BOSTON — If the decision had been left up to Quinn Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks defenseman would be at TD Garden on Thursday for the biggest game Team USA has played in more than a decade.
Had USA Hockey been granted sole authority, you can also bet Hughes would be given every opportunity to play against Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.
But Hughes is an irreplaceable member of the Canucks who hasn’t dressed since Jan. 31 because of a reported oblique injury, and his NHL team wants to prioritize the long-term interests of both the player and organization over even the most hyped of international finals.
Hence, Hughes won’t be in the building for the U.S.-Canada rematch after failing to gain medical clearance from the Canucks on Wednesday.
Of course, who knows how the next 24 hours will play out? Maybe that can still change.
The way this strange saga has gone, crazier things have happened.
It’s been a wild 72 hours of back-and-forths with multiple interested parties trying to navigate rules that have been instituted on the fly while determining if Hughes would be airlifted across the continent as an emergency standby for Team USA. That’s because U.S. and Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was admitted to a hospital with an infection after a shoulder injury sustained earlier in the tournament.
“We’re crystal clear on the rules,” U.S. general manager Bill Guerin told The Athletic on Wednesday when he was still trying to get Hughes to Boston. “It’s not like I’m just going rogue on this and doing whatever I want. We’re talking to everybody we need to talk to.”
If we’ve learned anything from the Hughes situation, and the Bruins’ reaction to McAvoy’s medical treatment with Team USA, it’s that making decisions in an NHL-sanctioned international tournament can be a tricky line to walk.
What’s best for country isn’t always what’s best for club.
It’s safe to say U.S. coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t have told a room full of reporters Tuesday that “Quinn Hughes is coming” to Boston if he didn’t think Hughes actually was coming to Boston — and if he hadn’t been given permission by Guerin to announce it.
So it came as quite a surprise to everyone when five hours after Sullivan said Hughes was on his way, the Canucks captain was actually 2,500 miles away in Vancouver practicing with the Canucks in a red non-contact jersey.
What happened? According to multiple league sources, Team USA called Hughes late Monday night to ask if he wanted to join the team. He said yes, so it was announced to real-time tweeting reporters Tuesday morning that he was en route.
But that was either news to the Canucks or they hadn’t given the green light.
Making matters more complicated was the fact that Hughes had been one of the six original players named to the U.S. roster in June, later bowing out because of the injury and being replaced by Jake Sanderson. Did being on the original roster make his situation different than when the Canadians called in Thomas Harley as an injury/illness replacement earlier in the tournament?
Harley had to stand in a dressing-room doorway watching Canadian players skate last Saturday after Shea Theodore was lost with an upper-body injury. Canada was permitted to fly Harley to Montreal as insurance, but the Dallas Stars defenseman wasn’t allowed to participate in team activities or play in a game unless the Canadians dipped below their six remaining healthy defensemen.
When Cale Makar missed Saturday’s game against the U.S., Harley was formally added to the roster so that Canada wouldn’t have to play a man down. And now he remains eligible to continue playing even though Makar is healthy.
The NHL decided that Hughes would be no different. He couldn’t play unless one of the six remaining U.S. defensemen was sick or hurt before Thursday’s game.
While Hughes was willing to come to Boston even if he couldn’t play just to support his American teammates, including brother Jack Hughes, it’s clear the Canucks didn’t want Hughes to fly across the continent just to turn around and fly to Las Vegas on Friday to start a five-game trip with Vancouver. The Canucks are in a playoff race, and the defenseman has 24 more points than the team’s next-highest scorer.
“All I can say is we’re still working through it,” Guerin said Wednesday.
Even after Wednesday morning’s practice, it was clear several players on Team USA were under the impression that Hughes was going to be arriving in Boston on Wednesday night after practicing for a second straight day in Vancouver, this time in a regular practice sweater.
Quinn Hughes has shed the non-contact jersey today pic.twitter.com/ZxPQPsrX5r
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) February 19, 2025
“I’ve just been texting him,” brother Jack Hughes said. “I know it’s an interesting situation, so we’ll see what happens.”
“From what I hear, he’s getting in (Wednesday night),” added defenseman Brock Faber. “I don’t know if he can play or not. I have no idea. No one really knows what the rule is. I guess he can’t play unless one of us can’t?”
That reality actually led to some humor.
Faber, the youngest defenseman on the U.S. roster, tries not to pay attention to social media, but sometimes it’s impossible to ignore.
Over the past few days, Faber and Sanderson (Faber’s fellow 2022 Olympian and 2021 World Juniors gold medalist) have seen all the jokes from hockey fans about how they look “under the weather” or wondering if they had “sore throats” coming on.
Guerin driving Sanderson to practice pic.twitter.com/WdoVJy8K75
— Reid (@reid_s19) February 18, 2025
Even teammates chimed in with some jokes, Faber said.
“There were some funny ones about me or Sandy or other guys getting sick or just weird memes and DMs and all that crap ‘to take one for the team’ or to pretend we’re hurt,” Faber said, laughing. “Look, we all want Quinn in the lineup. He’s one of the best defensemen in the world. So it’s tough.”
In other words, Faber, Sanderson, Zach Werenski, Adam Fox, Jaccob Slavin and Noah Hanifin are proud Americans, too, and want nothing more than to play Canada in Thursday’s championship. They’ve looked forward to this and prepared themselves for it. It’s not fair for any of them to have to play sick.
Sanderson being called to a special coach’s session pic.twitter.com/LfR3M8rIsI
— KCCO-VCR (@kccoVCR) February 18, 2025
One interesting aspect of the Hughes situation is that Canada didn’t mount any opposition to the possibility of him being flown into Boston. Officials from Hockey Canada were in touch with both USA Hockey and the NHL and conveyed their understanding and support of the situation, according to league sources.
But in the end, all of this became moot when the Canucks didn’t medically clear Hughes on Wednesday afternoon.
There would be no flight to Boston, after all — American injury or illness, or not.
“It would be fun,” Jack Hughes said before the decision was made. “Obviously, he was on the team — and a big part of the team. Even if he comes and he can’t play, that will give everyone a big boost just that he supports us and he’s willing to come all of this way to come just to sit and be an extra if there’s no injury or nothing. For him to come that would mean a lot for our group and I know guys would be pumped about that.”
After the Canucks declined to send Hughes, the United States invited Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson and New Jersey Devils defenseman Brett Pesce to Boston to act as insurance instead. They felt that precaution was necessary because several players have been dealing with illness throughout the tournament, including winger Brady Tkachuk, who wasn’t feeling well enough to join Wednesday’s practice. (His brother, Matthew, said Brady is “saving everything he has for” the final.)
Like Harley, Thompson and Pesce won’t be allowed to skate with the United States on Thursday morning or play in the game unless the U.S. dips below six defensemen or 12 forwards.
It’s worth noting that this whole situation could have been avoided had the NHL and NHLPA listened to the GMs of the 4 Nations teams back in November when they asked for 25-player rosters — to avoid this very risk of being left to scramble in the case of injuries or illnesses. But there’d be a shared cost to increase the roster, and the NHLPA also didn’t want players sitting around not playing and giving up their chance to go on vacation like players not participating in the tournament.
Also, just as the Canucks wanted to be part of the Hughes decision, the Bruins had a vested interest in what was going on with McAvoy.
It was telling Tuesday when it was the Bruins, not Team USA, who announced that McAvoy would not be playing in Thursday’s final and was under the care of the Bruins’ team doctor after being admitted to the hospital for testing related to an upper-body injury.
GO DEEPER
Bruins address Charlie McAvoy infection, potential long-term absence after Team USA injury
On Wednesday, the Bruins provided further detail by announcing that McAvoy sustained an injury to his right shoulder’s AC joint in the United States’ game against Finland on Feb. 13.
He underwent treatment from the Team USA medical staff and was cleared to play against Canada, where he was a huge part of the Americans’ win by playing 19 ½ minutes and dishing out five hits, including a momentum-turning check on Connor McDavid that was followed shortly by Jake Guentzel’s tying goal.
The Bruins said that after the tournament moved to Boston, McAvoy developed increasing pain, “for which he was evaluated by the Boston Bruins’ medical staff. … He underwent an irrigation and debridement procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital on February 18. He remains in the hospital, where he is being treated with IV antibiotics, and his condition is improving.”
McAvoy was cross-checked into the goal post in the third period in the game against Finland by Joel Armia. He grabbed his shoulder afterward, but his left one. The Bruins say he injured his right shoulder, so it’s unclear if that’s where he got hurt.
Here’s Armia’s cheapshot on McAvoy, those posts don’t give like they used to. pic.twitter.com/0snlajkoKG
— dafoomie (@dafoomie) February 19, 2025
Either way, the Bruins’ reaction clearly indicated they weren’t satisfied with the medical care McAvoy received from Team USA.
Guerin, who is also president of hockey operations and general manager of the Minnesota Wild, wouldn’t comment other than to say he had the utmost confidence in the United States’ medical team, which includes athletic trainers John Worley (Wild), Travis Green (Wild) and Kevin Morley (Nashville Predators) and team physician Joel Boyd, who has been the Wild’s orthopedic surgeon for 25 years.
The fact that McAvoy played so well against Canada despite a significant injury makes his performance even more impressive.
“He has the heart of a warrior and wants to compete,” Slavin said. “He’s isn’t going to go out there and play with half effort because that’s where mistakes happen. That’s where injuries could even happen even more so when you’re not playing to the max.”
Added Faber, “He was battling it. And just shows the character he is. It was so cool to have him as a teammate. He was throwing the body around very, very well for being injured.”
It truly is a shame for McAvoy. He played college in Boston. He plays for the Bruins. This is his home rink. A proud American, it would have been a dream for him to play against Canada in this title game.
“You feel horrible for him,” Faber said. “He’s a huge part of our team, too, so it’s unfortunate. At the end of the day, just hope he gets healthy quick enough to be back with the Bruins.”
Added U.S. forward Dylan Larkin, “We’re gonna miss him. We miss him being around. We’re thinking about him a lot. It’s a scary thing, but we’re glad he’s getting the care he needs. We’re gonna miss him on the ice with how well he was playing for us and what he means to our group.”
Brad Marchand, McAvoy’s Bruins teammate but Canadian rival, is dejected for McAvoy and the Bruins.
“I had no intention of talking to Chuck or Pasta (David Pastrnak) or any of my (Bruins) teammates until this tournament was over, but obviously in a situation like that I did,” Marchand said. “Chucky’s one of my best friends and I care a lot about him. It’s very disappointing to hear that he’s going through this, but I’m very happy to hear he’s OK.”
Once the 4 Nations championship trophy is awarded on Thursday night, the veil will drop and they’ll be right back on the same side with the Bruins.
And once the 4 Nations tournament is put to bed, despite how large of a success this has been for the NHL, NHLPA and sport of hockey, there will need to be some specific protocols put in place to determine who controls everything from roster decisions to a player’s medical care in order to alleviate this kind of 48-hour chaos and wrestling matches in future best-on-best tournaments.
Is it country? Or it club?
(Photo: Johnnie Izquierdo / Getty Images)
