Canucks lose star defenseman Quinn Hughes to injury.

The Vancouver Canucks will be without their best player when they welcome the Edmonton Oilers to Rogers Arena on Sunday night.

Just hours before the puck will drop, Canucks head coach Adam Foote confirmed that star defenseman and Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has been sidelined due to injury. Foote did not go into specifics, but did confirm that Hughes is dealing with some kind of lower body injury.

As a result of Hughes being out of the lineup, the Canucks will be inserting 23 year old defenseman Victor Mancini into the lineup. Mancini has already appeared in 4 games for the Canucks this season with no points and plus minus rating of -2 through that stretch of play.

Obviously it will be impossible for Mancini or anyone else on the Canucks to adequately replace Hughes, widely considered to be among the very best puck moving defensemen in the league, with Hughes off to another strong start this season having registered a goal and 6 assists for 7 points over the first 9 games of the season.