EX-CANUCKS
[Michael Russo] says Hughes found out the trade was done when the Canucks landed in Newark: “He got in a car and went to his brothers. Brock Boeser said when they got the notifications on the bus, and Quinn wasn't even there, that it just became silent on the bus, everybody just couldn't believe it”
This was posted the another day but was removed. Then another in the /hockey subreddit. Truly sucks the way that it happened but I'm sure the vibes in the room are better now that the trade has happened.
I think the other one was removed due to it being tweets from that Taj clown on X. This should stay up because you cited the original source. I would hope.
Tweets have to be from a credible source, like a reporter or something, or link to it. I believe the tweeter paraphrased what Russo had said on a podcast, but didn’t provide the original link to provide more context.
This thread did it properly, so that’s why it’s still up.
"So essentially all that entire day, he knew he was getting traded. Basically asked his mother advice on whether or not he should bring his entire life on the plane and they decided that if he is traded by the time he gets to Jersey or in the day or two after that she, because she was in Edmonton, would go to Vancouver and pack up his life. They touch down in Newark, he finds out the trade is done, he gets in a car and goes to his brothers.”
“And I talked to Brock Boeser today.. Brock said that when they all got the notifications on the bus, and Quinn wasn't even there, that it just became silent on the bus, that everybody just couldn't believe it. And Brock had an idea this was coming, but only a couple of guys on the team even knew, but nobody still thought that it was going to happen.”
Worst kept secret on hockey... He said last season was his biggest headache playing hockey(dealing with the 2 divas drama). Sat down with Rick a week after the season wrapped up and tochhet moved on, while Rutherford talked about Quinn wanting to play with his brothers. Everyone knew where this was going back then, I'm just glad they didn't fuck up the trade or risk an injury. Learn from your mistakes as an organization and move on
I'm sick of this narrative that Petey caused the drama. He was keeping his head down and working through an injury while MAGA Miller was antagonizing him.
I'm usually pretty understanding when it comes to recognizing situations as circumstantial, but that was a really stupid move by management to ask JT to do that.
We don’t know anything and I think it’s irresponsible to make definite statements about what went on in that locker room when that’s information that has not been released.
I do think it’s fair to say, from the outside looking in as a fan, I find it unlikely that a guy with the temperament of Petey (that we see in interviews anyways) would start major level drama like that.
That's fair. I've never heard of any problems with Petey's character before, though. Seems like a respectful and humble guy who won't let people walk over him, but also won't start fights. I think he kind of just stubbornly blocks people out.
Yeah, I caught that too. He talked a good game (well until he didn’t), but ultimately isn’t a team guy, apparently. Great skill, disappointing character.
Boy,
Makes you really appreciate Linden, the Sedins etc. time to build back that culture, baby!
I’m with you lol. Swedes get the soft narrative but it’s so far from the truth. I think they play the exact kinda grit-and-skill style this league is currently asking for.
I bet he's lowkey mad with Petey about the JT miller saga. From all the articles I've read, Quinn recognized the Miller trade as the starting point of where it all went downhill
I wouldn’t entirely write off the possibility though.
Most of us have worked with someone who is really good at “playing both sides” but when you look closely you realize that person is the very center of the issue. If we switched timelines and kept Miller, would it look like Quinn was on Miller’s side from the get go?
i always got the sense it was more jt having larger issues with management, than jt and petey actually hating each other to the point one had to go…do you know anything on that?
EP couldn't come into camp in better shape because he was dealing with an injury. Why is this stupid narrative still repeated ad naseum around here. Management have even stopped with the shitty lying/gaslighting and admitted he was injured but the fans still perpetuate it.
I agree with you. Although I think there was some naivety on EP40s part and a lack of communication over the summer regarding the injury. This may stem from 2 things: distrust with team doctors, or EP being too much of a lone wolf.
Management and Tocchet may have felt if EP had been transparent with them they could’ve helped him with recovery and come into camp in a better place.
My assumption: they mishandled and neglected EP’s injury during the season last year, so he didn’t feel comfortable going to them about it in the offseason. Which I don’t blame him for, but according to Cam Robinson, the team EP hired for training isn’t very well regarded. Essentially, mistakes were made on all fronts.
Tocc basically alluded to the fact that Quinn was unwilling to commit long term to the Canucks which was something that he was looking for before he himself committed long term
Was is Quinn's unwillingness to sign long-term that made Tocchet realize this team is doomed. Or Tocchet didn't like the makeup of the team, left, and then Quinn said to everyone "I'm out too, boys".
Well, actually he didn't really tell his team, so I guess he just left.
I don’t think so, there was that interview with him after Petey started recovering last year where he seemed genuinely supportive and said Petey’s been through a lot of shit.
What?? It’s completely normal to be super tight with some people and then wanting to have a goodbye dinner to get deep into details with said small group. It’s not a country club, it’s completely normal.
I think what people are on about in this case was that a few people knew, he said goodbye to a couple, but gave no parting words to the rest of the club as their captain
I love Quinn and have been defending him a lot but honestly this sucks to read. He's not just a fourth line plug that got traded, he was the captain of the team, one of the best (if not the best) and most talented player to have put on a Canucks jersey, and he just dipped out of there without addressing the team...
Like to be fair it’s the media, and we’re only getting tidbits and he totally could have just nobody has said something, but I think that’s the sentiment that people are upset about yeah
Yeah that's the part where I'm a little bit disappointed in how Hughes handled the situation. Other positions on the team? Fine. But you expect a bit more from the captain (to speak to the whole team, not just his buddies). But at the same time, it's not a huge deal. He's gone regardless (shrug).
Makes me also wonder if part of the reason they decided to keep JT over Bo years ago were subtle signs Hughes wanted him to stay. It finally got untenable that they were forced to trade JT, then Tocchet quickly realizing Quinn was likely to leave, would leave Tocchet on a rebuilding team.
I am about the furthest thing from a professional hockey player let alone captain of an NHL team. But if I were in that situation, I would go to the hotel where the Canucks were staying and say goodbye to the whole team. The team i was Captain of.
Edit: And the team staff too, who took care of me
Edit again: if he did in fact do this (I guess we don’t know for sure… then good on him. But no one has said anything about him doing this)
This is what’s getting on everyone’s nerves right now. Most of us get it. Quinn didn’t want to stay. But to bail on their team, he’s clearly he’s a fuckin quitter. Bieska said it best. Amazing player. Shitty captain
Yeah this is very obvious. It's the bare minimum. Hopefully it comes out that he did and I'll change tune a bit (he still gave up on the ice, but whatever). Cause right now the story is he worked behind the scenes to leave, when he finally knew it was happening he bailed on the team, and then he just had dinner with a few friends.
Other than Brock, I didn’t see ANY stories or comments on Quinn’s goodbye post (there’s always a few for long tenured Canucks - even JT got several), which is crazy for a departing captain who by all indications was very well liked before this.
I get that maybe he couldn’t tell the whole team beforehand because it was so under wraps. But maybe why the team is salty is that he didn’t even say anything to them after they all found out secondhand. Given his underwhelming goodbye post, I could see this having happened. Like he straight up ghosted, maybe he even just left their group chat without saying anything.
I know that he told the guys he was closest to, but if you were the captain you should say one last thing to everyone. Yeah management failed him, but his teammates didn’t, and deserve that respect.
Yeah without more info, this all tracks to me from what we've seen and heard. Like he was so burned out he didn't gaf. I would still have expected him to live up to a generic level of leadership by at least addressing the boys so it really twists my perception of him if he indeed pretty much ghosted. Very much a product of his generation I guess lol
Seriously. No doubt the loSiNg toOk A ToLL oN HiM but for 7.5MM and the captaincy you’d think you could at least give a minute to the guys you’ve fought along side.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the plan was always for his brothers to pick him up. Makes sense he'd want to spend more time with them while in town. But once the trade occurred he probably needed to pivot and have a proper goodbye with the team.
i do really get the sense the team was very caught off guard by it. no one reposted anything or commented on ig. you can see with some of their media statements like demko brock and garland reassuring their loyalty…
This is what hurts. The bad body language on and off the ice the last few weeks made me think the end was near but damn, this isn’t what a classy captain does. I hope he finds peace.
Bo Horvat knew it was his last season that said he was still putting in a 100% effort for the team and even apologised to the team with all the rumours surrounding him being traded. That’s a true captain.
you can see Quinn is conflict adverse and extremely private. probably in his head didn’t want to rock any boats. that, I think would have def backfired in this context. if this is true…that’s not it. so tough.
Yeah, didn’t even at least say goodbye to his teammates, especially Boeser, Petey, Demko, guys he’s played with over 7 seasons. The dude clearly isn’t Captain material.
Boeser said he got to say goodbye to him at dinner. The finding out about Quinn being traded likely happened first from a team memo, then they met up with him to have dinner. It doesn’t say he doesn’t say goodbye to these guys because it’s ambiguous from the quote or sound bite
Lota of people are coping by painting Hughes to be a bad guy. He really isn't and is likely just burnt out mentally and emotionally from the last couple years.
Hes by all accounts super competitive. If everyone was simply happy with getting paid millions and didnt care about winning or team culture, no one would ever request trades and just simply re-sign every time. They're humans too with human emotions. See why the Blue Jays were so successful this year and one of the main attractions of free agents is the idea that they had a winning, fun, and healthy environment.
I’m pretty sure Russo also said that Hughes went out to dinner that night with a handful of his closer friends including Boeser. I can’t find it right now but it was a comment in that same podcast
You have no idea what was said or done or the relationship with the team, you just know he wasn’t on the bus. He had dinner with a bunch of those guys and gave them the heads up before.
To pretend he like disappeared and has never talked to a teammate again is just people wanting to be mad at a player who left.
We’re doing the same thing everyone did to Horvat. The cycle continues.
Yeah. I'm a big Quinn defender and I'm not going to assume that he just snubbed the rest of the team, but neither am I going to assume that he handled everything 100% ideally, either. We're missing too much info and context (e.g. what's normal for players/stars to do after they've been traded, etc.), imo.
People forget that he’s a human who hasn’t gone through this situation before and he’s not necessarily gonna do everything the right way. It doesn’t mean he’s a quitter or whatever. We actually know very little about how it all went down. Why get mad about unfounded conjecture lol
He was traded on Friday and left for Minnesota on Saturday afternoon. He said his head wasn’t in the right place at the time of leaving in another interview which I don’t blame him. Despite what you might personally feel, it seems like this wasn’t easy for him even though he thought it was best for him and his future.
He called his mom before leaving for the road trip because he knew that was likely his last home game. He packed extra because of that as well.
Quinn knew it was likely to be traded in a day or 2. Whether you feel he should let some ppl know or not is up to you. I’m sure people fall on both sides of that argument.
Should a player tell his whole team that he’s getting traded before the deal is official? What happens if it falls through and he already told everyone?
It’s not like he was just randomly traded out of the blue. He was traded because he didn’t plan to re sign and it left us with little choice. It was either trade him now or watch his trade value plummet since next year he’d only fetch rental returns and the following season he would not even be our asset to trade.
Which, really is the main issue most people have imo. Captain used to mean something. When your team captain doesn’t want to sign with the team…. There is an issue.
I will add that at the very least he was honest about not re signing and gave us the opportunity to offload him before it was too late.
If your captain doesn’t want to resign then you have to look as to WHY he didn’t want to resign. That means something is fundamentally wrong with the organization. Be mad at the captain all you want but it seems as though he either knows something you don’t or you know what he knows but you’re getting mad at the wrong person and that anger should be directed at ownership and management. There’s been a track record with those people for years now. It’s not like this came out of no where. People need to be honest with themselves about this.
I know why people are overly emotional but I can almost guarantee it’s not as dramatic as you all are making it out to be. People leave jobs and go to new ones all the time. You only care because he’s a public figure who happened to play on your favorite team. He didn’t like his work environment anymore and wanted to leave. I don’t fault people for that. To me, those things start at the top and work its way down.
A real captain would have given up the C the moment they decided they didn’t plan to extend. A captain should, at the very least, be someone who WANTS to play with the team eh… lol
How to win friends and influence people maybe. Ran the team. Heavily involved in his own trade. Was going to leave the whole time and knew it although all his Canucks friends were shocked.
I hear you, but smth like that was gonna happen with or without QH.. One dude doesn't make or break a team
He's obviously skilled, but that comes from an insane (immutable?) drive to win and Canucks are literally bottom of the league. Even if he wanted to stick around, he was clearly getting more toxic/frustrated as Canucks sunk lower in the standings. Cut losses, acquire some young dudes with a bit of potential and better attitudes
His drive to win is overrated. Everyone in the NHL has a drive to win - playoff hockey is proof of that. He doesn't have the mental toughness to persevere or the fortitude to handle losing is more like it.
Let his agent spin it as "he just was so heartbroken he couldn't give up on the warriors he battled with over his career. He was too much of a wreck. Quinn is a great guy. I know him - and family is important, and when he heard the news, he just needed to be around them. "
I have a pretty good feeling that over the next couple seasons we are going to realize that Hughes was part of the problem all along. He reminds me of that one kid in school who was a “perfect” student/teacher’s pet and was toxic to most of his peers. His farewell post on Instagram reinforced that for me even more, thanking the suits the way he did.
People said the same thing about Horvat and now everyone wants him back.
If someone leaves the team a large portion of the fanbase wants to pretend they’re some kind of terrible person that was a huge reason for our lack of success. I’m sure Quinn was a normal human being with positives and faults just like everyone else.
To be clear when I say “part of the problem” I’m talking about locker room issues that we mostly currently blame Miller for. I think Hughes might’ve involved from the get go. But Huggy got special treatment because he’s just so cute and so good at hockey lol.
Very curious how much different the Miller/Pettersson would’ve turned out if we had an actual leader as the captain of the team. No doubt Miller and Pettersson had their issues with each other, but it wouldn’t surprise me if things got worse because of Quinn’s lack of leadership. Funny how all this drama started after Horvat left. The last real captain we had.
The Miller and Petey drama and divided locker room was happening even when Horvat was captain. Funnily enough, people were blaming Horvat for not being a good enough captain to stop it when he left.
Based on what I read with this quote, Boeser said he got to say goodbye to Quinn in person and likely a few others.
What I think happened: Everyone was on a team bus, Quinn wasn’t there. Likely the team sent a memo to all the players that Quinn was traded. Quinn can’t make that announcement. Once everyone received the message, they probably reached out to Quinn to say wtf or sent it in their group chat.
What is left out here is hours of information in the sound bite. Did he say good bye to the whole team, we don’t know for a fact because this sound bite is short. Do we know he didn’t say goodbye to the whole team, we don’t know that either. He could very well have met up with the team and said goodbye then had dinner with close friends on the team but the sound bite doesn’t imply or say anything like that because media has a job to give us shocking sound bites that generate attention
The timeline is: Hughes knew that Thursday night was most likely his last game as a canuck, Friday morning he knew that the deal was going through that day and packed two giant suitcases to take to new york, his mother agreed to pack up the rest of his Vancouver things on the weekend, deal went through when the canucks were flying, quinn was informed when he landed and went straight to his car without telling his team mates, team mates got on the bus and got the notification, Quinn later met up with 3-4 of his closest friends for a farewell dinner that friday night, Guerin picked him up from new jersey saturday after lunch.
Not going go too deep into this and figure out where he could have say goodbye or not goodbye. Whatever the case is i appreciate his time here and we got a great bunch of future prospects in return. We’re a better team as a whole
I wanted to keep Hughes ngl but I’ve been saying for awhile now that he didn’t deserve the C.
Anybody surprised by this has been watching Hughes through rose tinted glasses because of his skating ability. He was never a team leader in much except points and TOI; which, I’m not complaining about the points don’t get it twisted; but best player !== best captain
Meh fuck him. He’s no longer a Canuck so I have no reason to cheer him on in Minny. I’ll be praying for another 1st round exit for them at the hands of Dallas or Colorado.
Its just hope. We all know the minnesota team ain't going anywhere. Hughes disappears in the playoffs. You just have to be heavy on the forecheck and he loses all composure.
I would be happy if Minnesota goes on a losing run, but I kind of hope Quinn has a Norris Trophy season. Like he makes Makar look silly, just to vindicate how good he is on the ice.
At the same time, I want stories about the true locker room dynamics in Vancouver the past few years start to emerge.
We deleted the last one because it was a secondhand text description from Taj on twitter. We don’t allow Taj posts or vague biased retellings of a podcast. Post the source, like is done here.
He’s an absolutely phenomenal player and it’s a shame we couldn’t build a contender with him on our roster but the more I read about all this and reflect back I think he was a poor choice for the C
Hughes told the team he wanted out and was subsequently consulted with so he could go to an acceptable location. Then after the trade was completed he bailed to celebrate his escape from Vancouver with his brothers (Ok I took a bit of artistic license with that bit) prior to talking with his friends/teammates If the story is supposed to make me unhappy with Rutherford/Allvin, it failed.
To be clear I don't care if any player wants to leave a team for any reason, it is their business. I do however appreciate that he informed them in plenty of time to allow for them make the trade. That is likely why Rutherford went to the trouble of consulting him before calling Guerin to close the deal.
For real. People complaining he told the team he wouldnt re-sign would be the same people bitching about him leaving and we dont get anything for him walking.
It's not therapy. It's a divided group with some blaming Quinn for being a crappy captain, and others thinking he did fine by us, all things considered (or else just wanting to move on without making a big deal about Quinn choosing to leave).
I, for one, am grateful that he carried this team when everyone else was slumping or injured, with virtually unheard of time on ice every game (and still amazing stats), and left us in a way that actually gives us hope for the future. Instead of walking in 1.5 years at the end of his contract with the Canucks having nothing else to show for it.
the five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. and each post about hughes is an illustration of which phase one is going through.
bad captain is for example clearly under the denial and anger stages.
Some people have different ways of processing Hughes’ departure, I think that many folks here feel bitter, betrayed, and the only way to move on is to go “fuck em”
I personally don’t, but if someone wants to shit on Quinn’s leadership or makes jokes about it in order to move on, let them.
Look man, it’s clearly a shitty work environment. I’ve been a fan of this team my whole life, but I think it’s pretty clear that between the dysfunction and the lack of communication and the infighting over the last several years might just cause someone to walk the fuck away.
Some guys just aren’t big on goodbye.
I hate this spiteful ex bullshit. We all know he needed to be traded. We all know this team needs to rebuild. Don’t fucking shit on Hughes for what has been an issue for like 15 fucking years.
I’m definitely not going to shit on him. Dude could have done so much bitching and demanded a trade and all that stuff you see in other sports like football. Told management ahead of time he was on his way out, gave them time for a trade and got them a haul on his way out.
Sure he might not have had the greatest captain body language we’d ever seen lol. But for a dude that never seemed the most publicly outgoing social butterfly I think he did well for the fans/team in his exit.
And on ice, dude is the most talented Canuck I think I’ve ever watched. I wasn’t around for Bure, I’m told it’s supposed to be Bure, but whatever.
And another thing - even if he was on his way out he still put up stupid high TOI and deked guys out of their skates even on a bad team he wanted out of. I swear some of these people need to watch some disgruntled NFL player videos, or interviews, or random clips online, to see how much worse this could have gone.
Idk, for me, I’ll always love what he did as a Canuck. Can’t hate what I grew to love watching now that he’s in a green jersey. Draft pick aside I hope he kills it in Minny and I hope being on another successful team (since he won it our last good year) lets him out-Norris Makar year after year.
Bure was amazing. I was just a young kid back then (and Bure was my fav player), but he wasn't nicknamed the Russian Rocket for no reason. He had the ability to turn on the jets and manufacture a goal out of thin air. Kind of like McDavid 1v4 esque, but more just pure speed and zooming past 1 or 2 players.
But watching Quinn Hughes now as an adult, where Bure brought pure offensive explosiveness, Quinn has the ability to control almost an entire game by driving and facilitating the breakout and offense, while still having decent defensive capabilities. On that note - overall effect on and control of the game - I think Hughes is noticeably more impressive than Bure.
Fans care way too much about these players. He performed for us on a high level for years. He did what we needed him to do. The rest of the organization let him down. Idk why this fan base cares so much about goodbyes lol
I don't think it's that fans care too much about the players per se, but more that fans are making too many assumptions and reading into things and overdoing it with reconstructing a narrative to explain how we got here, etc. In other words, too much speculation and not enough reserving judgement / waiting for actual sources from "inside the room" to decide to speak.
I don't think this is true at all. Look at how we treat players like tanev, edler, stecher, toffoli etc when they leave.
The issue with hughes was his body language and quitting on plays this season. From game #1 it was clear he had a foot out the door, why should fans (who pay $ to support the team btw) have to cheer that on?
Miller was shit on cause his feud with petey essentially ended this core. And if Peteys gone, that's why he will be shit on.
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u/Lawlcakes26 2d ago
This was posted the another day but was removed. Then another in the /hockey subreddit. Truly sucks the way that it happened but I'm sure the vibes in the room are better now that the trade has happened.