The Vancouver Canucks officially find themselves in last place in the league, coming off a shutout loss at home to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night. With injuries still piled up, the Canucks were forced to ice a roster with David Kampf leading the 1C spot for the second game in a row.
This came after a gutsy and deserving win against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night, wherein Elias Pettersson was deemed unable to play before the game’s start. However, the Canucks surmounted the adversity of a heavily depleted lineup, earning every bit of their win against the Wild, and they brought that same intensity into Monday night’s game against Detroit.
An Undeserving Loss
Final scores can sometimes be misleading, and in the case of Monday night’s game against the Red Wings, it couldn’t be any more so. The Canucks were thoroughly the better team, in a game where Vancouver could have easily had 5 or 6 goals, if it weren’t for the stellar play of Red Wings goaltender John Gibson.
Vancouver outshot Detroit 39-21 through 60 minutes, and Gibson came up with 10 bell save after 10 bell save. It would be easier to list the players on the Canucks who did not have themselves a great scoring chance that was either stopped or just missed.
It is important after losses like these to forget about the result and just focus on the good things that you did in the game. Of course, that is easier said than done, and easier still when you’re not trying to battle your way out of last place in the league, a spot the Canucks unfortunately find themselves in after the Nashville Predators’ shootout win on Tuesday.
Vancouver’s situation gets harder still when accounting for the rapidly accelerating trade rumours for Captain Quinn Hughes.
Hughes Saga
Speculation on Quinn Hughes’ departure from Vancouver has been swirling for a while now. All the way back in April, Canucks President Jim Rutherford openly recognized the Hughes brothers’ desire to play together at the NHL level. Rutherford further explained that their organization would do everything they could to keep Quinn, but ultimately that decision was out of their control, in their control if they were to bring Jack and Luke Hughes to Vancouver.
Needless to say, that began a more serious conversation before the NHL offseason. Do the Canucks truly believe they can re-sign Quinn? Or is it only a matter of time? 8 months ago, that was merely a thought experiment of what a superstar trade like that could look like. Flash forward 8 months, and every day feels closer to that reality.
In late November, the news came down that the Canucks were officially entertaining offers on “Veteran Players” in an effort to get younger. At this point, the Canucks were already deep in the trenches of the league standings, and on top of not openly committing to a rebuild, it became unclear as to whether or not the message from the Canucks included Quinn Hughes.
Enter Elliotte Friedman
On Hockey Night in Canada’s segment of “Saturday Headlines”, Friedman reported that the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks have had talks about Quinn Hughes. The consensus seems that these talks were purely preliminary and that no real exchange of offers has been made, but a talk was had.
There has been speculation for a while on Quinn Hughes’ commitment to Vancouver and how far that would stretch. Now we reach a point where the Canucks are last in the NHL, and are getting calls for their superstar defenceman. Though New Jersey is publicly the first, it certainly won’t be the last. Quinn Hughes is on a darling contract in comparison to what he brings on the ice, and he is on it for another season after this one.
Who is in on Quinn?
There will likely be teams out there who view Hughes as a potential rental worth the risk, similar to the Hurricanes trade for Mikko Rantanen last season. The difference is that the Hurricanes had a few weeks to convince Rantanen to re-sign; any prospective team that trades for Hughes will have a year and a half to convince the former Norris winner to stay, assuming he is traded before the deadline.
On the plus side for Canucks fans, the return for Quinn Hughes, even without an official agreement to resign, will be massive. Vancouver’s asking price will likely be a combination of roster players, prospects, and first-round picks, to restock the shelves as quickly as possible.
A quality center, either prospect or player, should be mandatory for the Canucks to even entertain an offer, as well as a defenseman to replace Hughes’ roster spot. Add on to that some unconditional picks, at minimum one 1st rounder, and the needle may start to move.
Even still, the Canucks shouldn’t be pressured to move on from their franchise defenceman without an offer that blows them out of the water. As previously stated, the Canucks still retain Hughes’ services for another season if they so choose, but if they want to capitalize on Quinn Hughes’ value, it can’t get any higher than right now.
Next on the Schedule
In the meantime, the Canucks focus will remain on the ice. Vancouver will be looking to rebound from their disappointing loss to Detroit by bringing the same energy and intensity as it has in the two previous games. As well, there is good news on the injury front, as goaltender Thatcher Demko is slated to make his return Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabers. Demko has been sidelined since November 11th, after exiting a game early with a lower-body injury sustained against the Winnipeg Jets. There is still no definitive word on Elias Pettersson’s return, but it looks unlikely that Pettersson is back for Thursday night’s game.
Now more than ever, the Canucks goal should be to keep their nose to the grindstone. You can’t dwell on things out of your control; just go out there and build on each game. The Canucks host the Sabers Thursday night, and then are off to New Jersey, which is surely a game no one will be talking about…
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