Hughes could return to Vancouver Canucks lineup much sooner than expected
The Vancouver Canucks may be getting a massive boost for Monday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.
Captain Quinn Hughes has missed the past four Canucks game with an undisclosed injury and the initial prognosis was that he would miss a few weeks. The reigning Norris Trophy winner returned to practice today where he was taking regular shifts on the team’s top powerplay unit.
The expectation was that Hughes would be out longer than teammate Elias Pettersson, who is also dealing with an injury, but it appears that may no longer be the case. Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet gave a promising injury update on Hughes following the skate.
“I would say it’s day-to-day, possibility for tomorrow,” Tocchet told reporters. “We’ll see in 24 hours… We wanna make the right decision.
“We’ll take our time on this, but we still got 24 hours before we make our decision.”
“Get a couple star guys like that, just even practicing, gives the guys juice.”
🗣 Head Coach Rick Tocchet speaks on Hughes and Pettersson returning to practice in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/N97DAYtdFI
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 5, 2025
If anybody had any doubts on how important Hughes is to this Canucks team, this brief absence should put them to rest. Vancouver is a fundamentally different team without their captain patrolling the blueline and the results over his four-game absence speak to that.
The Canucks have won just one of their past four games without Hughes and have dropped a pair of ugly losses to the Nashville Predators and Seattle Kraken. Tocchet says that Hughes being around the team has just as much impact off the ice as he does on the ice.
“With Quinn, as much as on-ice, just being around the room, the way he acts around the guys, he’s a calming influence on a lot of people, he’s a hockey nerd, he likes to talk hockey, that helps a dressing room,” Tocchet said. “Off the ice, what he does for our team is tremendous.”
Hughes was also made available to reporters after practice, where he sounded optimistic that he can return sooner rather than later.
“Nice to be back, hate missing time,” Hughes told reporters. “I think everything we did [with the injury] is how we wanted it to play out and now I’m in a spot where I’m on the up-and-up.”
“Nice to be back. Hate missing time…Want to take care of my body and be available. We’ll see how it goes.”
🗣 Hear from Quinn Hughes on his return to #Canucks practice. pic.twitter.com/HM8nI3qskU
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 5, 2025
We’ll see if Hughes does in fact draw into the Canucks lineup tomorrow. Either way, it’ll be a game against the Canadiens that Vancouver will desperately want to win as they try to stave off the Calgary Flames for the final wild card spot.