What Quinn Hughes said before first game against Vancouver Canucks
It was one of the darkest days in the 55-year history of the Vancouver Canucks.
Back on Dec. 12, Vancouver traded away arguably the best player to ever wear Canucks colours, Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild.
While the package they got in return was deemed fair by most pundits, there’s clearly an organizational failure when you’re backed into trading away a franchise player in his prime.
The whole saga comes to the forefront on Thursday night, as the Canucks face Hughes for the first time since the trade.
After morning skate in Minnesota on Thursday, Hughes spoke to the media about facing his former club for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, he tried to downplay the reunion.
“You’re so day to day, and the season has flown by, and so much has happened that you don’t even really think about it until it’s here,” he said.
“It probably won’t feel real until, not even warmups, but the game.”
The former Canucks captain also explained why he’s better equipped than most to handle his emotions in a game like this.
“You get so close to these guys, and then you play them in practice every day,” he said when asked if there were any Canucks players in particular that it would be weird to go up against.
“I don’t know, obviously playing my brothers, that’s weird too, so I’m kind of used to scenarios like this.”
He gave another rationale for why his emotions could be subdued.
“Honestly, I don’t even really know a lot of their guys,” he said.
“Obviously, I played with some of the young guys there for three or four months, but a lot of the guys I was there with for the meat of my six years aren’t there.”
Never mind the meat of his six years there. When the Canucks play the Wild on Thursday, there are only five players in the lineup who were regulars for Vancouver when they participated in Round Two of the NHL playoffs in 2024: Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Filip Hronek, Teddy Blueger, and Nils Hƶglander.
Everyone else is gone.
On the flipside, all of the turnover in Vancouver means that Hughes may not have a significant advantage over knowing what the Canucks will do on ice during the game. Not that he needs it.
“You can’t guess too much,” he said. “That’s when you get in trouble on the D-side, just getting lazy, and you guess what they’re gonna do.”
Even though he largely downplayed the significance of the matchup, Hughes took the high road when asked to take a shot at Vancouver’s weather.
“There was some good weather too,” he said when asked if the rainy Minnesota day reminded him of Vancouver.
Weather aside, life for Hughes in Minnesota has seemingly gone well. The organization gave him first-class treatment upon his arrival, and the team has been winning hockey games. They can even clinch a berth in the playoffs tonight with a win over Vancouver.
“I’ve loved it,” he said about his time in Minnesota. “It’s a great group of guys, the coaching staff, I’m tight with Billy [Guerin]. I just think it’s a great place to play and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
Hughes has 49 points in 42 games since joining the Wild, which is a 96-point pace over an entire 82-game slate.
The 26-year-old’s best season with the Canucks came back in 2023-24, when he posted 92 points in 82 games, en route to winning the Norris Trophy.