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Canucks: Shaking out the early returns from the Quinn Hughes trade

Almost a year after the Quinn Hughes trade, how are Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren, Marco Rossi and Adam Novotny doing as Canucks?

Published Oct 23, 2026  •  Last updated 8 hours ago  •  4 minute read

Liam Ohgren handles the puck against Dylan Cozens of the Ottawa Senators during a game in January. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis /Getty Images

Quinn Hughes’ return to Vancouver this weekend means we should take a look at the early returns from the trade, piece by piece.

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The trade on Dec. 12, 2025 sent Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for Liam Ohgren, Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium and a 2026 first-round draft pick.

It was quite the haul for the best defenceman in Canucks team history, but inevitably it’s said you lose trades like this — you’re always giving up the best player in the deal.

Now, it’s very possible that Hughes doesn’t stick around in Minnesota either — he’s an unrestricted free agent next summer and many believe he will look to sign with the New Jersey Devils, where his brothers Jack and Luke both play.

One of the reasons then-Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford ended up trading Hughes away was because he had concluded Hughes was almost certainly not re-signing in Vancouver once his current contract expired in the summer of 2027. Trading him with 1.5 seasons still left to run would maximize his trade value.

Has this calculation worked out for the Canucks? Well, they are in a full-on rebuild, and admittedly have their eyes on the future and securing at least one more chance to pick high in the draft next summer.

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As it stands, the returns are mixed: Liam Ohgren and Zeev Buium are struggling, Marco Rossi has been fine when he’s in the lineup, and Adam Novotny, selected with the 24th overall pick, is having an electric start to the OHL season with the Peterborough Petes.

The speedy winger with size has shown glimpses of what makes him such an exciting prospect, but him being a healthy scratch on Thursday tells us the bigger story: he’s still struggling with consistency.

The Wild under coach John Hynes have tended to not hand young players much opportunity, and Ohgren struggled to find consistent ice time in Minnesota before he was traded. In Vancouver, the ice time has been consistent, generally of the second line variety, but Ohgren isn’t shooting enough and he’s not scoring much..

His shot is as hard as it gets on the team, so you’d like to see him shoot more. And he is an exciting skater, so you’d like to see him rush the puck more. As it stands, he remains more promise than reality.

Rossi has been smooth and he’s been smart. He has been the third-line centre he should be, at minimum. You’d like him to find a way to drive play a little more and become a truly consistent second-line centre. Somehow, he has been pretty decent defensively on a team that is otherwise been a disaster so far. But like the rest of his team, he is not generating enough on offence.

And that is what the Canucks need him to be: an effective two-way player. That said, he is already 25, so this is the player he’s going to be. Rossi is not likely to be on this team when the new young group is ready to truly contend in four or five years’ time. In the interim, he needs to be an effective player and leader who shows up every day improving on the one before.

The biggest question is Buium. His contract after 11 games looks like a disaster — but he’s got a long runway here still. The good news is his games lately haven’t been as appalling as his first handful, but the Canucks need him to be one of the best three defencemen on the team — and not by default, because of his performance.

The truth is Buium is almost certainly not going to become a No. 1 defenceman. That guy, the Canucks surely dream, would be Landon DuPont, the odds-on No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.

But that doesn’t mean Buium is off the hook. In the long run, Filip Hronek won’t be here, and Buium and Tom Willander need to be the next guys in line. That means both have to get better at commanding possession and turning pucks back up the ice when they shut down the other team’s attacks.

Buium was well-rated in his college season before turning pro, and in his first season in Vancouver he showed glimpses of poise. That poise needs to become his defining feature.

Finally, there’s the ultimate prospect. Novotny thrilled in training came with skating and goal-scoring instincts. There is talk he could be the OHL’s MVP this season.

And that’s great. That is what you want from a player in his first season post-draft.

The real test will come next year, when he turns pro. Ideally, he starts in the AHL, dominates there, then is ready to go when the NHL call comes.

If he develops quickly, he will be the kind of player who pushes the team out of a rebuild — a guy who answers the question, “Who is going to be the team’s top-scoring winger for years to come?” and lets the team start searching for answers to other questions.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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