SportsHockeyCanucks

Say what?! Boudreau claims someone with Canucks wanted Hughes playing centre

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Jan 13 2024, 4:58 am
Say what?! Boudreau claims someone with Canucks wanted Hughes playing centre
NHL Network

Quinn Hughes may be the best defenceman in the NHL. But according to former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau, someone within the organization asked him to try Hughes at centre last season.

Speaking on an NHL Network panel with Jackie Redmond and Kevin Weekes, Boudreau spilled the beans on a secret he’s been holding onto for over a year.

“I gotta say this for the first time on TV. I’m not gonna say who, but somebody in that Vancouver organization tried to make me make Quinn Hughes a centre last year,” Boudreau said.

“I refused to do it. I said ‘I’m not making him a centre, I’m not making him a centre.’ And they kept trying to [get] me to put Quinn at centre. And I am so happy I didn’t.”

 

“I’ve been wanting to say that one thing… for almost a year now,” Boudreau added. “I would sit there and shake my head, and I’m going ‘Quinn Hughes is not playing centre for this team. He’s a defenceman.'”

Moving Hughes to centre isn’t just a wild idea, it’s a nonsensical one, especially given centre was Vancouver’s deepest position last season under Boudreau, with Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Bo Horvat down the middle. The Canucks’ weak spot was the back end, where Hughes was the team’s only bonafide top-four defenceman.

Some former team employees are having fun with claim, while everyone else is taking their own guess at who the culprit was.

Rob WilliamsRob Williams
+ Offside
+ Hockey
+ Canucks

SUBSCRIBE TO THE HIVE

Get the latest news sent to your inbox and stay in the loop