As we put the bookend on Hughes week here at CanucksArmy, we asked our staff for their thoughts on if the Vancouver Canucks should retire the former Captain’s No. 43 in the rafters of Rogers Arena.

Here were their thoughts:

No. It’s not a particularly close call, either. To qualify for jersey retirement, one has to have made a real difference, and it’s hard to say Hughes has. Stan Smyl helped turn the franchise from a laughingstock into a real team. Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure oversaw the first truly competitive period of Canucks history. Markus Naslund led them directly out of their darkest years. And the Sedins practically defined Canuck hockey for a new generation. What difference did Hughes make in the end? Aside from a couple of ultimately meaningless playoff rounds and the dissolution of one of the messiest dressing rooms in memory? His ultimate greatest legacy might be the return brought in from his trade, and that, combined with a three-and-a-half-year run as the second-best defender in the NHL, probably gets him in the Ring of Honour, but nowhere close to a jersey retirement.

I’ll keep this extremely simple. If Roberto Luongo, a Hall of Famer who led the Canucks to several of the best seasons in NHL history and a Stanley Cup Final berth, can’t get his jersey retired, then putting Quinn Hughes in that conversation is laughable.

On a different timeline, Hughes played another eight years as a Canuck, helping lead a renaissance and serving as a core part of a title contender right through the 2030s. But he decided to take his talents elsewhere, leaving behind a legacy as a captain for just two full seasons and two playoff series wins.

Unless the team rights the wrong of Luongo’s #1 down the line, you’d better have at least one Stanley Cup ring to show from your time here to earn that banner. And Hughes does not.

I mean, I guess? Hughes wouldn’t be the first player to leave the franchise unceremoniously. Though it’s hard to fault the guy for dipping out on a directionless franchise that duffed two potential springboards to contention during his tenure. The first was the post-bubble playoff season, where cost-cutting measures took priority over building on the six years of accidental failure, resulting in a near-upset over the Vegas Golden Knights. The second, most recently, was an apparently unsolvable toxic locker room (The Rift™) that saw the team implode like a dying star after a massive glow-up under 1.5 seasons of Rick Tocchet. Like Bure, the guy wanted out with a year left on his deal, and clearly established that Vancouver was no longer in his future. Fair enough, honestly!

The guy finished his time in Vancouver as the all-time leader in points by a defenceman, a Norris winner, fifth in playoff points by a defenceman, and was the team captain. Sure, a lot of nonsense occurred under his watch. However, I’m not convinced The Rift™ would be solved by anything other than trades, even if Henrik Sedin or Trevor Linden were wearing the C. The guy will be a first ballot Hall of Famer by the time his career is over, with potentially a Stanley Cup ring to his name. It will probably be 20 years (at this rate) before another Canuck-drafted defenceman comes close to eclipsing Hughes as the all-time points leader by a defenceman. Even then, I feel like it’s a stretch to think they’ll ever luck into a defenceman of Hughes’ calibre ever again.

Quinn Hughes tickled every sense.

His resume alone establishes credibility. Franchise records for most points, most assists, and highest points-per-game by a defenceman cement Hughes as one of the premier players in Canucks history.

But it’s the way he plays that resonates most. Shift after shift, Hughes sparks an emotional response — walking the blue line on the power play, slipping past forecheckers with ease, and creating space where none exists. He’s a magician with the puck, lifting fans out of their seats in the same way Pavel Bure and Markus Naslund once did.

If there’s any hesitation about No. 43 one day hanging in the rafters, it comes down to logic. Should the Canucks honour a player who ultimately chose to leave?

Based on Hughes’ legacy — and the imprint he’s left across the franchise record book — the answer is yes.

It’s certainly a very good resume, especially when you tack on the fact that he was the team’s captain for two seasons and a quarter. All that being said, although, Hughes is the greatest defenceman in franchise history and perhaps the most talented player to ever wear the crest. Number 43 doesn’t belong in the rafters. His individual impact was undeniably great, but to be among the Sedins, Linden, Bure and Smyl, there has to be more to it than just individual success. The furthest a team went with Hughes was game seven of the second round. Team success should matter in this case, and in the Hughes era, there just wasn’t much of it.

Should Hughes be honoured in the ring of honour? For sure. But that’s as far as it should go for the team’s most recent captain.

Sigh. I don’t know. The rational part of my brain that looks at Hughes’s resume with the Canucks says yes, probably one day. I mean, he’s the franchise leader in just about every category among defencemen and is the first Norris Trophy winner in franchise history. But it’s hard to ignore the way he left town and the undeniable hurt feelings among the fanbase. If I have to answer today, I likely give a begrudging yes, but ask me in 10 years. Sometimes all it takes is one well-thought-out interview for a player to repair the fractured relationship between him and the fanbase of his ex-team. If that doesn’t happen, it’s a bit hard to imagine a world where Canucks fans embrace Hughes again.

Personally, I don’t think so. Undoubtedly, he is the best defenceman in Canucks history. But that doesn’t mean he deserves to be honoured in the rafters. At the end of the day, he didn’t stay long enough to warrant it in my opinion. Yes, I understand that Pavel Bure is in the rafters, who played fewer games in a Canucks sweater than Hughes and also forced his way out, but the team had more success with Bure than they ever did with Hughes.

Do I fault him for leaving to go chase winning hockey? I don’t. Hockey players are competitors. They want to win. He didn’t think they could win here, and honestly, he was right. But it was still a somewhat ugly ending for Hughes in Vancouver. He will forever be the first Norris Trophy-winning defenceman in Canucks history, and won’t be giving up the franchise lead for most points by a defenceman – doing so in nearly 500 fewer games – anytime soon. He likely finds himself in the Ring of Honour one day, but jersey retirements are something I believe are handed out a little bit too much as is, so I’d leave on the side of no for his jersey retirement.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Do you want to see No. 43 in the rafters? Let us know in the comments below!