Star defenceman Quinn Hughes is scheduled to be a free agent after the 2026-27 season and speculation about his future has emerged in the midst of a difficult start to the season for the Vancouver Canucks.
TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger, Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston joined host Gino Reda from the NHL Board of Governors meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo., to discuss the latest.
Gino Reda: Alongside the Insiders, Darren Dreger, Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston. Gentlemen, the hornets’ nest has been kicked again. Quinn Hughes says he hasn’t been a part of any trade conversations yet, but he’s aware that something could happen. And all of a sudden, things have been turned up again.
Darren Dreger: Well, and he also referenced the general manager of the New Jersey Devils, Tom Fitzgerald, as Fitzy. So that gives you an indication of Quinn Hughes and his relaxed approach to the way things are going off ice. But he’s much more serious on ice. And there are many who think he’s almost overtrying, which is, in a way, explaining his lacklustre play of late. You can say that in general about the Vancouver Canucks.
But specific to any conversation between the Devils and the Canucks I’ll tell you this. When Patrik Allvin, the GM for the Canucks put out the memo a couple of weeks back advising 31 general managers that he was interested in moving any of his potential unrestricted free agents, of course he got calls – from New Jersey, from other clubs – saying, okay, well what about your non-UFAs, which would be specific of course to Quinn Hughes. But not much more than that.
Pierre LeBrun: Well, and the decision, which is huge for the Canucks franchise that is starring [this situation] in the face is this – do you trade Quinn Hughes before the March 6 trade deadline, or do you wait until the summer, where you still keep that door open on perhaps extending him, which seems like a long shot at this point, or trading him then as part of the draft proceedings. What I would say is that trading him before March 6 is a cleaner procedure. That means you don’t involve Pat Brisson, the agent from CAA. And you don’t have Brisson and Hughes, come July, basically picking their team.
It becomes a different process at that point if you wait that long. It doesn’t mean that you can’t make a great trade despite that. I think a trade before March 6 is clean. It’s hey, you get this guy for two playoffs if you’re a team that steps up. To me, that’s a scenario that might get the best trade return.
Chris Johnston: Let’s put the Hughes thing just to the side for a moment.
Vancouver doesn’t really want to trade him, right? And one of the ways I think that they felt they could compel him to stay was by having a good season. Well, it has not been a very good season. They’re second last in the NHL in points percentage at this point in time. And I think there’s a lot of pressure to try and get a body in the door to help the cause here. They’re down three centremen right now and you know, Patrik Allvin has made a couple additions.
He signed David Kampf. David Kampf is playing way too high up in the lineup for the kind of player that he is as a depth centreman. So I think that there is a fair amount of heat in the here and now on just getting some bodies into this program and having them be competitive. Because yes, they’re down in the standings, but as we know it’s a pretty compressed standings in the NHL right now and there is maybe some season left here to save.
Reda: A very difficult spot for Canucks management right now, they have to worry about the future, but at the same, time take care of the present and now allow that to slip away.
