I hope Quinn Hughes doesn’t cause a rift in the room by unintentionally thumbing his nose at Elias Lindholm.
The Vancouver Canucks finally won the draft lottery.
In a sense.
The NHL has reinstated the player draft for this year’s All-Star Game, naming Canucks captain Quinn Hughes captain of one of the four All-Star teams. Joining him as co-captains were his younger brother Jack Hughes, who will not play in the game due to injury, crooner and Canucks fan Michael Bublé, and Elias Pettersson as alternate captain.
When draft time came around, Team Hughes won the lottery and Wayne Gretzky showed a picture of Michael Bublé to show who would be the No. 1 overall pick. It was the first of many awkward moments in the draft.
Hughes disrespects Canucks teammates with No. 1 pick
Given the opportunity to make an all-Canucks team with the first pick, Hughes and his compatriots instead took an all-general manager approach in the draft and selected the best player available, the NHL’s leading scorer. , selected Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Hughes took Thatcher Demko with the second pick, then threw a curveball to the Winnipeg Jets’ Kyle Connor, who joined the All-Star Game late in place of the injured Jack Eichel, before starting to hang out with the Canucks. It looked like.
Team Hughes avoided the Canucks even with the No. 4 and No. 5 picks.
“Do you think Brock will be mad?” one of the four co-conspirators, likely Quinn, asked on a hot mic while discussing the fourth pick. “He’ll be fine,” said one of the others, probably Jack.
In the end, Hughes went with his longtime friend Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators and selected New Jersey Devils teammate Jesper Blatt with the fifth pick, courtesy of his younger brother.
“Then you can try to trade Milsey.”
In an unexpected turn of events, Hughes made side deals with fellow team captains Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid to ensure he acquired all of his Canucks teammates. There were also suggestions that this might be the case.
It was hinted at by Matthews at one point and was seemingly confirmed by Hughes before choosing Blatt.
“We’re going to get the Canucks five no matter what,” Hughes said, “and then we can try to trade Milsey.”
“Hot Mike,” Pettersson warned with a laugh.
Therefore, the plan appears to have been to take two of the Canucks’ remaining three players and a must-have goaltender with the final three picks, leaving JT Miller for last. The final four players will be randomly assigned to the four teams rather than being selected, so the Canucks could hope to acquire Miller by chance or trade the player they acquire for Miller.
“I told Quinn that she should take Lindy before me.”
Things went pretty much as planned. Sure, they missed the sixth pick they should have taken on a goaltender, but instead announced Brock Boeser, forcing Boeser to skate back to his seat while looking back over his shoulder. lost.
Team Hughes instead took Los Angeles Kings goaltender Cam Talbot with the sixth pick, and then, after a commercial break, took Boeser with the seventh pick.
“Nothing that happens tonight is going to cost us the Stanley Cup,” Buble quipped before picking Boeser, hoping the Canucks’ decision to wait to pick doesn’t cause a rift in the locker room. It looked like.
That’s when Tate McRae, famed co-captain of Team McKinnon, took a big hit on the job by drafting a player from his favorite team, the Calgary Flames. Or rather, Elias Lindholm, a player who was with the Flames until Wednesday.
This is a possibility that Coach Boeser wanted to avoid.
“Hopefully Quinn will write a draft for me.” [Lindholm] So we’re on the same team right away,” Boeser said on the All-Star red carpet before the draft. “I told Quinn that she should take Lindy before me.”
“I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”
This allowed Team Hughes to take Lindholm off the board and allow Team Hughes to select Miller without hoping for a chance chance.
“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting so long,” Hughes said as he hugged Miller.
As a result, the last player left to chance was Frank Vatrano of the Anaheim Ducks.
Unfortunately, the Canucks weren’t able to acquire Lindholm in a trade from Team McKinnon, which obviously means Quinn Hughes isn’t as good a general manager as Patrick Alvin.
The NHL’s choice to put microphones on all captains, co-captains, and alternate captains led to some confusion as there was a lot of crosstalk throughout, but beyond Hughes unintentionally revealing his draft… , a strategy that also resulted in some unintentionally hilarious moments.
The best moment was arguably when the Edmonton Oilers selected Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with the first pick, and Draisaitl said, “We need goaltending.” ” he declared loudly.
I mean, Stuart Skinner was just named the NHL’s second star in January, but the Oilers probably still need goaltending.
Bublé jokes that the All-Star draft felt like eating mushrooms
But the goofiest moment came when Michael Buble took to the podium for a press conference after the All-Star Draft.
“My friend said this was just a trace amount of mushroom ingestion, but he was lying,” Bublé said. “So, to be honest, I kind of expected that to be the case.” blade of glory Most of the time, I was there until it kind of settled down, and then I realized, ‘Oh my god, I’m in the NHL All-Star Game.’ ”
Bublé later clarified that he was joking about professional sports commentator Steve Dangle.
Team Hughes’ final roster is as follows:
- quinn hughes
- Elias Pettersson
- Nikita Kucherov
- thatcher demko
- Kyle Connor
- brady tkachuk
- jesper bratt
- cam talbot
- Brock Boeser
- JT Miller
- frank vatrano