CANUCKS CHOOSE HUGHES
Mobile blue-liner fits dire team need
DALLAS Quinn Hughes doesn’t know Vancouver as well as he thinks he does.
When asked to name an NHLer he could resemble some day, he said:
“You may not like this answer, but Duncan Keith. I know Vancouver played him a lot in the playoffs. But he’s someone I think I can play like and someone I love to watch.”
Oh, Van City is going to love that answer.
Sure, Keith is loathed by most hockey fans in B.C.’s Lower Mainland. But you know how long it’s been since the Canucks had a defenceman who one day, if all goes right, could play a little like the Chicago Blackhawks’ blue-liner? Try never.
Hughes has the type of offensive upside from the blue-line the Canucks have been without for most of this decade.
He’s fast, loves hounding the puck and his defensive liabilities have been widely overstated. You carry a puck as often as Hughes does and mistakes are going to happen. The draft board couldn’t have gone any better for the Canucks in Dallas. They had told Hughes before the draft he wasn’t getting past seven.
When the Ottawa Senators took Brady Tkachuk and the Arizona Coyotes took Barrett Hayton, it left the Detroit Red Wings with a forward they couldn’t let slip.
“I knew when Filip Zadina was still there for (Detroit) they had to take him at No. 6,” Hughes said. No they didn’t.
“I’m saying all the right things,” he said with a laugh.
He sure was. Questioned about the biggest question dogging him — his lack of size — Hughes responded with this beauty: “Just watch me at the world championship. If you saw it, you saw I can defend against bigger, stronger guys.”
Damn.
That was the tournament he ended up playing against Team Canada in his first game.
“I held my own. I thought I did a great job,” Hughes said. “In that first game, I was like ‘Uh-oh, I hope I don’t end up on the ice against (Connor) McDavid.’
“But I ended up on the ice against him during three-on-three in overtime, and that was pretty fun.”
Is there any other Canuck who would call playing McDavid in a three-on-three overtime “fun?”
There were reports Hughes did not have a smooth interview with the Canucks at the combine. He said that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It actually went really, really well,” Hughes said. “It’s pretty funny you heard that.
“There’s a lot of fake stories this time of year. The biggest concern for them was that they didn’t think I was going to get to seven. But I did and I couldn’t be more happy.”
The biggest question is, what’s next?
Hughes admitted Friday he was waiting to see which team drafted him before committing to where he plays in the fall.
He is open to turning pro instead of returning to the University of Michigan.
“My dream is to play in the NHL as fast as possible,” he said. “I was waiting. It’s up to the team, right? I just don’t know yet.
“Both ways are a win-win for me. I love everything about Michigan. I’m excited to get to the Canucks’ development camp and figure things out from there.”
Hughes looks like a legit 5-10 and has a pretty thick frame.
He has the speed and smarts to make it work.
You put Hughes, a left-shot defenceman, on the Canucks right now and it’s possible he could be their second-best left-side defenceman behind Alex Edler.
Give him power-play time and let him play at even strength with Chris Tanev this fall.
Who says no?