Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest trades in Canucks franchise history is coming in at number two on our list. I know I’ve written this line plenty over the last ten days, but man, what a year 2025 was for this team. 2025 was a year where the headlines were dominated by basically anything but winning (as you’ve seen already throughout this list), and the number two spot is no different. Coming in at number two: the Quinn Hughes trade with the Minnesota Wild.

Now, we obviously don’t need to jog your memory much on this one. You might have forgotten that the Miller trade happened in this calendar year, but nobody will forget that 2025 was the year the Canucks traded away their franchise defenceman and captain anytime soon.

As we wrote at the time, the Hughes trade is largely a symptom of organizational failure from the top down to surround a talent like Hughes with a winning team, and despite the Canucks doing fairly well in the return, all things considered, it’s still no doubt a dark day in the franchise’s history.

The pain of losing Hughes is thankfully minimized by the haul the Canucks received in return. 24-year-old Marco Rossi, 21-year-old Liam Ohgren, and the prized piece of the trade: 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium. Of course, the Hughes trade also has the chance to signify the organization finally taking a step back and taking the steps necessary to build a long-term contender, but their willingness to actually commit to doing so remains to be seen. The club’s next steps and how fast they choose to accelerate out of this rebuild retool with a hybrid form will greatly impact how we look back on the Hughes trade in the years to come.

The Hughes trade either represents a great opportunity for the Canucks to be forced to look themselves in the mirror and commit to a plan; or it’s just another moment where the club was accidentally bad, lost a franchise player because of it, and used a whole bunch of buzz words before building a team that’s primed to compete for the 20th-14th overall in the NHL standings for years to come. Only time will tell which path the team goes down.

Check out our other top 10 stories of 2026 so far!
#10 – Canucks sign Garland and Demko to contract extensions on day one of free agency
#9 – When Rutherford hinted at trading for Jack and Luke Hughes to keep Quinn in Vancouver
#8 – Canucks select Braeden Cootes with 15th overall pick of 2025 NHL Draft
#7 – Brock Boeser details Allvin’s last-minute phone call that kept him in Vancouver
#6 – When Rick Tocchet was brutally honest about JT Miller’s poor play
#5 – When Brian Burke offered his thoughts on Elias Pettersson and JT Miller
#4 – When Rick Tocchet announced he was leaving the Canucks
#3 – Canucks trade JT Miller to New York Rangers
#2 – Canucks trade Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild