There was big news coming out of the Four Nations Faceoff. First, the Boston Bruins announced that defenseman Charlie McAvoy would be out of the tournament due to an upper-body injury related to the injury he sustained earlier in the tournament.
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As head coach Mike Sullivan stated during his press conference, no one can assume whether that was during the Canada game on Saturday.
Mike Sullivan says Quinn Hughes is coming to Boston #4nations #canucks
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) February 18, 2025
Then Sullivan casually announced that Quinn Hughes would come to Boston to meet with Team USA and replace McAvoy on the roster.
“Quinn Hughes is coming,” Sullivan said when if someone was coming to replace Charlie McAvoy or if that person was already here.
Remember, Quinn Hughes was originally selected as part of the original roster, and the first six were presented in Vegas during the 2024 NHL Draft. However, due to injury was replaced on the roster by Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators. Now the question becomes whether Hughes will play on Thursday. As of now, Sullivan will be taking things day by day.
“Well, right now, we’re just taking each day as it comes,” Sullivan added. “We’re gonna take it one day at a time. We’ll see what potential options might be available for us for the championship game, and then we’ll make decisions accordingly.”
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Well, the question becomes, is Hughes eligible to play in the game on Thursday? As we saw with Canada over the weekend in Montreal, they had to drop below 18 skaters before Thomas Harley could even participate in a game. He couldn’t even do a morning skate on Saturday before the first game against Team USA because Cale Makar, who was sick, participated. Makar ended up not playing, but Harley was just called up for emergency purposes because of Makar’s illness and injury to Shea Theodore.
The Americans have six healthy defensemen. However, according to Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, the same rules apply to Team USA as they did for Canada. Unless there is another injury or a player can’t go, Quinn Hughes will not be eligible, at least for now. That could change by Thursday.
Mike Sullivan said they are taking things day to day when it comes to Quinn Hughes and eligibility to play. #4nations https://t.co/mvPc6RjBQb
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) February 18, 2025
Charlie McAvoy was not the only injury-facing Team USA. In the loss to Sweden, Auston Matthews was out with an upper-body injury (illness), while Matthew Tkachuk missed the game with a lower-body injury. Brady Tkachuk left the game against Sweden with a lower-body injury. The expectation is both Tkachuk boys will play, and he anticipates that Matthews will be available for the championship game.
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We saw that once Makar was healthy enough, Harley had to exit the lineup and could not stay in as he was an emergency replacement, but he played so well even during the loss. However, being it is the Championship game, and Hughes was part of the Original Six, you have to think he is going to play. If the NHL wants the best on the best, why not have the two best defensemen in the NHL right now battle it out?
It would be a shame if, for the second time, neither team was 100 percent healthy for such a big rivalry game. The Quinn Hughes situation with Team USA will be something to watch moving forward. Team USA and Team Canada return on Wednesday for their final practice before the game on Thursday.
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