Irrational Tears for a Kid in Blue and Green: The Quinn Hughes Goodbye
Let me set the stage, it's a Friday evening, I'm working hard to close a $6000 deal with a lovely couple over the phone. I hang up the call, and that's when I see the alert. "Quinn Hughes Traded to the Wild" from the Athletic. While wrapping up the sale and the paperwork, my heart sank, hoping it was a poorly timed joke. Or maybe it was a Luke Hughes trade.
After completing the paperwork, I instantly turned on the radio to listen to SN650, obviously it wasn't a joke or the wrong Hughes named. It was at that point, while driving home, it sorta dawned on me that the night before was the last time us Canucks fans were blessed to watched the best player in 20+ years to put on the Blue and Green and I was mad that management/ownership put us in this situation and also sad that we never won anything with Quinn. This is where being irrational is frustrating, someone I've never met or had any real relationship made me sad enough to be fighting back some tears as I drove home.
Now, let's put this in perspective, in 459 games played over 8 years, not only did we see Hughes turn into a leader on this team, we saw him become arguably the BEST Defenseman and a top 5 player in the NHL. In those 8 years he only saw the playoffs 2 times. Once in the Covid Bubble playoffs and once a few years ago when it looked like this organization finally stumbled into a team that could win. 30 Games in the playoffs and 26 points, from a Defenseman is ridiculous. But injuries, internal squabbles, poor management decisions put us in this situation and whether you call us Irrational or Die-hard, we are pissed off at the handling of this. Don't get me wrong the return for Hughes was better than even the best guesses could have been, even if someone guessed almost to a tee what the deal would look like in May, that's a conversation for a different time.
Quinn Hughes did everything and anything for this team. The Canucks organization failed him. The ownership and management have to wear that. Quinn didn't fail the Canucks, the Canucks failed Quinn and the Irrational fans.
To Quinn (if you happen to find this): Speaking for myself and other irrational fans, we loved your passion, your abilities, you as a human and are proud to have you called you our Captain! We wish you luck in Minnesota, and you'll always have a fan in me. I hope your name will be inscribed on Lord Stanley's Cup sooner rather than later.