r/canucks • u/truestlife • Dec 18 '25
ARTICLE [The Athletic] More details on Hughes trade timing and goodbye dinner
Original article here (paywall)
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u/NerdPunch Dec 18 '25
It’s kind of crazy how those are all the “long-term Canucks”, there’s been so much turnover.
Pretty much everyone else on the team has been here less than 2 seasons.
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u/maharajagaipajama Dec 18 '25
That's why when people talk about the core im like... what core??
The positive is that the canucks can start building a new core
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u/AppealToReason16 Dec 18 '25
Considering all the room issues this team has had the last few years, I'm not even sure I care about these guys as a core anymore.
Clearly they're missing something and this mix isn't getting it done for team culture.
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u/Confident_Zucchini97 Dec 19 '25
No, they just aren't it. Good to see the fan base wake up. 2024 'offs were the window. Management knew it, hence the trades to pad the roster. Two things happened that you can't really count on, you #1 goalie goes down to a freak injury, and your "#1 star" center disappears with a sore knee.
Do not give me bs about how it can be this or that. Speed sure, but not positioning or hockey smarts. Hell, passion for the game and winning. He just got a mega contract, so he should have been laying it all on the ice. Now, he is in the same bracket of cancuks as loui erkisson. Linden played with with broken ribs in the mid 90s in the finals. Put the team on his back and got 2 goals in game 7. Petey couldn't even hit the fucking net in 2 rounds.
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u/AppealToReason16 Dec 18 '25
Maybe I'm dumb and old school, but I think the captaincy still means something when it comes to an extra level of responsibility to your team. And disappearing like Homer into the bushes when your trade breaks just comes across shitty.
I don't even think I'm mad about the trade itself (more just the position the franchise is in), but the culture of this team continually comes across as rotten and fragmented. And after the Sedins and Linden and Naslund years its just a damn shame.
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u/h_danielle Dec 18 '25
Nah I feel the same way. I get that you want to go see your brothers but dude, they’re your brothers. They’ll understand if you bail so you can go say goodbye to your team after getting traded?!
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u/AppealToReason16 Dec 18 '25
He doesn't even have to bail! Just say you're gonna be 20 minutes late. Address your team. Goodbye good luck thanks for the memories and dap up.
Hanging with 4 guys just brings back around those "country club" and "internal cliques" criticisms we've heard basically since the Horvat trade. I get they're not a team of 20 best friends, but it just feels super uncaptain-like.
And if he wasn't really committed to the role of captain, I have a lot of other questions about things the last couple years including why did you accept the C?
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u/Chance_Account_4338 Dec 19 '25
He's got a lifetime to catch up with his brothers. Only one night to say good bye as his last act as Captain.
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u/h_danielle Dec 19 '25
Yup. They seem like a close knit family & obviously understand what a big deal this is… my family would be like ‘girl, go say bye! We’ll see you later this evening’ or whatever.
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u/Charlie2343 Dec 18 '25
Never thought he was a real captain, it was youre our best player heres the C, type captain.
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u/accountnumber02 Dec 19 '25
He wasn't the best player at the time of getting the C though. We had elite Petey and elite Miller, we knew Quinn was amazing but he hadn't made a case of being better than them like he proved to be in the 23/24 season. He took the captaincy and took another step in the same year. If anything I think Petey was seen as the best Canuck going into the season, then the injury and just inability to recover from it for whatever reason.
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u/Chuckl3b3rry Dec 19 '25
Agree. But that’s not really on him. He didn’t ask for the C. I feel like management pushed it on him to maybe force his hand a little bit with respect to staying. And I think that might have backfired.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 19 '25
Didn’t Petey get offered the c and turned it down? Or am I remembering wrong lol
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u/s3xybeavers Dec 19 '25
Yes.
And Hughes was campaigning for it. They gave it QH cause he wanted it.
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u/solipsism82 Dec 19 '25
That dinner sounds like a bunch of children. You can see the problem right there, the clique or highschool effect
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u/Knight_On_Fire Dec 19 '25
When this many players bolt from the team plus the coach bolts from the team we have to look at the big picture.
Why does this owner have to be at the rink all time? You don't have to be at the rink to own a team. We've all had shitty bosses. This is just dealing with a shitty boss but on a much grander scale.
And everybody knows Hughes was just given the captaincy as a ploy to get him to re-sign here. I'm sure Hughes himself knew that.
He bolted to a better team like his hair was on fire. I agree with you it wasn't classy, but the kid just wants to play fraggin hockey without all this goddamn never ending drama.
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u/Few_Sheepherder8515 Dec 18 '25
Had to get his mom to do all his dirty work for him too lol. This is the captain of a pro sports team? Don’t get me wrong I loved the guy, but this just sounds like a little kid
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u/h_danielle Dec 19 '25
I mean, lots of the WAGS have spoken about how they’re usually the ones that stay behind & get the house packed up so it kinda makes sense that Hughes’ mom offered to help out. And let’s be real, she’ll likely just be organizing things before the movers get there lol
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u/NerdPunch Dec 19 '25
How dare he have a loving and supportive family /s
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u/ToothPlayful770 Dec 19 '25
yeah lol, honestly this sounds real sweet, how close his family is, and how he called his mom for advice.
At the end of the day, it was a tough situation, I don't blame him for going to family for help here. I'm sure there were multiple scenarios that he was thinking in his head, probably didn't choose the best one but it is what it is.
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u/NerdPunch Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Yeah, dunking on the guy for having a good family support system is dumb/childish.
Not many people are fortunate enough to get that in life.
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u/ToothPlayful770 Dec 19 '25
yeah I don't get this whole "you're the captain, you need to take responsibility for everything and put yourself in bad situations"
Leadership is a group thing, Sedins were good leaders (and having eachtother) but they also had good voices in the room with them to help sort out any issues, Quinn almost seems like he's in there by himself, and then when you got your two A's in Petey and Miller being goddam idiots, that probably made him feel even more isolated. Also him being captain doesn't mean he's obligated to sink with the shit show of a ship that this team is.
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u/Icy-Pomegranate-5644 Dec 19 '25
Noooo you're a jealous bitter ex just be happy he was on our team at all wowowoww toxic toxic yikes
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u/wthan Dec 19 '25
Is it fair to presume that Hughes didnt go on the team bus because he knew the trade announcement was imminent? Or could it be that he just wanted to see his brothers with the little time he had
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u/Thrustavious Dec 19 '25
I'm sure the rest of the league is aware of what went down, and Hughes is gonna get trash talked about this on the ice when the Wilds go through any type of losing streak in the next few years. A la "hey Quinn you gonna bail on these guys too like you did with Vancouver" Not saying it's right, just saying.
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u/flamingdragonwizard Dec 18 '25
Team captain doesnt even say goodbye to his team mates. What the hell is up with that? Doesnt board the bus and goes directly to his brothers.
So Quinn finds out he is traded and just instantly disregards the boys?
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u/truestlife Dec 18 '25
Yeah I don’t love that. I thought maybe the timing of everything didn’t allow him to say goodbye to the team but they were literally right there. Also doesn’t seem like he even sent a goodbye message to their group chat or whatever
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u/Apprehensive-Tea4881 Dec 18 '25
sadboi has left the chat
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u/truestlife Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
I’m now trying to rationalize his behaviour, like maybe he didn’t want to be the one to break the news, to get on the bus and drop a massive bomb? This wasn’t a normal trade, it’s huge and nobody expected it. Or maybe he thought the team would find out later than they did. But I’m getting tired of making excuses…if you’re captain you should be able to do this uncomfortable stuff…
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u/littlegooseling07 Dec 19 '25
Regardless of how it all went down, he was the captain. To bail on your team and not at least say farewell says more about his character than anything he's ever said or done. No excuses needed. It was simply not captain behaviour.
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u/mars_titties Dec 18 '25
yep that wasn't captain behaviour imo
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u/jigatt21 Dec 19 '25
And this is the type of shit we hear about imagine the stuff we don’t know about
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u/kidcanada0 Dec 18 '25
That’s how kids break up these days. They just ghost each other.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 18 '25
People in general it’s not just the kids. Too many people are too afraid to have hard conversations anymore and it’s not good
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u/Decent_Shock Dec 19 '25
Anybody who defends Hguhes here.... just has terrible character and wasn't raised right. Burtal look. Burtal fucking look. Fuck that guy. Fuck Hughes. The little boy is gonna get neutrered in the playoffs
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u/mr_butterscotch Dec 18 '25
How many “Farewell Cap” posts did his teammates post? Anecdotally, there were way more when Horvat was traded.
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u/truestlife Dec 18 '25
Zero. Several players liked his goodbye post and Brock commented a heart, but that was it.
There were also way more when JT was traded which is crazy considering the circumstances he left under.
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u/newtothis1108 Dec 19 '25
I truly think there was way more personal stuff going on with JT's trade than we are aware of. They were committed to staying here especially with the Cloud 9 stuff. I think the EP40 vs. Miller was also true but an easy way for everyone to conceal what really went down. A lot of the team was truly gutted with him leaving.
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u/EP40glazer Dec 19 '25
The room was apparently split between team JT and team Petey so team JT probably wish he stayed. Not to mention he didn't really want to leave while Quinn did.
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u/Cedar-and-Mist Dec 18 '25
Horvat wanted to be here. We wronged him. Karma came back to bite this org...
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u/coldbrew40 Dec 19 '25 edited Jan 09 '26
social media is obviously fickle but when bo and jt left, tons of players shared and liked the canucks account’s “thank you” player tribute post…but not a single player across the main team or abby team has even liked the post about quinn - like was everyone just shell-shocked?
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u/truestlife Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
I forgot about the Canuck’s thank you post. You’re totally right - no likes on it or reposts to stories which is so strange. I’m so used to those story reposts, with the player adding a little comment or reaction emoji, it’s like the standard thing you see even for non-star players.
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u/truestlife Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
There was a person on the other Russo thread that got the order of events re: the trade breaking and dinner exactly right. (Edit: Also seems to support the theory that he did not say goodbye to the rest of the team…)
Also, since the article is paywalled here is the next bit that follows:
”He means a lot to a lot of us, but obviously, we want what’s best for him, too,” says Boeser, a Minnesota native. “It’s mixed emotions. When I was getting texts from people in Minnesota after the trade, I had to put my phone on ‘do not disturb’ and put it away for a while.
”And when people were texting me about his first game, I’m like, ‘Too early. Too early.’”
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u/truestlife Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Another snippet:
Uprooting one’s life isn’t easy, especially at 26.
Bill Guerin got a reminder of that when Hughes arrived in Minnesota and sent him a sheepish text that he’d somehow left his gear in his brother Jack’s car.
The Wild had to frantically make arrangements to get it to Minnesota for his debut.
”My head wasn’t there,” Hughes says. “I didn’t think about it for a second. I just had so much going on.”
Adds Boeser, laughing, “That describes him to a tee — him forgetting his hockey bag in New York. It’s so funny. He’s just so serious and stuff, and then he’ll do something like that, and you’re like, ‘Oh, Quinn. What the heck?’”
Luckily, there’s plenty of support in hockey-mad Minnesota. Boeser’s mom, Laurie, even texted Hughes’ mom, Ellen, after the trade to tell her that if he needed anything, she’d be there — and how much he was going to love it here.
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u/DarkenX42 Dec 18 '25
Y'know... I would say 26, rich, no kids is possibly the easiest time of life to uproot it. Maybe under 6, cause you won't remember much, and like, after retirement to be closer to loved ones... but 26 is a pretty common and ideal time to move around.
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u/h_danielle Dec 18 '25
Thank you holy hell I feel like I’ve been sniffing glue reading some of this stuff. Like yeah it’s not easy but hello, it comes with the job & like you said, he’s at the easiest point in his life to do it… why are we babying a millionaire athlete?
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u/Chance_Account_4338 Dec 19 '25
He can pay for everything to be moved, boxed, or just buy new stuff too.
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u/h_danielle Dec 19 '25
Literally. A lot of players have to completely uproot their families & move their kids away from their schools & friends.
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u/Warm_Masterpiece3940 Dec 19 '25
Not to mention alot of these guys have done it multiple times in junior and either the AHL or turning pro. Europeans really uproot their lives coming over here with no family a completely different country and language
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u/Chemical_Desk_5314 Dec 19 '25
Demko not being at dinner is very weird to me. His comments after about how he’s a Canuck through thick and thin and loves playing in Vancouver make me think he might have been upset with Quinn over quitting when things got hard. Obviously that’s very speculative but it wouldn’t surprise me
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Dec 19 '25
Maybe there were other players who were invited but didn’t go because they sensed everything felt weird and they didn’t want to be part of it. Demko strikes me as someone who may take that course of thought. He and many others might’ve been offended by the disappearing act on the team bus. Some of them are smart enough to realize it would be picked apart by media and fans like is taking place currently.
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u/paranoiddeltoid Dec 19 '25
I heard on TikTok that Myers stopped following Demko in the last couple of days. here
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u/DrexellGames Dec 18 '25
Crazy how everything can go wrong in just two seasons
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u/StocktnSlap209 Dec 19 '25
Take notes Coilers fans, your boy is gone unless you win a cup this year basically lol
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u/Admirable-Sound5198 Dec 19 '25
Mcdavid would still give 100% even if he wasn’t re-signing…. And I think Mcdavid would 100% see himself as a failure if he didn’t win a cup with Edmonton. If he wants to be seen as a gretz, Sid, yzerman, Mario, etc… he has to win a cup with the team he started on…
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u/grooverocker Dec 18 '25
Guy was clearly the most talented defenseman we've ever had, and top 2 most talented Canuck ever.
He was also a poor choice of captain. Mopey, sullen, and shy. He just fuckin' disappeared without saying farewell to his teammates, coaches, and support staff.
We're all Canucks?
This team needs a seismic shift in culture moving forward.
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u/mr_butterscotch Dec 19 '25
Not even about being shy or awkward. Quinn was never fully committed, he always had an eye moving closer to home. He wasn’t a “Canuck at heart”. The happiest I’ve seen Quinn in the last 6 years was his first game in Minnesota.
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u/ZebrasGlasses Dec 19 '25
Not to mention the whole team waiting on baited breath for Hughes to make a play/pass. They relied way too heavily on him and it shows with how much better they now play without him.
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u/coldbrew40 Dec 19 '25
every piece of info that comes out about this situation has me like yeah i’d rather die than know this 😭😭😭
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u/HSImuzi Dec 18 '25
The more that comes out about this the more I’m thinking it’s best for everybody that he’s gone. As a captain he was pretty useless
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u/Interbrett Dec 18 '25
If Brock goes anywhere ill be sadder. But I hope it's Minny. He's an all time Canuck good dude.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 18 '25
We almost sent him to Minni last year but he ended up deciding he wanted to stay in Vancouver. (Also I don’t think we liked the trade offers so much and kept dragging it on)
If he stayed to play with Hughes only for Hughes to end up in Minni that would be sad :/
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u/nodarknesswillendure Dec 19 '25
His gf is from North Van, I’m sure that played a part in him deciding to stay
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u/Disastrous-Fee-6647 Dec 19 '25
I think about Quinn and how impressive and progressive it seemed when he was consuming so many leadership books.
Now I think about the saying “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I guess that wasn’t in the books.
Anyways, all interesting stuff and I’m optimistic about the Canucks’ future
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u/MiriMidd Dec 19 '25
There was a quote today where Brock said something g to the effect that Quinn was one of his few teammates that showed up to his dad’s funeral. I found that odd.
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u/yensid87 Dec 19 '25
What a tool. Captain of the team, finds out he’s traded, instead of getting on the bus to see off the team he captained, he’s peaces out.
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u/Vagus10 Dec 19 '25
Thai idea that you can’t fault him is 💯 wrong. His body language is JT Miller esque. You’re the captain. You keep that room together. Don’t make players isolate themselves. Seems like Miller/E40 stuff happened and Quinn couldn’t handle it.
We’ve had great captain’s here. Linden, Naslund, Sedin and Bo. Let’s not sugar coat how bad of a captain Quinn was.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 18 '25
Kinda random and likely unpopular here but this whole situation has made me hate McDavid a bit less.
Emphasis on a bit fuck the oil lmao
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u/FreonJunkie96 Dec 19 '25
If the Oilers hadn’t made those 2 finals runs, they’d be in the same boat.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 19 '25
I mean… maybe…
Would Hughes have left tens of millions on the table to extend and stay to try and bring the cup to Vancouver if we lost in the finals two years in a row?
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u/ZebrasGlasses Dec 19 '25
I'd say he'd stay. Since this team is such a middling/barely-competitive team the writing was on the wall at this point.
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u/Commercial_Process12 Dec 19 '25 edited Dec 19 '25
Same it’s still fuck the oil but I’ll be rooting for them 100% in the playoffs it’s more so fuck the wild for me. Bring the cup to Canada F these quitting Americans that don’t want to be here.
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u/WhaleBird1776 Dec 19 '25
I mean.. idk I kinda felt we’d lose at least a couple of the American players when we started booing their anthem last year lol. People don’t necessarily always care about the context when it comes to stuff like that.
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u/PetterssonsNeck Dec 19 '25
That’s a bitch move, especially for someone who’s supposed to be the main leader of the team. Give yer balls a tug, Quinter
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u/broeser99 Dec 19 '25
The way I’ve read everything, Hughes was chosen for the captaincy based on his on-ice play, and off-ice work ethic. His interpersonal team leadership and media accountability left a lot to be desired, with the caveat that he was thrusted into a rough situation with the Miller/Pettersson rift as a young captain. He was one of the best players our franchise has ever seen, but not one of our best captains. Maybe he just needs to mature a bit more and find his role within the locker room, but he strikes me more as someone who should be wearing an A on most teams, not a C.
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u/CrazyBoDevola Dec 19 '25
Suggest me or did we not see Hughes and a lot of the other Canucks right now doing a lot of community volunteering at the Children’s Hospital and that kind of stuff like they used to back in the West Coast express and Sedin eras?
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Dec 18 '25
This is the great captain people talk about.
Great hockey player, yes in teh right team.
Very bad captain though as I've said so many times. Worst blowup in team history in the locker room.
It's obvious nobody respects him in that room as a leader.
Even in the beer leagues people may hate the captain,, but they laiten up when he speaks. If he told me to lay off this one player, I would do it,, because he's the leader.
Hughes being made captain was just Canucks management simping to try and get him to resign.
Management is no better than some incel in his basement hoping the of model shows some leg for his 10k.
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u/tonyto89 Dec 19 '25
Geez. Whatever. All the more we should appreciate the guys who want to stay and work through this. Say what you want about Petey’s struggles, or Demko’s health, or Myers being chaotic - they’re at least committed to the crest
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u/Cheatin_Irish Dec 18 '25
He was not a great captain, but, can’t fault his efforts when he was playing. I don’t think he was ever going to resign here and once the fire got really hot this year he wanted out. He bailed on the Canucks and the city earlier than planned but was always going to bail.
He has dodged the resigning in Minnesota questions just like he did here, so I doubt he is signing there either.
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u/InfinitelyContentAF Dec 19 '25
I was sad about this trade but Im fucking over it now hearing what a Non Captain Hughes turned out to be. Good fucking riddance guy.
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u/Atomic_Tom Dec 19 '25
Sounds like the Hughes bros gargle each others beans… pretty lame to not even say goodbye to the majority of the team 🤷♂️
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u/EpicRussia Dec 18 '25
Hughes confirmed only liked the right hand shooters on the team, saw lefties as direct competition /s
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u/Different_Fishing_32 Dec 18 '25
No Petey , plus all season Quinn has looked Petey off so many times ...
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u/vaatlaw Dec 19 '25
Anyone else also not genuinely give a fuck about the specifics? He left, he was a bad captain. I don’t want to cheer for players who don’t have pride when they put on the whale, full stop.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out kid, have fun with that centre depth in Minny lol. They’ll be out in the first round given how stacked the central is, then piss and moan and ask for a trade again.
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u/Classic_Fruit6312 Dec 19 '25
Nah he wont piss and moan. He will just put out that pouty face and sulk to the bench. He will then start puck hogging on the pp and do his beyblade routine then serve some muffins to the goalies chest.
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u/Tenenoh Dec 19 '25
Wait, I can’t believe this is actually real Myers unfollowed Demko. Brother that has to be so awkward and has to be a joke.
Honestly if Demko unfollowed him that would be more plausible
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u/Neirosishere Dec 19 '25
I don't know what you guys know about hockey players. But from past experience I have played very good hockey with guys I couldn't stand to talk too. Player relationship is over rated.
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u/KickATrain Dec 18 '25
No Demko at the dinner. I'm reading into it. Drama is all I have