Preds' Schenn, Canucks' Hughes remain connected, even on opposing blue lines

NASHVILLE — Until the Nashville Predators began targeting Quinn Hughes like bulls target matadors, the only time the defenceman was on the floor in Music City was at Luke Schenn’s house last October.

With the Vancouver Canucks in town early for their game against the Predators, the ex-Canuck Schenn invited Hughes and Tyler Myers over for dinner. As the “kid” of the group, Hughes played mini-sticks hockey in the evening with Schenn’s young sons, Kingston and Weston.

“They both cried when they had to go to bed,” Hughes, 24, said Saturday, smiling at the recollection. “They wanted to keep playing. That's the cool thing for a young guy like me; I get to see what it's like having young kids growing up watching their father play.”

Hughes grew up watching Schenn.

Battered but unbowed, Hughes played nearly seven of the final 10 minutes here Sunday as the Canucks scored twice with their net empty before beating the Predators 4-3 in overtime to take a 3-1 lead in games in the first-round NHL playoff series.

Both Hughes and Schenn were on the ice for Elias Lindholm’s deciding goal.

In the fall of 2008, Schenn — now the Predators’ senior defenceman at age 34 — was an 18-year-old rookie with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their player development coach was Jim Hughes, whose eldest sons, Quinn and Jack, were rink rats and got to know many of the Toronto players.

Eleven years later, while saving his career with the Canucks, Schenn ushered Quinn into the NHL as his first blue-line partner.

That was the night — March 28, 2019 — that Hughes, then 19, Elias Pettersson, 20, and Brock Boeser, 22, got on to the ice together in overtime and dazzled in what became a 3-2 shootout win against the Los Angeles Kings.

Hughes hasn’t stopped dazzling since.

In his first real Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Canuck captain has been one of Vancouver’s best players. Despite being shaken up Sunday when double-hit by Jason Zucker and Colton Sissons in the first period, Hughes still logged 11:06 of ice time in the third and made a brilliant move to get the puck past Gustav Nyquist on a keep-in that made possible Boeser’s buzzer-beating tying goal.

Game 5 is Tuesday in Vancouver. Neither team has practices on Monday.

Almost six years since the Anaheim Ducks dumped Schenn, then two weeks past his 29^th birthday, into the minors and former coach Randy Carlyle suggested he consider another line of work, the brawny defenceman from Saskatoon continues to provide experience and leadership in a depth role for Nashville. He had four hits and three blocks in 17:50 of playing time in Game 4.

As Schenn has rebuilt his career after the Canuck organization rescued him from the Ducks, and minor-league general manager Ryan Johnson lobbied for an opportunity for the defenceman back in the NHL with Vancouver, he and Hughes have built a close friendship.

They speak regularly but not, Quinn emphasized, during this series. What began as a kind of mentorship has turned into something more.

“He's like a little brother almost,” Schenn said during an off-day in the series. “You always check in. Obviously, I've known Jimmy Hughes since I was in Toronto. Even when I play New Jersey, I'll text Jimmy and say, ‘Lukey and Jack looked good tonight’ or whatever.”

Jack and Luke Hughes, following older brother Quinn to NHL stardom, play for the New Jersey Devils.

Schenn had wanted to finish his career in Vancouver, a four-hour drive from his off-season home in Kelowna, and returned to the Canucks as a free agent in 2021, signing a bargain, two-year contract with former general manager Jim Benning.

Grateful that the organization had provided him the platform to earn a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, with whom Schenn won Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, he took the Canucks’ two-year offer but hoped to stay longer.

But with the team in chaos, Benning was fired four months after signing Schenn. With the Canucks on their way last season to missing the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years and Schenn nearing the end of his contract, new GM Patrik Allvin traded him at the deadline to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a third-round draft pick.

Hughes, among other Canuck players, was crushed. He had partnered Schenn for most of those two seasons in Vancouver.

“My first year (in the NHL) went great, the second year I struggled,” Hughes said. “And then Luke came in for my third and fourth year and I played some really good hockey. He brought a calmness. I think he was able to make the ice a little bit smaller. He was physical. If you hit me, you were going to have to deal with Schenner. We worked well together, we broke out pucks nicely, he created a lot of space for me. From an on-ice perspective, it was bringing stability where I didn't have it before.

“Then in a leadership and friendship role, I learned a lot because he has been through a lot of things.”

Coincidentally, it was in Nashville ahead of the February, 2023 trade deadline that Schenn was told during the Canucks’ pre-game meal that he would be held out of the lineup and traded. He and Allvin agreed that he could await the trade in Vancouver, where Schenn’s wife, Jeska, was expecting the couple’s third child.

But snowstorms in the East prevented Schenn from getting out of Nashville that night. Not wanting to disrupt teammates, Schenn texted Kaylee McDonagh, the wife of Predators defenceman Ryan, who had becosme one of Luke’s best friends in Tampa.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you come over and watch the game here?’ ” Schenn said. “I went over and watched the game and then Ryan came home and said: ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I spent the night there. And now here we are in Nashville.”

Yes, here he is in Nashville, not Toronto.

Despite Schenn’s excellent playoff last spring that saw him partnering top defenceman Morgan Rielly the way he had partnered Hughes, the Maple Leafs chose not to re-sign him. Like, why would you want a guy with backbone and character to help you win in the playoffs if you can lose meekly year after year with your regular-season lightweights?

Predators general manager Barry Trotz leapt at the chance to add Schenn as a free agent, signing him July 1 to a three-year, $8.25-million-US contract that will expire when the defenceman is 36 years old. Schenn is four regular-season games shy of 1,000 in the NHL — a milestone target that would have looked like Jupiter five years ago.

“It's no secret that I loved my two years in Vancouver and loved the city and the organization was great to me,” Schenn said. “My second chance and opportunity in the NHL was because of the Canucks … so I appreciated that organization and the opportunity they gave me. But I couldn't be more happy to be in Nashville and be a part of this.”

He has enjoyed watching the ascension of Quinn Hughes from up close and afar.

“I'm not really surprised,” Schenn said. “I played with him right when he started in the league and kind of could see how good he was. And then he's just added layers to his game. You could sense how he could run a power play and create offence, walk the blue line and stuff like that, and skate the puck out of trouble. He's just getting better and better. I'd like to say I'm surprised, but I'm not really.”