Are the Canucks relying on Quinn Hughes too much
Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes made franchise history over the weekend leapfrogging former Canucks rearguard Alexander Edler to assume the franchise’s all-time mark for assists by a defenseman.
Through 23 games this season, Hughes has collected five goals and 23 assists for 28 points, good for top spot in scoring on the Canucks and second-best among all defensemen league-wide, behind only Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, who sits at 32 points. Hughes is averaging 24:57 minutes of ice time currently and has been on upward trend.
Today on Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Colby Cohen discuss whether or not the Canucks are relying on Hughes too much.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Heading out west where Quinn Hughes made some history last night for the Vancouver Canucks, he’s now the all-time assist leader in that franchise. He does it by putting up seven assists in his last three games, which is crazy he’s now up to an assist per game on that canucks blue line. Where I wanted to go with this, and our guy Jeff Patterson discussed this over at CanucksArmy with Filip Hronek out of the lineup, they are starting to lean on Quinn Hughes a ton. His time on ice over the last three games, was 27:35, 28:31 minutes. And then last night it was 31:04 against the Detroit Red Wings as the Canucks won 5-4 in overtime. Quinn Hughes has been off to an amazing start this season. I think he is undoubtedly their MVP, although maybe Kevin Lankinen wants to have a word about that with his early season play. But Colby, you’re a defenseman. Should the Canucks be relying on Hughes this much?
Colby Cohen: I think obviously 27 to 31 minutes a night for a whole season, not typically super sustainable, but here’s why I don’t worry about Hughes. Some guys, you watch them skate, they’re digging into the ice a little bit more, they’re taking more physical plays, they’re playing more physical. You watch Quinn Hughes and he’s an effortless skater. He doesn’t have to conserve a ton of energy. His ability to kind of almost float, he’s such a beautiful skater, that he looks like he’s like an inch off the ice right and he’s just kind of floating around it’s like he’s on a hovercraft.
Colby Cohen: So I think when you look at those factors and you look at the fact that his career his average for the year is 24:52 right now, so it’s right where it was last year at 24:41 and the previous two seasons he averaged 25 almost 26 minutes a night. So I just think that this is pretty standard for him. And I think the way he plays, I think he’s okay to log 26, 27 minutes a night because you just watch him. I bet if you put a heart rate monitor on him, and I’m sure they do, he’s one of those guys that’s probably super even-keeled. His resting heart rate is probably incredible. His max heart rate is probably better than most people. I mean, the guy is a freakishly high-end athlete. And so it doesn’t concern me as much based on the way that he thinks.