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JPat: Hughes trade rips away one of the few joys Canucks had left these days
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Dec 13, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 13, 2025, 01:07 EST
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Maybe in the end, it will all work out for the Vancouver Canucks.
Admittedly, that’s a very large maybe. And honestly, it’s too damn hard to think about a brighter tomorrow at the moment when the last-place team in the National Hockey League saw no other way out than to trade its greatest defenceman and one of the very best players to ever wear the uniform.
In trading away captain Quinn Hughes late Friday afternoon, the Canucks admitted organizational failure of the highest degree. Full stop. And, in so doing, the franchise stripped hockey fans in Vancouver of one of the very few joys they had anymore. 
Quinn Hughes is a supernova – something or someone experiencing a spectacular, explosive rise to fame, extreme success or massive impact. And it’s important to write this in the present tense because the only thing that really changes about Hughes today is the team he plays for. He will continue to shine as bright as just about anyone in the NHL and will give his new team, the Minnesota Wild, the sort of turbo charge it will need to compete against heavyweights Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars just to get out of the Central Division this season.
But sadly, Canucks fans are left with nothing more than memories now. Memories of a player entering the prime years of his career, who logged more minutes on a nightly basis than any other player in the league. One that controlled most of the games he participated in with sublime puck skills and uncanny edgework, unlike anything this city had seen from one of its defencemen. 
With escalating ticket prices across all sports, it’s hard to find many professional athletes who are worth the price of admission most nights. Quinn Hughes has squarely placed himself in that select group. 
Whether it is heading up ice with the puck seemingly on a string, weaving in and out of traffic to create offensive opportunities or spinning away from oncoming opponents, there is a wow factor to the way Hughes approaches the game. Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, there had been some fine blueliners, but Hughes elevated the position to an art form.
Night after night, Hughes racked up franchise records and individual milestones that repeatedly put him in the company of the true legends to play his position. It was hard to keep up with league missives announcing Hughes had reached yet another mark achieved by the likes of only Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque – all absolute legends of the sport. He did that on the regular. And yet somehow now he’s no longer a Canuck.
The franchise missed so many opportunities to surround Hughes with more and better talent. And it continued to let Hughes down time and time again. And now, as it flounders at the bottom of the standings, it had to set its best player free. 
Mark it down: December 12, 2025 – it is most certainly a dark day for the city of Vancouver. Of that there is no doubt. But cling fondly to the memories of one of the greatest athletes this hockey market has ever seen. 
And as the Canucks pick up the pieces and start over once again, think of that alternate universe where Quinn Hughes was supposed to be the first captain in franchise history to hoist the Stanley Cup. He may still get the chance to get his hands on the trophy, but it’s going to have to happen in Minnesota now.
It’s sort of fitting he’s there, actually. The whole idea that he had to leave in the first place is wild, indeed.

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