Defenseman Quinn Hughes will not travel to Boston to join the United States team as an injury replacement option for its 4 Nations Face-Off championship game against Canada, his agent confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
Sources told ESPN that the Americans will have Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson and New Jersey Devils defenseman Brett Pesce as injury insurance for Thursday night’s 4 Nations final.
Hughes, 25, was expected to join the Americans for the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game after defenseman Charlie McAvoy was lost for the tournament. McAvoy was hospitalized Monday with an infection in his right shoulder and a significant injury to his AC joint.
Hughes initially made Team USA’s roster but had to back out because of an oblique injury. He still hasn’t been officially cleared by the Vancouver Canucks to return to play, having been out of action since Jan. 31. He wore a red noncontact jersey in Canucks practice Tuesday before being cleared for contact for Wednesday’s practice.
Sources told ESPN that Hughes recently flew across the country back to Vancouver from the East Coast. To fly to Boston, and then to Las Vegas for the Canucks’ next game Saturday, would have been a taxing travel week for him.
Tournament rules state that if a team loses two players at forward or on defense to injury or illness, it can bring on a non-roster player as an emergency injury replacement. Team Canada, for example, called up Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley after it lost Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore to injury and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar was unable to play against the U.S.
“The rules are the rules. I can’t play unless anyone else gets injured, and I obviously don’t want to see anyone get injured,” Hughes said Tuesday. “If they had to do it over again, I think they’d allow teams to bring a couple extra players.”
The Hughes decision ends two days of intense speculation that one of the NHL’s best players could make a surprise comeback in the championship game. He won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman last season. He has 14 goals and 59 points to lead the Canucks and is averaging more than 25:18 in ice time this season.
On Tuesday, U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said “Quinn Hughes is coming” when asked about the Americans bringing in a defenseman from outside of their roster. After Wednesday’s morning skate, Sullivan acknowledged that Hughes was not yet on his way from Vancouver and said Team USA GM Bill Guerin and his assistants were continuing to work to bring him to the 4 Nations final.
U.S. players anticipated the possibility that Hughes could join them in Boston, if not appear in the game.
“I know he’s been watching every game,” said his brother Jack Hughes of the Devils, who plays in Team USA’s top line. “I know he is definitely frustrated. He wishes he could be a part of this, and a lot of great players that were injured and couldn’t play a couple of them, so he’s one of them and we’re missing him big-time. But I know he was really looking forward to this and coming down the road here at the Olympics and World Cup of Hockey coming up, I know he’ll be really excited for those events.”
Jack Hughes said the drama surrounding his brother’s Team USA status has been “just a tough situation for everyone” involved.
Quinn Hughes said the initial decision not to play was “extremely hard” for him.
“I gotta thank Bill Guerin for how patient he was with me, not only 10 days ago but even last night and the last 24 hours. He understood how much I wanted to play and also what my obligations were to the Canucks. Really what it came down to, I just wasn’t healthy enough where I wasn’t sure it couldn’t get worse,” he said. “If there’s a positive, I should be healthy enough to go next game against Vegas.”
Team USA will face Canada for the 4 Nations championship Thursday night at TD Garden. It’s a rematch of their emotional battle in Montreal on Saturday night that featured three fights in the opening nine seconds of the game and that the Americans won 3-1.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan contributed to this report.
