Looking back on the path that led Quinn Hughes to the Canucks’ captaincy

In an understated press conference that pinned the ‘C’ on their stoic leader, the Vancouver Canucks ushered in a new era Monday, naming Quinn Hughes the 15th captain in franchise history.

The defender takes over the role from departed captain Bo Horvat, whose tenure guiding the Canucks’ leadership group was ended by a trade to the New York Islanders last season. In his wake, the captaincy seemed set to fall to one of Hughes, Elias Pettersson or J.T. Miller. But after a campaign that saw Hughes emerge both as one of the game’s most dynamic talents on the ice, and as his club’s clear leader off it, the choice to move him into the role officially comes as no surprise.

As the 23-year-old Orlando, Fla., native’s turn as captain begins, let’s take a look back at the key moments on the road that led him to this point.

The Debut

Hughes arrived in Vancouver with the weight of expectation on his shoulders.

Drafted seventh overall in a class highlighted by elite defenders — Rasmus Dahlin led the group at No. 1, while blue-liners like Evan Bouchard, Noah Dobson, and K’Andre Miller all went off the board in the first round after Hughes — the University of Michigan standout made his NHL debut amid a cloud of anticipation 279 days after his name was called from the draft stage, on March 28, 2019.

It took Hughes just 35 minutes to show the Canucks faithful they’d landed a promising talent.

With five minutes left in the second period of the game — at that point a 1-1 tie with the Los Angeles Kings — the 19-year-old collected the puck at the top of the zone and took off. He flew down the right wing, protecting the puck as he swerved behind the net. Then came the magic. 

With a Kings player shadowing him as they careened towards the channel behind the cage, Hughes stopped on a dime, flipped the puck off the back of the net and back to himself — past his trailing opponent, who spun out into the opposite corner — and stood for a moment, calm, the puck on his stick. The teenager wheeled back around to the netfront and tried a shot of his own, the ensuing chaos leading to a rebound shuffled home by teammate Brock Boeser.

It wasn’t just the skill Hughes displayed. It was the confidence, the poise, the daring mindset to try to author such a sequence in that moment — at home, with the game tied, coming off an injury, in the first big-league game of his career.

He played four more games to close out that brief first NHL go-round, recording his first multi-point effort a week later in Nashville.

The First Goal

The next season, Hughes returned for his true rookie campaign, the short stint at the tail end of 2018-19 giving him an understanding of what was awaiting him.

And once again, granted his first chance to take the ice at home, in front of the Canucks faithful, the young blue-liner put his promise on display.

Five minutes into Vancouver’s 2019-20 home opener — again against the L.A. Kings — Hughes once again took hold of the puck and took flight. He weaved through the neutral zone, into the offensive zone, and finally, when four Kings players had descended upon him, he spun and dished the puck to a streaking teammate. A moment later, it was back on his stick at the point, and Hughes showed his new city the other side of his skill-set, winding up and unleashing an old-school slapper that whipped past Jonathan Quick and into the twine.

It was raw, unpredictable, a bit haphazard, but undeniably thrilling. He finished the night with an assist on a Chris Tanev tally, too, as the Canucks earned their first win of the season, an 8-2 rout.

The Rookie Breakout

By the end of that first full NHL season, Hughes had shown glimpses of brilliance. The young rearguard finished his first year with 53 points in 68 games, leading all rookies in scoring and earning a Calder Trophy nomination for his efforts.

If not for the simultaneous breakout of arguably the most dominant blue-line talent in the game, Cale Makar, the rookie-of-the-year honours likely would’ve been Hughes’ to collect. Still, zoom out past that two-man race to the wider context of what Hughes accomplished, and his first-year performance is all the more impressive.

For one, that 53-point, league-leading rookie sum made Hughes one of only three defencemen in the NHL’s modern era to lead all first-year players in scoring. The others? Brian Leetch in ’89 and Bobby Orr in ’67. Speaking of elite company, Hughes’ 53 points were also the most posted by a rookie defender in nearly three decades, and the closest any rookie blue-liner came to touching the 60-point gem a rookie Nicklas Lidstrom put up in ’92.

So dazzled were the Canucks faithful by young Hughes, they voted him into the NHL All-Star Game. The Vancouver young gun came up with a goal for his side in the game, prompting some hefty praise from The Great One, watching from the bench.

The Broken Records

Through a half-decade in Vancouver, Hughes has already run rampant through the club’s record books, and some of the league’s, too.

The first piece of history came during that rookie year, as Hughes and the rest of the club’s young core helped push the Canucks through a three-round playoff run amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic upending the season. By the time the Canucks’ run had come to an end, Hughes had tied the record for most assists by an NHL rookie in one post-season (he broke the record for most assists by a rookie defender in one post-season) with 14 assists through 17 games.

But it was only the start.

In 2021-22, the 22-year-old broke the franchise record for most points by a Canucks defender in a season, planting his flag as the most dynamic offensive defender Vancouver has ever housed. His 68 points that year eclipsed the previous record-breaking 63 that Doug Lidster had amassed back in ’87. He shattered his own record a year later, this past season, with a 76-point campaign that pushed that benchmark even higher.

Over the past two decades, aside from Hughes’ two record-smashing efforts, there is only one other instance in which a Canucks defender put up more than 50 points in a campaign — the 53-spot Hughes posted as a rookie.

Again, past the Canucks’ own record books, Hughes continued to make more waves. In March, the Canucks leader became the fastest defender in NHL history to 200 assists, reaching the sum in just 263 games — one fewer than Leetch’s 264 and eight fewer than Orr’s 271 — firmly establishing himself among the premier playmaking blue-liners in the game.

The Career Year

After a brief, dazzling spin to begin his big-league career, and three years of growth and promise continuing it, Hughes took his offensive game to an entirely new plane with that record-breaking 2022-23 performance. 

League-wide, his 76 points finished as the second-highest sum among all NHL defenders, bested only by Erik Karlsson’s Norris-winning campaign, tied with Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey above everyone else. In Vancouver, his 69 assists on the year made him just the second Canucks player to record multiple seasons of 60-plus assists, alongside franchise legend Henrik Sedin.

But past that flourishing offensive side of his game, it’s on the other side of the rink that Hughes has focused much of his attention the past couple off-seasons, after a 2020-21 that saw his offensive success undone by a porous defensive game.

“I was really disappointed with it,” Hughes said of that sophomore season to The Athletic's Harman Dayal in January. “I just knew that I’d never be a good defenceman if I was just known as an offensive guy that gave up a lot defensively. You hear about, ‘He doesn’t know how to play defence, he can’t play defence’ so that always bothered me and (I) wanted to prove people wrong. (My whole life) if you just looked at me, guys, without even watching my game, would be like: ‘He’s undersized and he can’t play D.’ That was all the questions at the (NHL Draft) combine: ‘How are you going to defend in the NHL?’ That’s just always been on my mind.”

After off-seasons spent honing his skating, his situational awareness, how he uses his speed — and testing himself against brother Jack, an elite offensive talent in his own right — the young Canucks rearguard reined in the defensive side of his game, and in doing so, allowed his offensive game to climb even higher.

The Off-Ice Leadership

All the on-ice theatrics aside, though, it’s Hughes’ demeanour off the ice that’s seemingly earned him his new role with his club. Though he’s far from a boisterous, verbose presence away from the sheet, rewind back through his time in Vancouver, and the young Canuck has never been shy of speaking his mind. 

The club’s brass needed only to look at this past year to get a sense of how their new captain would lead the team moving forward.

In January, as the bizarre situation surrounding teammate Tanner Pearson’s injury and treatment began to emerge, it was Hughes who spoke out and shed light on the issue, defending his teammate and prompting an internal investigation into the handling of Pearson’s injury. 

In March, as NHL Pride Nights became mired in controversy following a select number of players’ refusal to wear the jerseys promoting inclusion, it was Hughes who spoke out on behalf of his club.

“I think that everyone in this room is looking forward to it and I know in our organization everyone is welcomed. Every time we’ve done Pride Night, I’ve worn the jersey and celebrated the night,” Hughes said at the time. “Everyone has their own beliefs and it’s not my place to tell someone what to believe in. But I know that we have pride in wearing that jersey. … It’s about just, you know, feeling welcomed and enjoying the game. 

“You should be able to find the same joy from it as anyone else. We preach ‘hockey is for everyone’ and I certainly believe that it is. And if you say you believe in that, then you should be able to put the jersey on.”

And in April, after another difficult season that saw the Canucks finish a campaign without playoff hockey, it was Hughes who was given the mic, post-game at centre ice, to address the fans in the stands.

The New Chapter

On Monday, seated between GM Patrik Allvin and head coach Rick Tocchet as they announced him as the 15th captain in club history, Hughes echoed a similar sentiment to the one delivered on the ice back in April.

“It's an incredible honour. It's something I never dreamt of,” he said. “I’m never going to be the loudest guy in the room. I'm hopefully going to be a guy who's a leader through his work ethic and as time goes on, learn more and more about myself and being a leader."

His coach, Tocchet — who’s been around some of the most respected leaders in the game, having played with Hall of Famers like Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky, and coached the likes of Joe Sakic, Martin St. Louis, Steven Stamkos, and Sidney Crosby — shed light on what he saw from Hughes that earned him the captaincy in the end.

“What I was impressed with Hughes last year, when I came in, was just his love for the game. He mixes with everybody. As a captain, you mix in with everybody. He said some uncomfortable things that he had to say, if something didn’t go well, if he had to put himself out there. That’s why I really like this leadership group, and (Hughes) — they’re not afraid to say something to me. That was important to me making that decision.

“He’s got all the qualities. He’s still learning, which is great, and he’s going to need the support from all of us. The leadership group is excited that he’s here.”