"Quinn Hughes is coming," said Mike Sullivan, head coach of Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off, when asked what the team was going to do with Charlie McAvoy unavailable due to an upper-body injury.
It turns out that Hughes was not, in fact, coming.
Despite reports that Hughes was on his way to Boston to join the U.S. ahead of the championship game against Canada on Thursday, Hughes was in Vancouver on Tuesday morning for the Canucks' first practice since the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. He was still in Vancouver on Wednesday for another Canucks practice.
Hughes has not been medically cleared to play
On Tuesday, Hughes was wearing a red no-contact jersey but he was in a regular black jersey for Wednesday's practice. That suggests his return from injury is moving in the right direction but apparently not quite fast enough. According to a report from TSN's Pierre LeBrun, Hughes has not been medically cleared to play.
Team USA has been informed Quinn Hughes is not travelling here to Boston to join the team. Wasn’t medically cleared.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) February 19, 2025
Sounds like Team USA looking at bringing in a couple of other players just as insurance, because of illness going around.
It's an interesting change in framing. When Hughes and the Canucks were first contemplating whether he would play at the 4 Nations Face-Off, it was framed as being up to Hughes and it was a decision that he made with a great deal of deliberation.
"Not to be dramatic but it was extremely hard," said Hughes on Tuesday. "It's been something I've been looking forward to for a long time. I've got to thank Billy Guerin for how patient he was with me, not only ten days ago but even in the last 24 hours. He understood how much I wanted to play and also what my obligations were to the Canucks.
"Really, what it came down to, I just wasn't healthy enough where I wasn't sure that I could get worse. I felt like I couldn't be crawling back to Vancouver at the end of that tournament where now I'm missing more Canucks games. If there's a positive, I should be ready to go next game against Vegas but, in saying that, if I didn't have to worry about any of that other stuff, I would have been there in a second and played with what I got but I have to look big picture."
LeBrun's report that Hughes wasn't medically cleared, however, suggests that the decision whether to play in the championship game was, to a certain extent, out of Hughes's hands.
"The medical team would like me to take it step-by-step"
On Tuesday, Hughes said that he wanted to play in the championship game against Canada but knew the tournament rules would prevent him from playing without another defenceman suffering an injury, something he didn't want to see happen.
"The rules are the rules," said Hughes. "Canada was able to bring [Thomas] Harley in because [Shea] Theodore got injured and [Cale] Makar, so they were down to five [defencemen]. In the U.S.'s circumstance, with Charlie going down, they still have their six D. I think that's where it changes my position a little bit. I think if they had to do it over again, they would allow teams to bring a couple of extra players but the league's done a great job putting this event together. It's been fun to watch — hard for me to watch but I'm close with a lot of those USA guys and I'm proud of how they've been playing."
Of course, a player could be unavailable for another reason. The flu has reportedly been moving through all of the teams at the 4 Nations Face-Off — Sweden was apparently hit particularly hard — so there's a chance that a defenceman will have to pull out of the championship game, opening up a spot that could have been filled by Hughes.
But if Hughes isn't cleared medically, it's a moot point.
"In a perfect world, the medical team would like me to take it step-by-step the next couple of days," said Hughes after practice on Tuesday. "But I feel really good right now."
Hughes also revealed that Tuesday's practice was just his third time skating in the last 20 days, which would also make it potentially risky to go from barely skating to jumping straight into a fast-paced, high-stakes championship game between two international rivals with plenty of emotion, passion, and political factors surrounding the game.
But Hughes is expected to be ready to play by Saturday, when the Canucks return to action against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Team USA still has a formidable defence without Hughes
For Canadian Canucks fans, this news is a double-plus good. Hughes staying out of the game is likely the best course of action to keep him healthy down the stretch, with the Canucks likely needing a healthy Hughes just to make the playoffs, let alone make some noise in the postseason.
It also deprives Team USA of a major difference-maker against Canada in a game that has taken on an out-sized importance considering the somewhat gimmicky nature of the tournament. Politics off the ice, with President Donald Trump threatening to annex Canada and Canadian fans responding by booing the American national anthem prior to games, have given the championship game additional resonance.
Without Hughes, not to mention the injured McAvoy, the U.S. will have to make do with just two Norris-caliber defencemen rather than three.
The U.S. is left with Adam Fox, who won the Norris Trophy in 2021 and has finished top five in Norris voting in the three following seasons, and Zach Werenski, who has pushed himself into the Norris conversation this season with 17 goals and 59 points in 55 games to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets in scoring.
They also have two-time Lady Byng winner Jaccob Slavin, who is widely considered one of the best defensive defencemen in the world, and Brock Faber, who finished as runner-up for the Calder Trophy last season. Top it off with quality defencemen in Noah Hanifin and Jake Sanderson and the Team USA blue line is still stacked even without Hughes.
Canada has a couple of Norris winners of their own on defence, though one of those wins came nine years ago. Cale Makar won the Norris in 2022, while Drew Doughty won it back in 2016.
