Quinn Hughes won’t be joining Team USA for their championship matchup with Canada after all.
After USA head coach Mike Sullivan said yesterday that the Canucks’ captain was en route to Boston to join Team USA, clarifying reports emerged that Hughes wasn’t actually eligible to play unless another American defenceman went down with an injury. The Americans will be without Charlie McAvoy for the final, but even with that injury, they still have six healthy defencemen. This meant that as of yesterday, Hughes was on standby and sounded eager to join.
“I felt good out there (today),” Hughes told the media after the team’s 45-minute skate on Tuesday. “In a perfect world, the medical team would like me to take it step by step the next couple of days, but I feel really good right now.
“I really want to [go] and obviously it’s been really hard to watch and I want to play, but from what I can understand the rules are the rules,” he explained. “I’m a competitor and feel like I want to play and need to be there.”
According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, Hughes won’t be going to the tournament after all, as he was not medically cleared.
Prior to the tournament, the Canucks made it clear that attending the tournament would be Hughes’s decision. He was a game-time decision in games leading up to the break, and seemed close to returning prior to the schedule pause. On top of that, Hughes was a full participant in Thursday’s Canucks practice. He’s clearly close, but apparently not close enough.
LeBrun added that he spoke with Hughes’s agent Pat Brisson, who said the following:
Hughes and the Canucks are back in action on Saturday, when they fly to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights, before making a quick turnaround to take on the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if
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