The breakup with Quinn Hughes is partially our fault

Show of hands, how many of you have been involved in an ugly breakup? I'm guessing it's the majority of us. Probably our first serious relationship?

More often than not, the breaker-upper is too immature to be honest with their partner when they start having doubts. They start acting aloof, indifferent, detached, inattentive; all under the guise that "nothing's wrong".

The breaker-uppee has likely ignored the warning signs, convinced themselves that everything is still "amazing" only to then be horrified, angry, and confused when the inevitable occurs. They feel blindsided when in fact, they were just blind.

The Vancouver Canucks were Quinn Hughes' first relationship. He was never committed to the city or the team and being in his mid-20s, he was too callow to know how to handle the situation properly. We were either too lovestruck to see what was right in front of our eyes or willfully impaired to acknowledge it.

In time, we will realize that parting ways with Quinn Hughes was unavoidable. Regardless of how badly he behaved, deep down inside, we knew he was never our "forever" person.

It was meant to be. It was love at first sight.

We could not believe our luck. In the 2018 NHL draft, the Canucks had the seventh overall pick. Montreal reached at third overall to draft Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Arizona did similar for Barrett Hayton at number five. When Detroit passed on drafting the Michigan Wolverine for Filip Zadina, he was ours! Quinn Hughes was all ours!

His lines. His speed. His curves. His creativity: all of it encapsulated in his NHL debut. He was mesmerizing and we were infatuated.

The relationship seemed strong

In Hughes' first full year, the team finished one win short of the conference finals. He scored 53 points and finished second in Calder Cup voting.

He was by no means perfect. He struggled defensively with an expected goals for at 44% and a relative goals for at -1% compared to the rest of the team. His advanced statistics indicated a high "defensive zone turnover rate, difficulty in puck battles, and a tendency to get burned off the rush."

His defensive flaws were overshadowed by his amazing offensive skill and we were ecstatic when he agreed to a relationship extension of six years in 2021-22.

The bond only strengthened from there.

Like one would expect from a partner in a committed relationship, Hughes acknowledged his weaknesses and worked on them. The improvement in his shot allowed him to score 17 goals in 2023-24 and the improvement in his defence took him from a -24 player in 2020-21 to +38 in 2023-24.

He got better for himself and us. This must be true love.

The relationship was solidified on September 11, 2023 when Quinn Hughes accepted the proposal of captaincy. He flourished that season and became the first defenseman in Canucks history to win the Norris Trophy. He carried the team to game seven of the Western Conference semi-finals losing only by one goal to the eventual Stanley Cup runners-up, the Edmonton Oilers.

We dreamt of our future and growing old together. We flocked to the arena, radio, television, and social media to publicly express our love and support for him. We fantasized about him delivering us the Stanley Cup and committing to us forever.

We were in love and we were loved back.

Too good to be true...

The 2024-25 season started with so much promise but the stresses on the teams's best player and captain started to crack the foundation of our relationship.

The team started slow. The locker room was broken. Players were traded. Injuries resulted in him missing some games and being less effective in others. Expectations were not met. Playoffs aspirations disappeared. Hughes was unhappy.

But these were just "little bumps in the road", right? Together, we could overcome anything.

The ill-feelings and unresolved issues from that year carried over into 2025-26. The foundation wasn't just cracked. It was eroding. With two years remaining on his contract, he dodged questions about extending that commitment. The locker room was even more divided. On the ice, Hughes stopped trusting his teammates and became a "puck hog".

Then, he simply stopped trying.

Finally, he gave up.

He became aloof in post game interviews. He grew dejected and uninterested. He stopped caring about the captaincy and the team. He wanted out.

The relationship ended on December 12, 2025 when he was traded to the Minnesota Wild.

Love is blind. In retrospect, there were signs.

Coming out of his entry-level contract, Hughes only signed a six-year extension though it was very common for players of his quality to sign for the maximum eight years. Reports indicate that he was "open" to sign for longer but it's hard to imagine the Canucks being the reason for not doing so.

His brothers, Jack and Luke, both play for the New Jersey Devils and Quinn never shied away from the idea of playing with them. Can we really blame him for wanting to play with his brothers? In fact, Jim Rutherford, former president of hockey operations, flippantly suggested at the end of 2024-25 that the Canucks should trade for his brothers as a way to keep him long term.

In what turned out to be a desperate and reckless way of convincing Hughes to stay with the club, Patrick Allvin, the general manager in 2025-26, signed Hughes' friends and fellow Americans, Brock Boeser, Conor Garland, and Thatcher Demko, to contract extensions. Hughes didn't force management into signing them nor did he promise to stay if they did. He may have been vague and evasive with us but he was quite clear and candid to the administration. Rutherford and Allvin later admitted that they knew he would not re-sign.

He might not even be a good teammate. Jason Brough, on the Halford and Brough podcast heard that "he was late a lot. He liked to sleep in." It is a complete hypocrisy for him to use the locker room dynamic as a reason for him leaving when he was the one responsible for creating that dynamic.

Perhaps most telling was his lack of involvement in the community. He donated four tickets to every home game through his Team 43 Ticket Program and donated money for disaster and food relief. However, his public appearances were few and far between and his unwillingness to share his time with the community was disappointing.

As much as we want to blame Hughes for "quitting" on us, there were multiple signs that that he was not going to be a good partner for us. We were hypnotized by his performance on the ice and blinded to everything else. We should have known better and that's on us.

We will get over this break up

This isn't our first split with a Canucks great.

Ryan Kesler, Roberto Luongo, and Pavel Bure unapologetically ended their relationship with us feeling disgruntled with the team and the fanbase. All three were loud in their overcompensating praise for their new partners and outwardly demonstrative of their new found happiness.

However, none of them won a Stanley Cup with their new significant other. Only with time, self-reflection, and maturity did they realize how much their time in Vancouver meant to their careers. Once they showed contrition and humility, we forgave them. Quinn Hughes will undoubtedly follow the same pattern.

The reaction will not matter

While we begin the search for our next soulmate (ironically it could be Adam Novotny, the player drafted with the first round pick acquired from Minnesota in the Hughes trade), Hughes will ultimately recognize the importance of his relationship with us and will likely make amends. At that moment, we will be experienced and sophisticated enough to forgive him just as we have done with others.

So, whether you boo him or cheer for him on Sunday, we will all eventually arrive at the same conclusion. Quinn Hughes was never really ours to begin with, much of his career success will be attributed to his time in Vancouver, and he will continue to be the best defenceman in the history of the franchise for the foreseeable future.

For those of you who still feel that he would have been a lifelong Canuck had the organization been competitive, ask yourself why hasn't he signed an extension in Minnesota yet?

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