“If you want to blame me for over-trying, for overdoing it, then honestly, I’m good with it. A couple of years ago, that sort of stuff would’ve bothered me, but it doesn’t now. I’m the one that looks at myself in the mirror, and I’m good with everything I’ve done,” Hughes said.<\/p>\n
“I’m at peace with everything.”<\/p>\n
Hughes said “he gave everything” he had to the Canucks, who drafted him seventh overall in 2018. The American turned into the team’s captain before he was shipped off for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round pick.<\/p>\n
“Go look at the years prior, too, when there was all sorts of nonsense going on, and I know I was always doing everything I could to make sure my game was in a good place and elevating it for the team. I tried to do that again this year. I had a great summer, and it just didn’t happen,” he said.<\/p>\n
Some of that so-called “nonsense” included a reported rift between J.T. Miller and forward Elias Pettersson last season as the Canucks sank from 50-win Pacific Division champions the year prior all the way out of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
As a result of the infighting, Miller was traded to the New York Rangers in a mid-season deal.<\/p>\n
“He was a top-five player for us the year prior. He had (103) points, PK, power play, taking defensive-zone draws. … There were nights I’d watch him and just think, ‘This guy is unbelievable,'” Hughes said.<\/p>\n
“To lose that guy the very next year \u2026 that was probably a fracture of everything. And yet, on some level, it felt like you could see it coming for years, I would say.”<\/p>\n
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n