Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes will be making his first trip to visit the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday and it’s a split on what kind of reaction he will receive. While some Canucks fans have blamed management for his messy divorce, others believe he quit on them and could be giving them a hostile welcome like the one Brady Tkachuk received from Ottawa Senators fans on Wednesday night.
Tkachuk, who requested and was granted a trade to the Florida Panthers last offseason, made his return and fans let him hear it early and often booing him before the national anthems, immediately after a moment of silence and throughout the game. Even a heartwarming return video didn’t stop the boos from reigning down and Tkachuk fanned the flames by taking a quick victory lap and basking in the animosity.
Hughes likely won’t hear chants of “You can’t read,” or “You eat crayons” when he returns to Vancouver on Sunday night. But it could be a glimpse of his future not only in his first road game against the Canucks, but also if he can’t work out a contract extension with the Wild.
Quinn Hughes could get a hostile welcome back to Vancouver
Hughes’s departure from Vancouver has split the fan base down the middle. The seventh overall pick from the 2018 draft, Hughes quickly became one of the top defensemen in the NHL with the Canucks, making the All-Star team as a 20-year-old during the 2019-20 season and winning the Norris Trophy with 17 goals, 92 points and a plus-38 rating during the 2023-24 season.
It’s the type of player Wild fans have seen after Bill Guerin pulled off a blockbuster trade to bring him to Minnesota and one that grew tired of the Canucks’ drama including a “Mean Girls” culture in the locker room and a team that headed in the wrong direction after taking the Edmonton Oilers to seven games in the second round of the Western Conference Semifinals in the 2023-24 campaign.
That was a key reason why Hughes informed the Canucks he wasn’t going to re-sign when his contract expired following this current season and that advanced notice allowed Vancouver to acquire Marco Rossi, Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round draft pick (Adam Novotny) in return. But it also draws parallels to current Wild trade target Dylan Larkin.
As the captain of the Canucks, many fans believe he quit on the team. While he also professed that he enjoyed playing in Vancouver, it didn’t stop him from not denying speculation that he wanted to play with his brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes after Jack brought it up during the NHL media tour in September 2025.
His admission that he “didn’t really know” a lot of the players left on the Canucks roster after his departure triggered more poor feelings and it led to a case of Schadenfreude as Hughes has danced a similar dance with the Wild as they look to extend him.
Wild fans are living out the same drama that Canucks fans endured
With that in mind, it may not be surprising if Hughes hears some boos when he returns to Vancouver on Sunday night. It may also not reach the level of Senators fans who chanted even more vulgar phrases that can not be published in this article. But it could reach Tkachuk levels if he doesn’t come to a contract solution with the Wild soon.
In the final year of his deal, Hughes has heaped superlatives on the Wild. But Daily Faceoff's David Pagnotta noted that the hold up on his contract isn’t a willingness by Minnesota to get a deal done, but rather a decision by Hughes.
“They’re just waiting on Quinn. It’s just a waiting game. Like, ‘Do you want to do this or not? You let us know when you’re ready,’” Pagnotta said during an appearance on Sports 1440 in Edmonton this week. “And because I think they have the parameters of deals in place –whether it’s just a one-year [contract] or three-year [contract], my understanding is they have the frameworks of these options done. It’s just a matter of what Quinn wants and…when he wants it. So it’s just a waiting game.”
Those comments make it seem like the contracts are just sitting there waiting for Hughes to sign. But he has said he’s in “no rush” to make a decision, making things like a potential trade for Larkin and the Wild’s early-season performance seem that more important.
If the Wild do both and Hughes still says no – or even just says no in general – Wild fans are unlikely to take it kindly, which could lead to the most aggressive crowd hockey fans will see since Tkachuk visited Ottawa on Wednesday night.
Of course, it would be nice if it didn’t come to that. But as a best friend of Tkachuk, Hughes may have been watching on Wednesday night. And it could be his future right in front of him either in Vancouver on Sunday or in Minnesota if he declines a contract extension.
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