LAS VEGAS — Quinn Hughes was 12 years old playing for the Toronto Marlboros of the Greater Toronto Hockey League when coach Rich McLeod approached him about shifting from forward to defense.
He said yes. And the rest is history.
In fact, just 12 years later, the Vancouver Canucks captain made some history of his own by winning the James Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman. And as he stepped onto the stage during the 2024 NHL Awards at Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the 24-year-old thought about the incredible journey he’s been on to get here.
“We were missing a guy on defense at the time,” Hughes recalled. “I went back there and kind of fell in love with it.”
He mentioned that his dad, Jim, had grown up as a defenseman, which made his own positional change more desirable. And now, here he was Thursday, having officially beaten out Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, immediately hugging Jim, mom Ellen, and brothers Jack Hughes and Luke Hughes, teammates on the New Jersey Devils.
“It’s surreal and probably hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “It was a great season for me and for our team. Took a lot of steps forward individually and as a group, so really proud of the year.”
He should be.
In his first season as captain of the Canucks, Hughes led all defensemen in points with 92 (17 goals, 75 assists) and primary power-play assists with 17. He had nine games with at least three assists, something only two others at the position have done in a single season: Bobby Orr (four times) and Ray Bourque (1993-94).
Through it all, he admitted how much he’s matured on and off the ice since being named the 15th captain in Canucks history on Sept. 11, 2023.
“Honestly I can’t talk enough about my growth, even going back further to the past 18 months,” Hughes said. “I mean, we’d been losing at the time and it was really hard seeing all these other teams have success when we weren’t.
“It forced me and a bunch of the guys on the team to reevaluate what we wanted to do and what kind of team or organization you wanted to be. I think we did a great job of that, for sure. And now we’re going to continue to take another step because I feel we can contend the next couple of years.”
Hughes gave some of the credit for the team’s turnaround to coach Rick Tocchet, who was named winner of the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach on May 22. Since being hired on Jan. 22, 2023, he’s led the Canucks to a regular-season record of 70-35-13.
This season alone, Vancouver went 50-23-9, won the Pacific Division and made it to the Western Conference Second Round before losing to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games. The hurt from that defeat, Hughes said, still stings, but he and his teammates have learned from it.
“I’m not going to win the Norris every year. There’s too many good defensemen,” he said. “But I think if I can be out there and have a year like I had this year, that would show the consistency I think I have.
“Now that we made the playoffs and have that drive, I think there’s room for growth for sure. I’d say that’s the next step.”
2023-24 James Norris Memorial Trophy Voting
Points (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
1. Quinn Hughes, VAN 1864 (172-17-5-0-0)
2. Roman Josi, NSH 1207 (12-108-61-8-2)
3. Cale Makar, COL 893 (9-61-59-21-18)
4. Adam Fox, NYR 229 (1-1-14-38-28)
5. Evan Bouchard, EDM 212 (0-1-19-29-23)
6. Victor Hedman, TBL 201 (0-4-6-42-17)
7. Josh Morrissey, WPG 166 (0-0-19-16-23)
8. Noah Dobson, NYI 95 (0-0-2-18-31)
9. Gustav Forsling, FLA 85 (0-1-6-10-18)
10. Miro Heiskanen, DAL 43 (0-1-3-3-12)
11. Drew Doughty, LAK 18 (0-0-0-4-6)
12. Mattias Ekholm, EDM 15 (0-0-0-2-9)
13. Charlie McAvoy, BOS 7 (0-0-0-2-1)
14. Jaccob Slavin, CAR 6 (0-0-0-1-3)
15. Rasmus Dahlin, BUF 3 (0-0-0-0-3)
* 10-7-5-3-1 points allocation (1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th)
