Pulling out of the 4 Nations Face-Off was an agonizing decision for Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes. He had to balance the need to recover from his oblique injury to play the rest of the Canucks' season with his strong desire to represent his country alongside his brother, Jack Hughes.
Ultimately, Hughes had to prioritize his health and took himself off Team USA's roster, giving him some extra time to recuperate.
Now, however, Hughes might get the best of both worlds. According to USA head coach Mike Sullivan, Hughes is on his way to Boston to join Team USA ahead of the championship game against Canada on Thursday.
UPDATE: Contrary to earlier reports that he was heading to Boston, Hughes was in Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon for the Canucks' first practice since the break. He was wearing a red non-contact jersey at practice, suggesting he hasn't been fully cleared medically just yet.
According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Hughes will only fly to Boston if "there's a realistic chance he can play."
Quinn Hughes is at Canucks practice.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 18, 2025
Will see how this turns out, but Hughes will not join USA unless there’s a realistic chance he can play.
Canucks’ first game is Saturday in Vegas — doesn’t make sense for him to go Vancouver-Boston-Vegas if he can’t play Thursday.
This raises the question of why Sullivan so confidently said, "Quinn Hughes is coming" earlier in the day. It seems there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding whether Hughes will even travel to Boston to join Team USA, let alone actually play in the championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
On the one hand, Hughes being healthy enough to play in the championship game is good news for Canucks fans. That means Hughes should be well enough to return to the Canucks' lineup on Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights, potentially the first time since the team's blockbuster trades that the Canucks' new blue line will play together.
That's big news for the Canucks, as oblique injuries can vary widely in recovery times depending on the severity of the injury. As long as Hughes isn't returning too soon, it's great that he's recovered so quickly.
On the other hand, there's always a chance that Hughes could tweak his injury or suffer an all-new one in the playoff-like atmosphere of the 4 Nations Face-Off, especially against a highly motivated Canadian team eager to get revenge for their loss in the round-robin stage.
After all, the only reason Hughes might be able to join the American squad is because of the injuries they've suffered. Defenceman Charlie McAvoy had to go to the hospital after an upper-body injury he suffered during the tournament got infected, while Matthew and Brady Tkachuk left games against Canada and Sweden, respectively, with lower-body injuries, though they're expected to play against Canada.
Vincent Trocheck also seemed to pick up a hand injury in the game against Sweden and Auston Matthews missed Monday's game against Sweden with a minor injury. Sullivan said Matthews would play on Thursday but Trochek's availability is up in the air for Thursday.
In order for Hughes to be eligible to play, the American roster needs at least one more injury beyond McAvoy's. According to the rules of the tournament, Team USA would need to dip below six available defencemen or 18 available skaters for the team to add a player to the roster.
Assuming Team USA manages to find another injury on defence or a player or two come down with the flu, adding Hughes to the lineup would provide a huge boost to Team USA in a game against Canada that has taken on a heightened importance with all sorts of political overtones.
In response to President Donald Trump's tariffs and threats of annexation, Canadian fans have taken to booing the American national anthem at sporting events across the country. This has also been the case at the 4 Nations Face-Off, at least for the games taking place in Montreal.
While the booing of the anthem is directed at the president and not the players, Team USA general manager Bill Guerin took the extra step of aligning his team with Trump, saying that the "political flare" surrounding the game helped inspire his players.
“We would love it if President Trump was in attendance,” said Geurin in an interview with Fox News. “We have a room full of proud American players and coaches and staff and listen, we’re just trying to represent our country the best way we can."
As always, the calls from some corners to keep politics out of sports has always carried the unspoken connotation of "keep politics I don't like out of sports," as politics are baked into sports from the beginning, particularly international tournaments where players wear their countries' flags on their jerseys. Sometimes, those politics are a little more overt.
Accordingly, Canucks fans who happen to be Canadian will likely be cheering a little bit harder for Team Canada on Thursday and Hughes' presence in the Team USA lineup would complicate that, both because he will make the U.S. better and because they want to make sure Hughes is healthy for the remainder of the Canucks season.
