A busy day across the NHL has started with bad news in Vancouver. Vancouver Canucks superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes won’t travel with the team for their Thursday matchup against the San Jose Sharks, per Sportsnet’s Brendan Batchelor. This will be Hughes’ third straight absence due to a lower-body injury. This is just a one-game road trip for Vancouver. Hughes was red hot prior to injury, with 14 points over his last 10 games and over 25 minutes of average ice time. Hughes’ absence was preceded by Vancouver’s acquisition of veteran defenseman Marcus Pettersson and rookie Victor Mancini. The Canucks still triumphed without their Norris Trophy favorite on Tuesday, beating the Colorado Avalanche 3-0. Pettersson and Tyler Myers each carried extra minutes in Hughes’ absence.
Despite coming off a win and setting up to face a last-place Sharks team, the Canucks are still going to sorely miss Hughes. He has been a force this season, currently sitting with 59 points in 47 games – a mark that leads both the Canucks and all NHL defensemen. He’s once again a favorite for the Norris Trophy, which he won last year, and an emerging candidate for the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. Hughes has notably played through injury this year, including a hand injury at the turn of the year. He’s still tracking for a 100-point season despite that, and will be aiming to get quickly back to that pace once his lower-body injury subsides. Hughes is currently listed as out day-to-day.
Staying in Western Canada, the Edmonton Oilers will be without depth forward Lane Pederson for the remainder of the season after he underwent a successful shoulder surgery. Pederson managed an impressive 12 points in 18 AHL games before falling to injury. He’s been a hot scorer in the minors for a few years, netting 24 points in 18 games in 2022-23 and 52 points in 66 games last year. He was rewarded with 27 NHL games in 2022-23 – split between the Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets – but recorded a moot six points and 26 penalty minutes. Pederson will now focus on working his way back to full health in advance of next season’s training camps, where he’ll work to climb up an NHL call-up chart.
Jumping to the East coast, the Pittsburgh Penguins have assigned forward Jesse Puljujarvi to the minor leagues. The former top-10 pick has been a healthy scratch in three of Pittsburgh’s last four games. This will be his second stint in the minor leagues, after spending a brief, three-game trip with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in late January. Puljujarvi recorded three points and a minus-two in the appearances – far more production than he’s managed at the NHL level, where he only has nine points in 26 appearances. The routine trips to the minor leagues are the start of a poor pattern for Puljujarvi, who joined the Penguins partway through last season in an effort to maintain his NHL career. He’s struggled to do that up to this point, and will now be tasked with trying to find his groove once again with a productive stint in the minor leagues.