Hughes, who skated with the top power-play unit Sunday, leads Vancouver and is third among NHL defensemen with 42 points (eight goals, 34 assists) in 34 games. He was labeled as questionable going into the game Dec. 23. He played 24:45 and had two assists in a 4-3 win, but the Canucks have gone 1-2-1 in the four games he has missed.

The Vancouver Canucks are currently missing their top two defencemen, Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. Since the beginning of the season, the Canucks defensive depth has been a concern with a lack of true top four defencemen and puck movers on the backend.

The Vancouver Canucks have found themselves the topic of a great deal of midseason trade speculation and much to the dismay of their fan base, that trade speculation surrounds two of the team’s top forwards in JT Miller and Elias Pettersson.