behind only Colorado’s Cale Makar, is signed through the 2026-27 season before he can become an unrestricted free agent.
The Wild will not be allowed to extend Hughes until July 1, and it’s unclear if he would consider signing a new contract with them. There has been plenty of buzz around the league that Quinn wants to play with his brothers, Jack and Luke, with the New Jersey Devils.
They could potentially be teammates on the U.S. Olympic team, either in February in Milan or in 2030. Wild general manager Bill Guerin runs USA Hockey’s management team.
The long-term outlook for Hughes can wait until next summer, though. The Wild are focused on challenging the two top teams ahead of them in the loaded Central Division, rivals that happen to also have the top two records in the NHL: Colorado and Dallas.
The season-long celebration of the franchise’s 25th anniversary would be a lot more meaningful if the Wild can finally advance in the playoffs, having lost nine straight series after a first-round victory over St. Louis in 2015. The Wild have passed the second round just once in their entire existence, when they were swept in the Western Conference finals by Anaheim in 2003.
Hughes is a significant upgrade to Minnesota’s blue line, anchored by captain and 16-year veteran Jared Spurgeon, smooth-skating 14-year veteran Jonas Brodin and young stalwart Brock Faber. The emergence of rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt this season has given the Wild a reliable tandem with Filip Gustavsson in the net, with star winger Kirill Kaprizov leading the attack after recently signing the richest contract in hockey history to stay in the “State of Hockey” through 2034.
After a rough start, the Wild are 14-3-2 since Nov. 1. They host Ottawa on Saturday and Boston on Sunday night, with the latter game likely the more realistic one for Hughes to debut.
Hughes had two goals, 21 assists and 32 blocked shots in 23 games this season with the last-in-the-NHL Canucks. When he won the Norris Trophy two seasons ago, Hughes had 17 goals and 75 assists, both single-season franchise records for defensemen and the most among all blue liners in the league. Drafted seventh overall in 2018 out of Michigan, the native of Orlando, Florida, spent time growing up in the Boston and Toronto areas while his father, a hockey coach, moved around.
This was Hughes’ third season as Vancouver’s captain, and his abrupt exit paves the way for more change 11 months since the trade of J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers and in the aftermath of coach Rick Tocchet’s departure.
“With the circumstances surrounding J.T. and now Quinn, we are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota,” Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said. “They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later.”
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