On Thursday, the Vancouver Canucks will take on the Minnesota Wild. Which of course also means the Canucks will face ex-captain Quinn Hughes for the first time since they traded him in mid-December.

In the lead-up to the game, we here at CanucksArmy are proud to bring you Hughes week. All week, we will deliver various pieces of content looking back on Hughes’s time in Vancouver. We’ll dive into where Hughes ranks among all-time Canucks, how things have gone for him since the trade, what the Canucks can learn from his time in Vancouver, and much more. Of course, Hughes isn’t exactly the most popular person around Vancouver post-trade, so don’t expect Hughes week to be all sunshine and roses. We’ll attempt to dive into everything Hughes-related in the leadup to Thursday night’s game.

As with all of our content, we’re also very open to suggestions from Canucks fans! What Hughes-related topics would you like to see us dive into during the week? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below!

To get you set for the week, a brief refresher.

Over eight seasons in Vancouver, Hughes established himself as one of the NHL’s premier defencemen. After years of Canucks fans telling the rest of the league just how good and underrated Hughes was, he undeniably soared into the top tier of NHL defencemen when he won what was a two-horse race between him and Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar for the Norris Trophy in 2023-24.

His individual accomplishments as a Canuck remain remarkable. In 459 games, Hughes accumulated 432 points (61 goals, 371 assists), breaking Alex Edler’s record for the most by a defenceman in franchise history along the way. When Hughes won the Norris Trophy in 2023-24, his 17 goals and 75 assists were both single-season franchise records for defencemen and led all blueliners in the league.

There’s little doubt that Hughes is the best defenceman to ever suit up for the Canucks. And yet, the discourse around him among Canucks fans is a bit more complicated than that.

Folks, welcome to Hughes week.