One thing I’ve learned about Quinn Hughes in covering him over the years is that he takes all of this personally.
He saw the player rankings at various outlets, The Athletic included, before putting together a Norris Trophy season. He heard the critical commentary about his defensive play and his shot, and as great players do, he put in the work to make both areas a strength of his game.
Last offseason, when Hughes changed his diet and took a scientific approach to playing a more aggressive form of attacking hockey, he was motivated, in part, by what Hughes imagined to be the likely criticism that would come his way after he was named the Vancouver Canucks’ newest captain.
“I just knew I was going to be captain and I didn’t want to disappoint,” Hughes told The Athletic last spring. “Because I knew that people outside the market didn’t view me as a captain. So I knew that if we didn’t have a good start to the year that people would be like, ‘What the f—, why did they name this guy captain?’”
I’ve kept thinking through this quote as this Canucks season has been waylaid by significant injuries and on-ice dysfunction leading to franchise-altering trades. The idea that Hughes has elevated his game to a level this city has rarely, if ever, seen from an individual skater and has almost singlehandedly propped up this team’s fortunes, but that despite all of that success and brilliance, he still can’t really escape the sense of responsibility that it’s all on him.
With this in mind, I listened to Hughes after Canucks practice on Tuesday. After skating in a red non-contact sweater, Hughes met with the media for the first time in a month to discuss his decision not to participate in 4 Nations Face-Off and reflect on how difficult it’s been for him, as a competitor, to watch his friends and countrymen compete at the highest level of hockey that anyone has seen in over a decade.
“Really, what it came down to is I just wasn’t healthy enough,” Hughes said on Tuesday. “I wasn’t sure (if the injury) could get worse, and I felt like I couldn’t be crawling back to Vancouver at the end of that tournament where now I’m missing more Canucks games.”
GO DEEPER
Quinn Hughes to join Team USA in Boston ahead of 4 Nations final vs. Canada
Of participating in the final at 4 Nations, the grudge rematch between Canada and the United States, Hughes seemed desperate to get the opportunity — even if it seems like NHL rules will prevent that, barring another injury to a Team USA skater.
“It’s been fun to watch, (but) hard for me to watch,” Hughes said. “But, you know, I’m close with a lot of those USA guys and proud of how they’ve been playing … Of course, I want to play, but they (the other Team USA players) have gotten us to the point where we’re in a championship game now, and those guys also deserve to play. In saying that, it’s obviously been hard for me, I’m a competitor and, you know, feel like I want to play and need to be there.”
Of course, the NHL should bend the rules to get the best defender on the planet into that game.
This entire tournament has been largely improvised, the league and the players’ association catching lightning in a bottle due to the quality of play, the political stakes and the buy-in and passion of the players involved.
That’s a passion that Hughes, who was originally named to the Team USA roster but withdrew at the last minute due to what’s reportedly an oblique injury, shares. He deserves to have an opportunity to express it on the biggest stage the sport has enjoyed in decades and his presence would elevate the game.
Even the most ardent Canadian partisans want to see Canada beat the best possible version of Team USA on Thursday, surely. And the best possible version of Team USA absolutely includes Hughes.
Reading between the lines, Hughes seemed both eager to participate in Thursday’s showcase and doubtful that the league’s rules would permit him to. He seemed uninterested, too, in flying from Vancouver to Boston to Las Vegas solely to take in the tournament as a reserve player.
And he seemed defiant about this Canucks season, and the opportunity that still lies ahead for him and his NHL team, no matter how trying it’s been to this point.
“I’ve been just trying to be the best I (can) be every night, and try to bring my best for our group and be a calming presence and someone that guys can look at and know that, you know, I’m going to fight for them tonight and be ready to go and they don’t have to worry about me,” Hughes said. “And I felt like we had a lot of guys in here that did that. A lot of competitors in here. I keep saying it, but 27 games left and I’m excited.”
Here are a few other notes on a big Canucks news day after the team returned to the ice on the other side of the 4 Nations break.
O’Connor’s big new deal
The Canucks signed another one of their newly acquired former Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, inking American-born winger Drew O’Connor to a two-year, $5 million contract that carries a $2.5 million cap hit and includes a 12-team no-trade clause.
General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that the #Canucks have agreed to terms with forward Drew O’Connor on a two-year contract extension worth $2.5M AAV.
DETAILS | https://t.co/0VMPsQ0LoA pic.twitter.com/OEusLDxG6t
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 18, 2025
In discussing any multi-year NHL contract, we’re talking about a life-changing amount of money. That’s especially true in O’Connor’s case. The 26-year-old O’Connor was unheralded and undrafted, signed out of Dartmouth by the Jim Rutherford-era Penguins on the eve of the pandemic shutdown in 2020.
Since he became a professional player, O’Connor’s rise to the level of NHL regular has been nothing short of meteoric. Immediately, O’Connor was a point-per-game American League player as a 22-year-old, earning games with a division-winning Penguins side in his rookie professional campaign.
With plus skating ability and a big frame, O’Connor built on that rookie-year success and continued to cement himself as an NHL-level option. Now on his third one-way NHL contract, this is the big one for O’Connor.
For both sides, this deal was good business, with negotiations making progress during the break while O’Connor was able to take a step away from the daily grind of the NHL regular season.
From a Canucks perspective, extending both Marcus Pettersson and O’Connor was an immediate priority following their acquisition from the Penguins in late January, as The Athletic previously reported. With O’Connor’s speed and size profile, he’s a perfect fit for how Canucks management wants to play, and he comes in at a $2.5 million price point, so the bet the club is placing should hit provided O’Connor plays to the level of a good third-line winger.
That seems like a pretty safe bet, overall. Generally speaking, O’Connor has performed to that level across his most recent 150 NHL games dating back to when he broke into the league as a full-time NHLer in 2022-23. His offensive impact may lack venom and he’s not a defensive stopper necessarily, but he’s an excellent forechecker and a good supporting rush attacker who has found chemistry with skilled centres like Evgeni Malkin and veteran grinders like Lars Eller, contributing as a useful, complementary piece across a still relatively small sample of NHL games.
O’Connor will turn 27 this offseason, and given his unusual career arc and the steep development curve he’s been on in his mid-20s, there’s a chance he could have more offensive upside than he’s demonstrated to this point. Certainly, his actual results — both from an individual scoring perspective and an on-ice perspective — have lagged behind what the underlying profile suggests he helps his teams generate. That’s a profile you typically want to bet on, especially if you’re a team, like the Canucks, that seems to sustain an elevated shooting clip year over year.
There’s always some risk involved in any bet, of course, and in O’Connor’s case, it’s worth noting The Athletic’s Net Rating model values his contributions so far this season as being worth about $900,000. Last season, however, when O’Connor enjoyed a career year with 16 goals and 33 points, his contributions would’ve been valued at closer to $3.5 million.
Even provided that O’Connor’s speed and physicality prove functional for the Canucks in a complementary third-line role, the truth is the Canucks will need O’Connor to perform at a level somewhat closer to the 15-goal, 30-point-plus supporting offensive contributor he was for the Penguins during the 2023-24 season than the on-pace-for-12-goal, 25-point-plus player he’s been through 57 games this season, for their bet on O’Connor to really hit.
What another Demko absence means
Injured 11 days ago in the Canucks’ final game before the 4 Nations break, Thatcher Demko wasn’t on the ice for practice on Tuesday.
As Nikita Tolopilo and Artūrs Šilovs manned the pipes for Vancouver at Rogers Arena on Tuesday, club officials confirmed to The Athletic that Demko had sustained a lower-body injury, that the injury is not to the same knee that he tore during the playoffs and that he’s officially week to week. Demko will not join the Canucks on their upcoming five-game road trip through the western United States, but they are hopeful he’ll be ready to return shortly, if not immediately, thereafter.
Demko’s return from the unprecedented knee injury he sustained in the playoffs has been a difficult one, both in terms of his performance and, now, a pair of extended absences. This one, sustained right as Demko appeared to be finding his dominant groove in the blue paint, is especially unfortunate.
The timing is far from optimal too, given the way the Canucks schedule is set up during Demko’s latest absence. The club will play a pair of back-to-backs on their upcoming road trip, facing the Utah Hockey Club and the Anaheim Ducks on the second leg of road back-to-backs across four games in six days next week.
While the Canucks’ 6-1-1 run of form before the break has given them some cushion in the Western Conference wild-card race, their margin for error remains relatively slim. And Demko, frankly, had been carrying the team in the final two weeks leading up to the break.
His absence will be a major test for Kevin Lankinen, who the Canucks may be tempted to play in back-to-back games next week. Lankinen, who started two games for Finland at 4 Nations is just three appearances away from matching his career high in a single NHL season and has been at his best when he’s been rested.
Lankinen has been excellent for Vancouver this season, and as a pending unrestricted free agent, has a lot on the line down the stretch. Lankinen has shown he’s a solid option, and while still looking to maximize their wins, the Canucks are going to need to be disciplined about managing his workload.
And that means Šilovs is going to need to give the Canucks some quality starts, at least one and ideally two, over the next week.
While Šilovs’ game has stabilized somewhat in the AHL, the Canucks have only picked up three points across his six NHL-level starts this season. Even in the AHL, Šilovs has only managed to record a quality start in half of his 14 appearances.
Vancouver’s situation in the blue paint is wildly fluid, both at the moment and in the big picture. Demko, for example, becomes extension eligible on July 1 but has only finished 18 of his most recent 21 NHL starts.
Lankinen has been solid, meanwhile, but has also set himself up to earn a significant raise as a pending unrestricted free agent and, more pressing, is pacing to blow past his previous career highs in terms of game played and shots faced in the months ahead.
And Šilovs should get an opportunity to re-establish himself as a trusted option to start NHL games for a team with playoff aspirations. It’s an opportunity he can’t afford to miss given some of the decisions Canucks management is facing in the weeks and months ahead.
(Photo of Quinn Hughes: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
