Just over six years ago, my wife and I were watching a hockey scrimmage featuring prospects of the Vancouver Canucks, a team that historically had many scrimmages more entertaining, or more interesting, than their games. This scrimmage wasn’t especially entertaining but it did feature their fifth top-10 draft pick in six years, a player ranked third among that year’s defencemen. Vancouver picked him sixth overall, ahead of the two higher-ranked defensemen.
Having covered hundreds of Canucks’ games, in one capacity or another — going back to the first game they ever played in 1970 — I at least qualified as an experienced observer. At least I thought so. After focussing on the sixth-overall pick for most of the scrimmage, I declared to anyone who would listen (i.e., my wife) that I couldn’t understand what the Canucks saw in this kid. Most of the time, his skating could best be described as casual. He looked generally disinterested…that sometimes happens to players once they get to Vancouver. He was also small. He seemed to be off playing by himself, like a one-man team.
A few days ago, Vancouver forward Conor Garland called this casual, disinterested, small defenceman “the best player in the league, in my opinion.” Hockey Night in Canada analyst Kelly Hrudey asked if the same disinterested, small defenceman “ever makes a bad first pass.” My son the hockey fan, as opposed to his brother the non-hockey fan, called him “the greatest Canucks player ever.”
The name is Quinn Hughes.
In six years, I have gone from there to here. He skates circles around opponents, literally, and he’s fast when he needs to be. His skill is enormous, yet he’s obsessed with getting better. His size is immaterial. He rarely makes a bad first pass. He dominates games, often looking like a one-man team.
Otherwise, Quinn Hughes is ordinary.
Last weekend, he broke Vancouver’s record for career assists. He is 25 years old. His 311th assist came in his 387th game — Alex Edler set the record in 537 more games. Only five Canucks ever had more multi-assist games in their careers than Hughes. All five were forwards, four of them creative Swedish playmakers. Next for Hughes…Edler’s points record, 409, later this season.
This is a team that has never won the Stanley Cup, despite great players — at all positions — in 53 seasons. Their greatest goaltender is Kirk McLean from the Cup finalists of 1994 or Roberto Luongo from the Cup finalists of 2011. Take your pick. Their all-round best defenceman is probably Edler, who retired last year, although there are some holdouts for Mattias Ohlund, who mentored Edler and whose career offensive season was 36 points, which could be a good month for Hughes. And their greatest forward is considered to be either one of the Sedin twins (Henrik or Daniel) or Pavel Bure, who was clearly the most exciting with 50-plus goals three times in seven seasons.
How does Hughes compare with all that? The way Bobby Orr compared to all the Boston Bruins before him, and became their greatest? Is Hughes the greatest in Vancouver now? If not, I’d say he likely will be.
However, based on that scrimmage, what do I know?
