Quinn Hughes explains exactly what went wrong in Vancouver

Quinn Hughes faces his former teammates tonight with the Vancouver Canucks visiting the Minnesota Wild this evening.

Hughes, once the cornerstone of the Canucks and the team's 15th captain in franchise history, was traded to the Wild in a blockbuster deal after it was reported that he refused to negotiate a contract extension with his former team.

Today, Hughes reflected on his time in Vancouver and explained exactly what went wrong with the team the past two seasons.

“I obviously have my thoughts on it, but I don’t want to point fingers at anyone,” Hughes said.

“I would say that the trade last year with J.T. Miller, I mean, he was a top-five player for us the year prior. He had (103) points, PK, power play, taking defensive-zone draws. He had (103) points, and it wasn’t accomplished by cheating all the time; he had (103) points playing the right way. There were nights I’d watch him and just think, ‘This guy is unbelievable.’

“To lose that guy the very next year … that was probably a fracture of everything. And yet, on some level, it felt like you could see it coming for years, I would say."

The fracture that Hughes alludes to is an obvious reference to the rumored conflict between Miller and Canucks forward Elias Pettersson.

“It just didn’t work out, whatever the reason was. I don’t really know. We had a great team two years ago. I thought Rick (Tocchet) did a great job, Adam Foote did a great job. Thatcher Demko being injured hurt, big time.

Hughes would then go on to admit that losing top end talent was ultimately what led to the team's fall in the standings.

“Then across two years, we lose Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Miller, me, I guess Conor Garland, and Tyler Myers too. Even Carson Soucy and Dakota Joshua. It’s a lot of guys to replace in two years. It just didn’t happen for us.

“(Looking back at 2024), I think it felt easy that season. Like, I feel like this team in Minnesota is unbelievable, but that team in Vancouver had 50 wins. We’re not going to get to 50 wins this season here; it’s literally not even possible at this point.

“It felt in that month of January (in 2024) like we were just going to win no matter what. We were just rolling. Even then, I would say, it was just always fractured at times.”

I've got to say... Hughes is telling on himself with these comments. He describes a fractured team that had serious cultural issues. A team that he was the captain and unquestioned leader of... again, that's pretty telling.