Jack Hughes speaks on his brother Quinn being an elite defenceman and “welcoming him with open arms” if he were to come to New Jersey

All is quiet on the Quinn Hughes contract talks but his brother Jack had a lot to say as he joined Sportsnet’s 31 Thoughts podcast with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek.

Elias Pettersson shared an Instagram story of him being back in Vancouver but so far, it’s just crickets from Quinn as contract talks continue between Canucks management and Pettersson and Hughes’ agents.

The two brightest stars to hit Vancouver in the past decade are without contracts as we are just a handful of days away from Canucks training camp.

Jack Hughes gave some insight into how he spent his offseason attached at the hip to his older brother Quinn, “I pretty much saw this guy every day this summer,” said Jack. “We didn’t really go on vacations apart from each other. It’ll be nice to get my space now, he was a good roommate and we had some fun this summer.”

Jack also went on to joke about completing the Hughes trio in New Jersey after the Devils drafted the youngest of the Hughes brothers with their fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft. “I started the recruitment process,” said Jack as he laughed with Friedman and Marek. “No, he loves Vancouver, he’s gotta get that deal done, he’s gotta play some hockey. I’d love to meet up up with him some day. We got Luke and I don’t see myself leaving Jersey for a while, but if Quinn ever wanted to come, we’d welcome him with open arms.”

There was a joking tone in Jack’s voice but it’s obvious that the brothers love the idea of all of them playing on the same team and the fact of the matter is, the Devils currently have two of the three Hughes brothers.

Jack spoke about how the hockey world perceived Quinn’s down season last year and wasn’t too impressed. “I think Quinn got disrespected this year,” said Jack. “People questioned his defence this year but at the end of the day, when you’re on a bad team, you don’t score as much as you’d like and you give up more goals than you should.”

The Canucks were a bad team last season and though he put it as bluntly as possible, he does have a point. Jack went on to say that the league is down on his brother and that he expects Quinn to get back to being a top defenceman in the league. “I think people forget that he’s an elite defenceman in this league,” said Jack. “That (2019-20) playoffs, him and Petey were incredible, (they were) driving that team to game seven in Vegas. He’s going to have a big time year and I think people forget how good he is.”

We all want to see how good Quinn can be but still, we need to get over this speed bump of a contract situation and begin to talk about his play on the ice. This whole contract situation has been a pain in the organization’s side and honestly, as a Canucks content creator, it’s been a pain in my side as well.

Its crunch time now. Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson need to be at day one of training camp otherwise it’s a bad look for the organization and a tough hit to morale as the team looks to bounce-back from a horrendous 2020-21 year.

We all just want the Canucks’ top players to be at training camp. The cap is what it is and the money is there to get deals done. All that has to be in question now is term and the Canucks are likely trying to get one of the two stars locked in long term as the agents likely are looking for bridge deals so that they can cash in on mega-deals in a few years.

Its hard to keep up with who’s court the ball is in. The players want to be at camp, the organization needs them to be at camp, and the agents’ only card to play is keeping their clients out of camp.

It’s a dirty cycle but here’s to hoping it gets done in the next few days so we don’t have to write articles about Quinn’s brother talking about recruiting Quinn to New Jersey and can instead talk about the lotto line coming back together or which right-shot defenceman will play with Hughes.

To quote The Trews, “I am tired of waiting. I’m tired of waiting. I am tired. I’m just tired of waiting.”