The 4 Nations Face-Off final is set for Thursday night in Boston between USA and Canada, and while the anticipation for the rematch is off the charts, there continues to be one storyline that has captivated the hockey world. Will Quinn Hughes suit up for Team USA?
After USA head coach Mike Sullivan sent the hockey world into a frenzy on Tuesday stating ‘Hughes is coming’ for the final, it turns out there’s a lot more to work out before that’s a legit possibility. For now, Hughes remains in Vancouver and is practicing with his Canucks‘ teammates, and working his way back from a lower-body injury.
On Wednesday’s Daily Faceoff LIVE episode, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli dove into the very latest on the Hughes situation, and shed some light on what exactly the game plan is at this time for the Americans.
Yaremchuk: Let’s kick things off with going through the news around this tournament, as we got through yesterday and into today, some interesting developments on the Quinn Hughes front. Because everyone was saying – ‘he’s on route to Boston’. Then he’s on the ice at Canucks’ practice?
Seravalli: So, this is an incredibly fluid situation. Even this morning, Bill Guerin, Team USA general manager was saying that they are still ‘working through it’, to try and find a way to get Quinn Hughes to Boston to have him be available as the best option.
Will it happen? I don’t know. I mean, the rules are the rules, and that’s what they were at the beginning of the tournament, and then they weren’t. And then, now they’re back to being the rules again. So, here’s the bottom line. I don’t think Quinn Hughes is getting on a plane to come here unless he’s guaranteed to play. Or, has a really good chance to play.
And right now, we don’t know what the answer is to that, yet. The reason why I say it like that is because this is fluid because the U.S is also still dealing with other forward injuries. So, you asked the question in yesterday’s show, and I went to find the answer. Which is – ‘what happens if the U.S has forwards who are injured?’. It’s trending right now. Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews both on the ice for practice this morning, Brady Tkachuk was not.
What happens if the U.S somehow is down to 11 forwards, could they bring in Quinn Hughes and dress him as the seventh defenseman? In other words, is this rule positioned agnostic? It was written positioned agnostic. So, I asked yesterday – what’s the ruling? And, the answer I got back from the NHL and NHLPA was that ‘we haven’t made a ruling yet’.
For complete 4 Nations Face-Off coverage with the USA-Canada showdown set for Thursday night, watch the full episode previewing the highly anticipated rematch below.
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