The Vancouver Canucks just finished up a frustrating 2024-2025 season that brought a lot of change, and although defenseman Quinn Hughes is still under contract for two more seasons, there is some uncertainty when it comes to whether or not he will remain with the organization for the rest of his career. Canucks president Jim Rutherford addressed the situation, while also bringing up how Hughes' brothers and current New Jersey Devils players, Jack and Luke, play into the situation.

“All down to money with him,” Jim Rutherford said, via Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. “You know, he said before, he wants to play with his brothers, and that would be partly out of our control, in our control if we brought his brothers here. So there's many moving parts here. Agree 100 percent, this franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes and we will do everything we can to keep him here, but at the end of the day, it'll be his decision.”

Rutherford was very truthful with this situation, but the problem is that he might have been too truthful and brought potential tampering into play. He seemed to realize that right after the fact.

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“Well, we gotta be careful with tampering here, so we'll just leave it at that,” Rutherford said.

Hughes is under contract for $7.85 million a year through the 2026-2027 season, and then he is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. In comparison, Jack Hughes is under contract with the Devils through the 2029-2030 season, so it would take some kind of a trade for him to join the Canucks with his brother, whereas if Quinn wants to play with Jack, he potentially could wait to sign with the Devils in a few years. Luke is a restricted free agent this summer, and the Devils have control in that situation as well.

It will be interesting to see if the Canucks are able to retain Hughes for the long haul. In the meantime, the Canucks need a long-term answer at head coach.