Jim Rutherford Under Fire For Disastrous Press Conference While Addressing Quinn Hughes' Future In Vancouver

Quinn Hughes is currently under contract with the Vancouver Canucks until the end of the 2026-27 season.

While Hughes' immediate future ties him to Vancouver for two more seasons the media decided to get a jump on asking the front office about a potential contract extension.

With all of the turmoil the Canucks experienced with star players from J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson to Brock Boeser fans a rightfully concerned that the captain's future will cause problems as well.

Unfortunately President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford when addressing Hughes' future in Vancouver did an incredibly poor job of reassuring fans and might have even broken a tampering rule set by the NHL.

When asked about Hughes' future Rutherford essentially passed off responsibiity for the eventual outcome revealing that the situation is almost entirely out of the team's control.

According to Rutherford, Hughes has expressed desire to play with his brothers which means either Quinn goes to New Jersey or the Canucks find a way to acquire Luke and Jack.

This was not only a disastrous answer as it set off major concern that Quinn Hughes would not be willing to re-sign with Vancouver after his contract is up, but some fans also believe Rutherford could be accused of tampering for talking about acquiring Luke and Jack.

Whether the Canucks end up being accused of tampering by the league or not this is a terrible and embarrassing look for the organization and Jim Rutherford.

As the offseason begins, it will be intriguing to see how the organization tries to damage control this situation going forward.