By: Trent Leith / April 21, 2025 Welcome to Train of Thought, a series that, instead of diving deep into one topic, touches on several. This edition has thoughts on the end-of-season media availabilities.
Hughes³
Jim Rutherford and Patrick Allvin sat down for their end-of-year media availability on Monday afternoon. There were questions of all sorts, but the one that is probably going to grab the most attention is JR’s answer when asked about the possibility of Quinn Hughes leaving in free agency.
Rutherford mentioned that Quinn has said he wants to play with his brothers, Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes, but they are going to do everything possible to keep him in Vancouver. It caught my attention when he said, “It’s partly out of our control. Partly in our control if we brought his brothers here.”
Oh, there is something to this? Fans have talked for years about the idea of pulling Luke and Jack from the Devils, but did anyone think it’s actually possible?
“Well, we gotta be careful with tampering here, so I’ll just leave it at that. I’ve probably crossed the line anyways”.
I like your style Jim, let’s keep that up. That little tidbit should tide us over until July 1st.
Waxing Poetic
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a POHO and GM wax poetic about a player that they traded away so much before. It seemed that every chance they got, they talked about how J.T. Miller is one of the most unique players, a shut-down centre, a power forward, a rare player, a stand-up guy, etc, ect. It was strange, because he isn’t a Canuck anymore.
What made it stranger was that in the next breath, they dragged Elias Pettersson’s preparation; they said he is too focused on collecting points and not playing the right way. They mentioned how he needs to play through injuries more and how he needs to be better at both ends of the ice.
None of that is necessarily wrong, but it was in stark contrast to how they spoke of J.T., who was traded away. It gives me the impression that they are sick of Pettersson and resent him for being forced to trade Miller.
Will(ander) They, Won’t They?
It’s no secret that there have been stalls in talks with Tom Willander and the Canucks.
Rick Dhaliwal tweeted out:
“Todd Diamond [Willander’s family advisor]: ‘Our intent was/is to turn pro, but if we don’t agree on a contract that Tom and his family are comfortable with, returning to BU and other situations become possible over the next few seasons.'”
That doesn’t sound good for the relationship between the Canucks and their best prospect.
It makes you wonder what the future holds in regards to Vancouver.
Fixing the Top Six
To their credit, Allvin stressed they believe that Pettersson can be the number one centre for the Canucks moving forward and they believe in his ability to get there. But even so, the Canucks need at minimum one more centre, and also some more wingers.
Management mentioned how they don’t expect to fix their issues with this season’s free agent group, but will have to look at trades. “It will be expensive. But it will be expensive not to get one.” JR said about trading for a centreman.
With Tom Willander in the position he is, I expect him to be dangled as a trade piece to land a top-six forward.
It looks like Elias Pettersson may not be off the board either.
You know what? I think Jack Hughes would look great in a top six role for the Canucks. Get used to me talking about that, if you don’t like it, blame Rutherford, he opened the door for this.
Practice Arena
Well, no news on the practice facility that was promised way back when Rutherford and Allvin were hired. Rutherford explained they have tried working with local rinks to build in a new dressing room for the Canucks but could make it happen.
Rutherford explained that there are some parcels of land they are looking into building a facility on, but they are a long way off. Rutherford even said that he may not be around when it happens, like he implied he may die before it happens.
Get used to UBC folks.