Top defenseman Quinn Hughes and No.1 center Elias Pettersson are doubtful to play for the Canucks on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken (4 p.m. ET; SNP, KONG, KING 5, KHN), according to coach Rick Tocchet.
Neither player took part in practice on Friday.
"[Hughes] was getting evaluated today, and [Pettersson] has got something later today, so they're pretty well doubtful for tomorrow," Tocchet said. "I don't know if its day to day or weekly. That's why they are going to go see their people."
Hughes, who won the Norris Trophy as the League's top defenseman last season, leads Vancouver in scoring and is second among NHL defensemen with 42 points (eight goals, 34 assists) in 34 games this season. He was listed as questionable going into Vancouver's most recent game on Dec. 23 against the San Jose Sharks with an undisclosed injury but played 24:45 and finished with two assists in a 4-2 win over San Jose.
Pettersson scored twice late in the second period against the Sharks, ending a six-game pointless slide, but only played one shift in the third. Tocchet said after the game he was "banged up" but didn't "think it's too bad."
Pettersson is second on the Canucks with 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 34 games.
"It's hold the fort, next man mentality, that's the way we have to think," Tocchet said Friday. "Right now more than ever, and I know we've talked about it, it's our staples. We have to play as a team, and we need five percent more from everybody. That's really what it comes down to."
The game against San Jose was Hughes 399th in the NHL, and he finished it with 51 goals and 324 career assists, the third most assists in NHL history before 400 games for a defenseman behind only Bobby Orr (358) and Paul Coffey (326). Defenseman Erik Brannstrom, a healthy scratch the previous three games, comes into the lineup for Hughes but Tocchet doesn't want him to do too much.
"You're not going to replace Quinn Hughes and I don't need him trying to do things that press the envelope," Tocchet said. "He's just got to play a simple game to be honest. Go back for a puck, if you see the guy, give it to him, if there's a chance to join the rest, join it, walking the blue line, a guy like him, I want him to shoot the puck, he doesn't have to try to create too much on the blue line."
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