The Vancouver Canucks promised a comeback, but instead they have fared the worst this season. With 25 points, they couldn’t be worse right now. From Kiefer Sherwood to Evander Kane and even Elias Pettersson, the Canucks could be down to moving their veterans at the rate at which they are playing.
There is no way the team initially wanted to make a move surrounding franchise cornerstone Quinn Hughes. However, given how the team has been performing and Hughes’ natural desire to be a part of a more competitive team, a former NHL blueliner believes the Canucks are better off expediting the trade.
Chris Pronger Believes the Vancouver Canucks Should Conclude the Quinn Hughes Move
The Canucks’ season appears irredeemable every way you try to look at it. The team has lost three of its four games in December, and discontent is widespread in the community at the moment. Under such circumstances, a player of Hughes’ caliber might just want to join the ranks of another team that promises better odds of a deep playoff run. According to Chris Pronger, the Canucks need to accept the situation as it is and make the most of it.
“They are trending in the wrong direction. And when you have a star player like that, he doesn’t want to waste his prime years withering away on a team that is in rebuild mode or struggling to find a direction. Plus, his contract’s up in a year and a half. I think they want to get as much value as possible. If they wait too long, they might not get that,” the former Edmonton Oilers defenseman bluntly stated during his appearance on NHL Morning Skate.
Hughes is in the fifth year of his six-year, $47.10 million contract with the Canucks. The defenseman will become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. If trading is to occur at all, now may be the most ideal moment for everyone involved.
Moreover, Pronger believes that somewhere along the way, the Canucks have really lost any rhythm whatsoever. The former defenseman believes the team simply does not know its current standing. ” And I think that’s what they’re mired in is just ineptitude, if you will. And they’re looking for direction. They seem to be a little rudderless in the sense that they don’t know which way they’re going.”
For players like Hughes, this is not the environment they want to be in. The Canucks captain may want to win, and the team may not be able to give him that. “He wants to win. He’s a competitor. And I think it gets to a certain stage where players run into this situation where a team is going in the opposite direction to the way their career is going and where they want to go.”
Pronger even suggests that the Canucks should consider rebuilding at the moment. But when it comes to what to do about Hughes, the former blueliner firmly believes that now is the time to reach a decision.