The Vancouver Canucks have reached an agreement with Quinn Hughes on a six-year, $47.1 million contract, securing one of the team's key building blocks for the foreseeable future.
Hughes, the 2020 Calder Trophy runner-up to fellow blueliner Cale Makar, was originally drafted by the Canucks in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2018 NHL Draft.
A fixture on the Canucks' power play ever since his debut season, Hughes holds the Canucks' all-time rookie record for points scored on the man-advantage -- a presence he figures to continue having for the club moving forward now that a new deal for his services is in place.
Though an agreement could not be reached prior to the start of training camp, which began on Sept. 22, negotiations did not appear to be fraught with the same tensions as Kirill Kaprizov's restricted free agent talks with the Minnesota Wild -- which carried unique obstacles, such as the lure of a return to the KHL, where Kaprizov starred for three seasons with SKA Moscow.
“There's no angry sides," Canucks general manager Jim Benning told Sportsnet in mid-September. "We're just trying to work through it to figure out how to make everybody happy."
Hughes will be eligible to join the team and begin practising immediately.
With the deal, Hughes joins blue-line contemporaries Makar and Miro Heiskanen, who signed lucrative, new contracts in July, as high-profile defencemen to sign new deals before the season began. Heiskanen, who plays for the Dallas Stars, earned an eight-year deal worth $8.45 million annually, while the Colorado Avalanche gave Makar a six-year deal with a $9-million AVV.
Now that negotiations are behind him, Hughes, 21, will look to build off his performance last season and help steer the Canucks back into the playoff picture.
Last season, the 21-year-old scored three goals and added 38 assists in 56 games.
