Hughes: Pressure to succeed 'weighs heavily on me' as captain
Quinn Hughes doesn't take his responsibilities as captain lightly.
The Vancouver Canucks defenseman admitted Wednesday the pressure that comes with the "C" has, at times, been a lot to handle this season.
"This team named me captain, and I feel obligated to be a successful team here. That weighs heavily on me; I want to do something here," Hughes told Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre.
The Canucks named Hughes captain ahead of last season following the departure of Bo Horvat at the 2023 trade deadline.
"They made me captain," Hughes said. "Are you going to do what you said you would do? Are you going to help the situation and make this a successful organization? Obviously, one guy can't do that. But I definitely feel obligated, where that weighs heavy on my mind that they entrusted me with that."
Hughes has certainly delivered on his end. He won the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman with a career-high 92 points last year while guiding the club to its third-best regular season ever. The Canucks made it to the second round of the postseason before falling to the eventual Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
The 25-year-old has followed that up with another strong individual season. He's registered a team-leading 74 points this season - a staggering 25 more than the Canucks' second-leading scorer Brock Boeser - and figures to garner Norris Trophy consideration despite missing 14 games due to injury.
As a team, though, the Canucks have faltered. Vancouver was officially eliminated from playoff contention Wednesday.
"This year has been hard, and I want to find a way to put us in a situation where we can be really successful and ultimately win (a Stanley Cup)," Hughes said. "I appreciate the fans and the fact that there's never been a Cup in Vancouver. I definitely think about that quite a bit as well."
The 2024-25 Canucks season featured no shortage of drama. Hughes admitted earlier in the campaign that the Elias Pettersson-J.T. Miller saga - which eventually resulted in Miller getting traded to the New York Rangers - was tough to navigate.
The Canucks drafted Hughes seventh overall in 2018. He can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027 and will be in a position to demand a hefty raise from his current $7.85-million cap hit if his strong play continues over the next two seasons.