Canucks were 'trying to do everything to convince' Quinn Hughes to stay

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‘It’s a tough, tough, tough day, but we’re also excited about the return of the players we got,’ Canucks GM Patrik Allvin says after trade with Minnesota

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Published Dec 12, 2025 • 2 minute read

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Vancouver Canucks GM Patrik Allvin and Quinn Hughes at the September 11, 2023 press conference when Hughes was named team captain. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNGArticle content

Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin admits team brass saw a Quinn Hughes trade coming for some time now.

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The Canucks dealt Hughes, their team captain and best-ever defenceman, to the Minnesota Wild Friday afternoon, receiving a trio of former first-round draft picks — centre Marco Rossi, winger Liam Ohgren and defenceman Zeev Buium — plus a 2026 first-round selection in return. Hughes is set to become an unrestricted free agent after next season, and there’s already rampant speculation in the hockey world that he’s dead set on hitting the open market when he’s eligible and signing with the New Jersey Devils, where he’d get to play alongside his brothers Jack and Luke Hughes.

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Allvin certainly leaned into that on Friday when talking to the media about the deal with the Wild. He said that you can “probably go back even a year ago,” when it “started to come to our attention that this might be the path which Quinn wants to go.”

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“Ownership was trying to do everything and we were trying to do everything to convince him to stay and work through it,” Allvin said. “But when we felt that when we were not able to do that we started the process of looking to see what potential destinations would be out there and what potential teams that could come up with the best return for the Vancouver Canucks moving forward.

“It’s not an easy day for the franchise here. Quinn has been a big part of the organization and a great person and a great hockey player. It’s a tough, tough, tough day, but we’re also excited about the return of the players we got.”

Quinn Hughes speaks with Jim Rutherford at the 41st annual Jake Milford Charity Invitational golf tournament in Surrey on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

Allvin once even used “rebuilding” — a word that team brass have seemingly been hesitant to call on — explaining that “we are excited about the youth we got in return here, and we’re kind of retooling, rebuilding.”

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Asked about his message to the fans who are concerned about the direction of the team, Allvin said: “I think they should be excited about the youth that’s coming in here. I think they should be excited about the (AHL) championship in Abbotsford last year and the growth of those players. You see them in the lineup up here today.”

He also said that the team plans on using that Minnesota first-round pick next summer to add another young player. The Canucks received a 2025 first rounder last year from the New York Rangers in the J.T. Miller but traded it the following day to the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the Marcus Pettersson swap. In 2023, they gave up the first rounder they received in the Bo Horvat trade with the New York Islanders as part of the package to acquire Filip Hronek from the Detroit Red Wings.

SEwen@postmedia.com

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