The Vancouver Canucks skated for a second straight day at Rogers Arena. The big news was that <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/quinn-hughes-not-joining-team-usa-vancouver-canucks-captain-medically-cleared-report">Quinn Hughes</a> had shed his non-contact jersey. However, there remains little in the way of clarity about his availability for Saturday’s game in Vegas.
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Now that he has been ruled out for the <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/instant-reaction-vancouver-canucks-pettersson-plays-sub-10-minutes-swedens-2-1-win-usa">4 Nations finale</a>, Hughes is doing all he can to be ready for the resumption of the Canucks stretch run. He has missed the past four games with a reported oblique issue. He moved well at practice for a second straight day but may need the days ahead to fully recover in time to suit up on Saturday.
<h1>What we saw</h1>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> at practice today O’Connor-Chytil-Boeser DeBrusk-Bains-Sherwood Joshua-Suter-Garland Höglander-Blueger-Aman
Hughes-Hronek MPettersson-Myers DPetey-Soucy Forbort
Silovs/Tolopilo <a href="https://t.co/fOA26JAZAx">pic.twitter.com/fOA26JAZAx</a>
&mdash; Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892301170233749507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The captain was a <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-vancouver-canucks-practice-hughes-skates-team-returns-break-hopes-play-saturday-vegas">full participant in practice on Wednesday</a>, taking part in every drill, including a small-area battle game at the end of the hour-long session. After meeting the media after Tuesday’s practice, Hughes elected not to speak following Wednesday’s skate. There was no sign of Hughes when the Canucks locker room opened to the media 15 minutes after practice.
Acting head coach Adam Foote tried to provide some clarity about the Hughes situation and his switch from a non-contact jersey on Tuesday to a regular practice jersey 24 hours later. However, questions remain about whether Hughes will be in the line-up when the Canucks take on the Golden Knights.
“I think today we did a little bit more and he didn’t have the red jersey on so he participated in the contact and he pretty much finished all the drills,” Foote explained after practice. “He looked good and he challenged himself. They’re going through the process they always do, the medical team, to see when he’s going to be ready to play.”
Foote was pushed for an explanation on how the decision was made to move Hughes from the non-contact jersey to a regular black practice jersey when reports from the 4 Nations tournament suggested he still wasn’t medically cleared for game action. Foote made the note that cleared for practice and cleared for games are two different ideas. 
“Our medical staff – starting with the therapists who work with him day to day – report back to the doctor and they walk through a protocol to protect him and protect our team in the long run as well,” Foote explained. “There is a back to back coming up for us as well and we’ll find out as coaches hopefully more and more every day that goes by.”
Hughes and the Canucks skated hard on consecutive days. Tuesday’s session ended with the players being put through their paces with a long end-of-practice conditioning skate. Wednesday, they finished with a high-intensity two-on-two battle game. 
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Quinn Hughes taking part in end of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> practice small area battle drill. Has been an active participant throughout. Looks game ready. But which game??? 🤔 <a href="https://t.co/0fSj45Fw8N">pic.twitter.com/0fSj45Fw8N</a>
&mdash; Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892306872750813571?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Thursday, the team is keeping the players off the ice, so there will be no way to visually gauge any progress Hughes has made in his recovery just two days before the team resumes its schedule.
“Tomorrow we’re not going to be on the ice as a team, we’re going to be doing a workout and coming in for some video and stuff like that,” Foote explained. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when they report to our doctor and we’re coming into a back to back right out of the gate, so I’m sure they’re going to make the right decision on how he feels.”
The plan is for the Canucks to fly to Vegas on Friday morning and skate in Sin City later that afternoon. All of the team’s 4 Nations participants – Rick Tocchet, Elias Pettersson and Kevin Lankinen – are expected to join the club then.
<h1>Other practice notes</h1>
The 12 forwards skated in the same line combinations as they did on Tuesday. The Canucks have 23 players listed on their active roster – and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/finland-turning-vancouver-canucks-lankinen-sweden">Kevin Lankinen</a> is not one of them. He will need to be reinstated when he joins the club on Friday. Nikita Tolopilo will likely be reassigned to Abbotsford to clear a roster spot. The Canucks could also place one of – or both – Thatcher Demko and Noah Juulsen on the injured list to create roster room.
Tolopilo, by the way, has a sharp-looking set-up.
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Nikita Tolopilo with the solid <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canucks</a> set up <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pinstripes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#pinstripes</a> <a href="https://t.co/vfuIMBjrro">pic.twitter.com/vfuIMBjrro</a>
&mdash; Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) <a href="https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892303158782701998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The Canucks had seven defencemen on the ice for a second straight day. Hughes skated with Filip Hronek, and Marcus Pettersson was paired with Tyler Myers. The other three – Carson Soucy, Derek Forbort and Elias Pettersson – rotated through drills. The Canucks have yet to have Hughes and Marcus Pettersson in the line-up for the same game.
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The Vancouver Canucks skated for a second straight day at Rogers Arena. The big news was that <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/quinn-hughes-not-joining-team-usa-vancouver-canucks-captain-medically-cleared-report">Quinn Hughes</a> had shed his non-contact jersey. However, there remains little in the way of clarity about his availability for Saturday’s game in Vegas.
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Now that he has been ruled out for the <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/instant-reaction-vancouver-canucks-pettersson-plays-sub-10-minutes-swedens-2-1-win-usa">4 Nations finale</a>, Hughes is doing all he can to be ready for the resumption of the Canucks stretch run. He has missed the past four games with a reported oblique issue. He moved well at practice for a second straight day but may need the days ahead to fully recover in time to suit up on Saturday.
<h1>What we saw</h1>
https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892301170233749507

The captain was a <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-vancouver-canucks-practice-hughes-skates-team-returns-break-hopes-play-saturday-vegas">full participant in practice on Wednesday</a>, taking part in every drill, including a small-area battle game at the end of the hour-long session. After meeting the media after Tuesday’s practice, Hughes elected not to speak following Wednesday’s skate. There was no sign of Hughes when the Canucks locker room opened to the media 15 minutes after practice.

Acting head coach Adam Foote tried to provide some clarity about the Hughes situation and his switch from a non-contact jersey on Tuesday to a regular practice jersey 24 hours later. However, questions remain about whether Hughes will be in the line-up when the Canucks take on the Golden Knights.

“I think today we did a little bit more and he didn’t have the red jersey on so he participated in the contact and he pretty much finished all the drills,” Foote explained after practice. “He looked good and he challenged himself. They’re going through the process they always do, the medical team, to see when he’s going to be ready to play.”

Foote was pushed for an explanation on how the decision was made to move Hughes from the non-contact jersey to a regular black practice jersey when reports from the 4 Nations tournament suggested he still wasn’t medically cleared for game action. Foote made the note that cleared for practice and cleared for games are two different ideas. 

“Our medical staff – starting with the therapists who work with him day to day – report back to the doctor and they walk through a protocol to protect him and protect our team in the long run as well,” Foote explained. “There is a back to back coming up for us as well and we’ll find out as coaches hopefully more and more every day that goes by.”

Hughes and the Canucks skated hard on consecutive days. Tuesday’s session ended with the players being put through their paces with a long end-of-practice conditioning skate. Wednesday, they finished with a high-intensity two-on-two battle game. 

https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892306872750813571

Thursday, the team is keeping the players off the ice, so there will be no way to visually gauge any progress Hughes has made in his recovery just two days before the team resumes its schedule.

“Tomorrow we’re not going to be on the ice as a team, we’re going to be doing a workout and coming in for some video and stuff like that,” Foote explained. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when they report to our doctor and we’re coming into a back to back right out of the gate, so I’m sure they’re going to make the right decision on how he feels.”

The plan is for the Canucks to fly to Vegas on Friday morning and skate in Sin City later that afternoon. All of the team’s 4 Nations participants – Rick Tocchet, Elias Pettersson and Kevin Lankinen – are expected to join the club then.
<h1>Other practice notes</h1>
The 12 forwards skated in the same line combinations as they did on Tuesday. The Canucks have 23 players listed on their active roster – and <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/finland-turning-vancouver-canucks-lankinen-sweden">Kevin Lankinen</a> is not one of them. He will need to be reinstated when he joins the club on Friday. Nikita Tolopilo will likely be reassigned to Abbotsford to clear a roster spot. The Canucks could also place one of – or both – Thatcher Demko and Noah Juulsen on the injured list to create roster room.

Tolopilo, by the way, has a sharp-looking set-up.

https://twitter.com/patersonjeff/status/1892303158782701998

The Canucks had seven defencemen on the ice for a second straight day. Hughes skated with Filip Hronek, and Marcus Pettersson was paired with Tyler Myers. The other three – Carson Soucy, Derek Forbort and Elias Pettersson – rotated through drills. The Canucks have yet to have Hughes and Marcus Pettersson in the line-up for the same game.

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Scenes from Canucks practice: Questions remain on Quinn Hughes’ availability for Saturday in Vegas

Sawyer Mynio during the Vancouver Canucks' 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets at the 2024 Young Stars Classic from Penticton, BC.

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