The Vancouver Canucks traded captain and star defenseman Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren, Zeev Buium, and a 2026 first-round pick in December that eventually triggered a full-scale rebuild.
This week, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford shared his candid thoughts on that blockbuster deal. Speaking to reporters in his end-of-season press conference, the 77-year-old executive made one thing very clear about why Quinn Hughes was traded.
“I’m gonna answer it in a different way than you expect. Some people think Quinn left here because the team wasn’t any good. He was leaving anyways, okay?” Rutherford said.
Rutherford pushed back hard against the narrative that the team’s poor performance drove the star defenseman away. The Hall of Fame executive then drew a comparison to another high-profile departure that rocked the NHL and made it clear Vancouver’s situation was far from unique.
“The best example I can give you is Matthew Tkachuk. He was in Calgary. They had a good team. He wanted to go back to the US, and he went. This is not gonna be the last guy in Quinn Hughes that decides he’s gonna leave.”
Finishing dead last in the NHL standings by a 14-point margin over Chicago, it marks the second consecutive season the Canucks have missed the playoffs and a stunning fall from grace after reaching the second round just two years ago.
Jim Rutherford knew Quinn Hughes wouldn’t extend even before the season started
Jim Rutherford revealed that he had known well before the season started that the former captain had no intention of re-signing in Vancouver.
“I’ve known for some time that Quinn was not staying in Vancouver, and I’ve known before this season started, for that matter,” he stated.
Despite knowing Hughes was planning to leave, the organization went ahead with significant roster commitments. Vancouver signed Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko to extensions totaling roughly $21 million in what now appears to have been a desperate last-ditch effort to convince Hughes to change his mind.
“It’s one of the reasons why we signed the guys, the Garlands, the Boesers, the Demkos, that had relationships with him. Hoping for a little bit of a chance right down to the end that he would decide to stay here, but I don’t think that was ever in the cards,” Rutherford explained.
Rutherford also spoke warmly about what Hughes meant to the organization during his time in Vancouver.
“I’m close to him. I really like him. I respect what he did in Vancouver. He put on a good show for a lot of years. But guys work towards free agency, and we should respect the fact that he had that option, and he was going to exercise the option to go back to the United States.”
Hours before meeting the media Friday, Rutherford made the call to relieve Patrik Allvin of his duties as general manager. The decision ended a four-year tenure that produced just one playoff appearance and came despite the two men sharing a long working relationship dating back to their time together in Pittsburgh.
Edited by Anjum Rajonno
