Rick Tocchet says Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will become Canucks’ assistant captains

It would appear that when the Canucks return to action on February 6th, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will have a letter on their chest.

In a Thursday morning appearance on Halford & Brough on Sportsnet 650, Tocchet talked about the Canucks’ leadership group in the aftermath of the club trading captain Bo Horvat earlier this week.

The Canucks’ bench boss talked about his past experiences with some of the great leaders in the game such as Sidney Crosby and Shane Doan, and had some glowing praise for Pettersson and Hughes, who to this point in their careers, have not been regular members of the Canucks’ on-ice leadership group.

“If we’re going to set the bar high here in Vancouver with the Canucks, those two guys have to be involved in the leadership group,” said Tocchet. “They have to you know, every day they come in, they gotta set the standard, and I’m gonna really lean on those guys… Those guys have been in the league three, four years now. They’re their premier players in the league, and I think it’s important that they have a voice and they’re part of this leadership group going forward.”

With Horvat gone, the Canucks can have three assistant captains per game, and it seems like two of those will be going to Pettersson and Hughes. On Monday, general manager Patrik Allvin was asked about naming a new captain and said that he’d want to meet with Tocchet and president Jim Rutherford before giving an answer, but didn’t close the door on naming a captain this season.

And neither did Tocchet.

“Well, you know the trade just happened, it’s an ongoing discussion,” said Tocchet. “I’m really going to use my staff, obviously pick Patrik’s brain, but like I said, Petey’s going to be in the leadership group, Quinn Hughes will be in the leadership group. Obviously, JT Miller is a leader in that room — we’ve got a bunch of guys. Schenner, OEL, so you know, those two guys [Pettersson and Hughes] will get a letter. How I’m going to do it I haven’t thought about it too much other than the fact that I’m going to try to power a really strong leadership group, and it’s gonna be multiple guys in that leadership room.”

This season, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, JT Miller, and Tyler Myers have served as Bo Horvat’s assistant captains, with Elias Pettersson getting a turn when OEL was a healthy scratch earlier this season.