Canucks: Bruce Boudreau makes wild declare he was urged to strive Quinn Hughes at centre

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Bruce Boudreau was all the time vibrant, not to mention quotable, throughout his year-plus as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

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He gained loads of followers due to his huge persona, even when in the end his workforce struggled to carry out and he misplaced his job due to it.

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Since he was fired by Canucks administration a 12 months in the past and changed by Rick Tocchet, there’s been loads of emphasis by president Jim Rutherford and basic supervisor Patrik Allvin about how the group is now totally “aligned.”

The implication was that Boudreau wasn’t aligned with the remainder of the group.

Friday night time Boudreau dropped an enormous bomb throughout an look on the NHL Community, one which acknowledged he wasn’t aligned with no less than one different individual within the Canucks group — however in a means nobody would have anticipated.

“Any person in that Vancouver group tried to make me make Quinn Hughes a centre final 12 months,” Boudreau declared, in dialog with Jackie Redmond and Kevin Weekes.

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Boudreau mentioned he refused to take action.

“I simply couldn’t do it,” he mentioned.

He pointed to the season Hughes is now having — with a number of chatter that the Canucks’ captain may win the Norris Trophy because the NHL’s greatest defenceman — as proof of why he didn’t see shifting Hughes up entrance was any means ahead.

“Boy, it’s fairly a distinction from him enjoying centre,” Boudreau quipped.

Boudreau mentioned he wouldn’t reveal who the individual was, however his former assistant video coach Rachel Doerrie weighed in on Twitter to substantiate Boudreau’s account, including it wasn’t chairman Francesco Aquilini who made the suggestion.

“Hahahaha yup! And it wasn’t the proprietor,” she commented.

After all, like Boudreau, Doerrie was dismissed from her place early final season and has pursued a authorized case towards the workforce so she’s not a impartial observer.

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It’s additionally not clear in what context this concept was floated — a participant like Hughes, who’s a quick skater with nice puck abilities, is smart at ahead. Was this only a subject that got here up in dialogue? His brother Jack, as an example, is an identical participant and he performs ahead.

And the Canucks captain performed ahead till he was 13 and his expertise enjoying up entrance has clearly knowledgeable his abilities as a blueliner.

On condition that Rutherford has spoken typically of encouraging his workers to drift and talk about concepts about the right way to greatest run the workforce, you’ll be able to think about a dialogue arising about Hughes’ abilities.

In historic phrases, suggesting such a positional shift echoes what the Canucks did within the early Seventies with Dale Tallon, their first-round choose. Drafted as a defenceman, Tallon puck abilities had been adequate that he could possibly be a centre as a substitute and the gifted teenager did play up entrance quite a lot of instances.

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Nevertheless it wasn’t one thing he was ever comfy with and he by no means performed centre once more after he traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1973.

Reached by cellphone, Rutherford declined to reply on his former worker’s feedback.

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