The Vancouver Canucks got a reality check this week with Rick Tocchet and may get another in a couple of years with Quinn Hughes when it comes to working far from family.

Players and people in professional hockey are no different than the rest of us in most regards. For instance, if you were asked to move far away from your home, distant from your friends and family, you might be able to handle it for a few years. But after that, nobody would blame you for eventually trying to figure out how you could work in your chosen profession and eventually get closer to family.

Former Canucks coach Rick Tocchet decided to leave Vancouver after two-and-a-half years on the West Coast. Tocchet specifically mentioned family as the reason for leaving the Canucks. And really, who can blame him? Life is too short to subject yourself to situations where you’re really not happy when you lay your head on your pillow at the end of every day.

Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told the 100% Hockey with Millard & Shannon podcast on Friday that Tocchet’s son lived in Seattle for a bit but moved back to the East Coast.

“I believe he’s sincere and saying that he wants to get back to the east, closer to his family, and we’ll see where that takes him,” Rutherford said. “But we’re thankful for what he did, and we wish him all the best.” 

When you’ve succeeded in your profession to the point you can have your pick from a number of different jobs – in Tocchet’s case, the coaching position on the Philadelphia Flyers or Pittsburgh Penguins – you’d be foolish for not capitalizing on your leverage and doing what’s best for you.

Meanwhile, Rutherford has also discussed the possibility of Canucks captain and superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes wanting to play with brothers Jack and Luke Hughes – who play on the New Jersey Devils.

Rutherford told reporters on April 21 that Hughes wanting to play with his brothers is partly out of their control unless they acquire Jack and Luke Hughes – a comment he later said wasn’t totally serious – but the Canucks don’t have the type of assets to trade for them.

Back on that podcast, Rutherford said if it doesn’t look like Quinn Hughes wants to stay by the 2027 NHL trade deadline, then they “would have to do something at that point.”

Again, if Hughes wants to find some way to play with his brothers, would anyone reasonably try to paint him as a villain? 

He’s already given the Canucks the first seven years of his career, and he’s committed to another two years after this one. If the Canucks don’t win a Stanley Cup after nearly a decade with him on board, you can hardly fault him if he eventually moved back closer to his family.

Of course, we don’t exactly know if this is what Hughes wants. He hasn’t come out and told everybody that. He might not have even told Rutherford that.

"No, that's just been out there," Rutherford said on the podcast. "I think people assume that."

Whether Hughes really wants to go this route or not, if he isn’t ready to recommit to Vancouver after his current contract ends, the Canucks would be well within their rights to explore trading him soon and not wait until his contract is up.

If, hypothetically, Hughes does want to play with his brothers, and they remain on New Jersey, it’ll be clear well before the end of Hughes’ contract that the Devils will have all the leverage in any trade talks, and that won’t serve the best interests of the Canucks to allow that to happen.

Canucks Jim Rutherford Suggests That A Future Quinn Hughes Trade May Become Necessary The future of Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has been a major talking point over the past few weeks. While Hughes is still signed for two more seasons, many, including President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford, have hinted that the Norris-winning defenceman could leave Vancouver once he becomes a free agent. One of the more likely destinations for Hughes would be the New Jersey Devils, where his brothers Jack and Luke currently play. 

So if Hughes is traded to another team that isn’t the Devils, where he will spend one or two seasons, that may not suit the player particularly well, but he doesn’t have any no-trade protection to prevent that from happening. At some point, the Canucks do have to put the organization first, even if it means trading a loyal employee in the process.

You can never take the human element out of the professional game. And who knows, maybe sometime soon there will be a British Columbia-born-and-raised star who leaves an organization to come and play for the Canucks at the height of their career.

But right now, Rutherford has suggested to the media with his comments about Hughes that the Canucks appear to be on the wrong side of that type of crossroads.

The only thing they can do from this point is to control the things they can control and make as much lemonade out of the lemons that appear to be handed to them.

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