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How have the players the Canucks netted in the Quinn Hughes trade looked since?: Hughes Week
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jacob Fraser
Mar 30, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 30, 2026, 12:44 EDT
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With the Canucks set to take on captain Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild on Thursday for the first time since the trade, we thought it made sense to dive into some Hughes-related content during what we’re calling Hughes Week! 
It’s been almost four months now since the Vancouver Canucks dealt their captain and best defenceman in franchise history, Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren and a 2026 first-round pick.
Since the trade, Hughes has thrived as a member of the Wild, registering 49 points through 42 games, and has been a big part of their success as a top-six team in the NHL standings this season.
The Canucks, of course, are in 32nd place and will likely lock up the last-place spot and best odds at winning the draft lottery sometime in the next week. With the team in the basement of the league, most games have been tough to watch at this point. There have been a few different bright spots throughout the year, and the biggest ones arguably involve those three players from the Hughes trade.

Zeev Buium

It’s certainly been an up-and-down year for Zeev Buium. In his Canucks debut, he scored the game-winning goal and added an assist against the New Jersey Devils, but since then, he hasn’t produced much. As a member of the Canucks, Buium has nine points in 35 games. This isn’t the end of the world, though. The 20-year-old defenceman has looked good offensively for the most part with this team. He’s a dynamic skater and has shown flashes of being able to create on his own in the offensive zone. 
The defensive side of things is where the concerns lie. But again, he is 20 years old. He just needs to continue to develop, and he will be fine. 
One of the best parts of adding Buium, however, has been his maturity and leadership. He’s proving to be a promising leader and someone you’d expect to wear a letter sometime in the future for the Canucks. He wants to win and compete with his teammates. That’s exactly the kind of players the Canucks need more of, so Buium is a great starting piece for this rebuild.

Marco Rossi

Shifting over to the forwards, Marco Rossi had a difficult start to his Canucks tenure. Returning from injury, not producing, and then getting injured again. It was less than ideal and a little concerning for Canucks fans, who were hoping the team found their future top-six centre.
Since returning from his latest injury, however, we’ve finally seen what Rossi is capable of. He’s a high-IQ player who moves the puck very well. This has been helping the Canucks’ top power play unit as well, putting Rossi in J.T. Miller’s former spot and letting him open teammates for scoring looks on the power play. 
Not only has he been a good addition to the power play, but he has also been a very good top-six centreman and has seemingly found chemistry with Brock Boeser. The BRÖ line with Boeser, Rossi, and Öhgren has been the Canucks best line recently and one of the only lines that has consistently produced offence for the team down these final stretch of games.
After a slow start to his Canucks tenure, picking up one goal and two points with a minus-eight rating in 11 games, Rossi has exploded offensively. Over the following 12 games, Rossi has tallied four goals and nine assists for 13 points. And playing with his new linemates sparked that offensive production.
Rossi is the driver and playmaker for that line, while Boeser finds open space in the offensive zone and Öhgren uses his speed and size to create off the rush and forecheck. All this to say, it was a rocky start for Rossi with the Canucks, but as of late, he has looked like one of the team’s best players. 

Liam Öhgren

Speaking of the BRÖ line, let’s check in on Liam Öhgren. Coming to Vancouver, he had played 18 games for the Wild and had yet to register a point. The expectation seemingly was to bring him in, give him a look in the Canucks lineup and then most likely send him down to Abbotsford, as he needs more development. 
Right out the gate, though, Öhgren proved he belonged in the NHL. Out of the three players, Öhgren has played the most games for the Canucks this season with 41, and is tied with Rossi with 15 points since joining Vancouver. The narrative that Öhgren was a throw-in isn’t necessarily true; the Canucks wanted him and had wanted him for a while, but the expectation looked a bit closer to a reclamation project than it did to immediately getting a very good prospect that can play right away. 
Öhgren has arguably been the most consistent player for the team since joining and consistently creates scoring chances thanks to his speed and work ethic. The numbers may not exactly pop with 15 points in 41 games, but by the eye test, he’s very noticeable in creating offence for this team. 
Clearly, things haven’t gone the Canucks way at all this season, being dead last in the league, having to trade one of the most talented players in the franchise’s history, all the injuries, the list goes on. That being said, one of the positives to take away from this season has been the return in the Hughes trade. All three players have shown they are capable of growing into special players who can be big parts of this organization when it’s time to compete.

Keep up with all of our Hughes week stories

Introduction to Hughes week
Is Quinn Hughes the best Canuck of all-time?
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