VANCOUVER — Quinn Hughes chose club over country.
“His level of maturity is unmatched for a 25-year-old,” agent Pat Brisson told Sportsnet shortly after Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks captain, withdrew Sunday from the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. “It was so hard for him to make that final decision (with) the chance to play with his brother on Team USA. But he just feels responsible as the captain of the Vancouver Canucks to be the best he can be for his team.”
A candidate for both the Hart and Norris trophies this season, Hughes missed the last four games before the National Hockey League schedule break due to an undisclosed injury sustained on Jan. 31, the night the Canucks traded J.T. Miller.
Hughes wanted to play for the Canucks last week but was held out of the lineup by coach Rick Tocchet, who volunteered to be “the bad guy.”
The defenceman who leads the Canucks in scoring by 25 points tested himself on the ice one final time Sunday morning before informing Team USA that he couldn’t participate in the first best-on-best senior international tournament of his career.
“It’s not in his DNA to back out of anything,” Brisson said. “At 14 or 15 he wasn’t even a big prospect to become an NHL player, let alone become dominant and win the Norris Trophy (last season).
“Could he have played this week? He could probably still run a blue line better than 90 per cent of the guys in this league, but it has been a long year and to have the chance to rest and rehab, we just felt it was the bigger benefit.”
After a winter of Canucks drama, for which Hughes told Sportsnet he felt responsible, Brisson said the mental break is as important as the physical rest.
“There has been a lot of turmoil, and Quinn feels responsible as captain for what goes on in the locker room, on the ice and off the ice,” he said. “On top of that, he’s playing 26 or 27 minutes a night. For any human being, that’s demanding. It has been heavy, these first 50 games. At this point, he just needs to put more gas back in the tank.”
The Canucks, 6-1-1 in their last eight games, do not play again until they open a five-city road trip on Feb. 22 in Las Vegas.
Team USA named Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson as Hughes’ replacement in the tournament.
Canuck centre Elias Pettersson is part of Team Sweden and is now the only Vancouver skater in the Four Nations event. Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen is part of the Finnish team. Tocchet is an assistant to Jon Cooper on Team Canada’s staff.
The tournament opens Wednesday with Canada versus Sweden. The United States plays Finland the next night.
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