Quinn Hughes is making a name for himself as one of the NHL’s best defencemen. He’s among the favourites to take home this year’s Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenceman, but according to former Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau, somebody in the organization wanted him moved to centre.
Tonight, Boudreau, 69, joined Kevin Weekes and Jackie Redmond on the NHL Network panel and dropped the interesting nugget:
“I gotta say this for the first time on TV. I’m not gonna say who, but somebody in that Vancouver organization tried to make me make Quinn Hughes a centre last year. I refused to do it, and I said, ‘I’m not making him a centre, I’m not making him a centre, and they kept trying to get me to put Quinn at centre and I am so happy I didn’t. First of all, he would probably not take it too well. Secondly, the year he’s having, a Norris Trophy kind of year, it’s quite a difference from him playing centre on that team.
“I’ve wanted to say that one thing for a year and a half — or for almost a year now because I think it was about this time that I was let go last year. But I mean, I would sit there and shake my head, and I’m going Quinn Hughes is not playing centre for this team, he’s a defenceman.”
Here’s the clip:
The nugget from Boudreau is certainly an interesting one. Quinn Hughes’ defensive game has been getting questioned just about every year he’s been in the NHL (even this current one), but that’s typically come from those who haven’t actually watched him play very much.
But for someone in the Canucks’ organization to want to move Hughes to centre? That is certainly interesting. What we don’t know is who that person is, or what department they work in, but it’s hard to believe that Boudreau is saying this if it was simply a very passionate Rogers Arena security guard who yelled at him every night to move Hughes to centre.
Boudreau was hired by Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini to replace Travis Green in December 2021. The Canucks finished the 21-22 season on a heater, but still came up short of the playoff bar. The fanbase fell in love with Boudreau, but a disastrous start to the 22-23 campaign made it apparent that some serious change was needed. Boudreau was replaced by Rick Tocchet in late January of 2023, and as they say, the rest is history.
What do you think of Boudreau’s comments about Hughes?
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