It appears the Vancouver Canucks will be without their captain tonight against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers.

Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote announced that Quinn Hughes will be out of the lineup tonight, per Sportsnet 650’s Brendan Batchelor. Victor Mancini will slot in for Hughes, and the recently called-up Kirill Kudryavtsev will take warmup but serve as the seventh defenceman.

Bachelor later reported that it’s a lower-body injury for the Canuck captain.

The Canucks are coming off a five-game road trip, which saw them play five games in eight nights, while travelling between Dallas, Chicago, Washington, Pittsburgh and Nashville. During those games, Hughes averaged 27:07 minutes per game.

Last night against the Canadiens, Hughes picked up a pair of assists, a plus-one rating in the 4-3 loss. He played the most ice time on the Canucks last night, logging 26:25 minutes on his 26 shifts.

The 26-year-old defenceman has got off to a slower start than most Canucks fans are used to seeing, scoring just one goal and seven points through nine games. He averages 26:38 minutes of ice time per night this season.

Replacing him is Mancini. Despite not being named to the opening night roster, Mancini was quickly called up and has appeared in four games this season for Vancouver. He has yet to find the scoresheet, registering two shots on goal with a minus-two rating in 11:05 minutes of average ice time. The 6’3″ right-shot defenceman picked up his first NHL fight during that four-game stint.

With the Canucks dealing with injury troubles, General Manager Patrik Allvin sent Mancini to AHL Abbotsford in order to maximize their LTIR pool when placing Nils Höglander on LTIR.

Mancini was forced to play one game in the AHL before he could be summoned back to the big club, per the new CBA. The 23-year-old defenceman played for Abbotsford on Friday night in what was the Calder Cup Championship banner-raising night, where he played in a top pairing role during their playoff run.

We will have to wait for more details on the extent of Hughes’ injury, and if he will be out for more than just Sunday night’s game against the Oilers.