When the Vancouver Canucks traded Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, the reaction was immediate and emotional. Franchise defencemen don’t get traded quietly, and they don’t get replaced easily. To make some sense of what happened, Canucks fans focused on the obvious pieces coming back. The second-line centre they badly needed, the draft capital, the structural reset. That all made sense.
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But buried in the return was another name. One that didn’t move the needle right away. And according to Elliotte Friedman (as seen in the video below), that might be exactly the point.
Liam Ohgren wasn’t supposed to be the headline. He may end up being the story.
Why Ohgren Was Easy to Miss for Canucks Fans
Ohgren arrived with numbers that didn’t inspire much confidence. Zero goals in 19 NHL games before the trade will do that to a player. It’s the kind of stat line that gets players labelled quickly, fairly or not. In Minnesota, there wasn’t room for him to fail his way into something better. The lineup was set, the roles were defined, and his path was narrow.
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But during the interview, Friedman relayed something interesting — a conversation with someone who knows the player well. The reminder was simple: there’s a backstory to Ohgren, and that context matters.
Ohgren was a first-round pick (19th overall) for a reason. When he came over to North America from Sweden, he wasn’t eased in. He was a 20-year-old thrown into the American Hockey League (AHL) as an age-out, and all he did was nearly score at a point-per-game pace. Thirty-seven points in 41 games at that age isn’t normal. It’s hard. It tells you there’s something there.
Players don’t just forget how to score. Sometimes they stop getting chances. That’s what might have happened with Ohgren.
Why Vancouver Is a Different Environment for Ohgren
This is where the Canucks enter the picture. Vancouver isn’t offering Ohgren certainty, but they are offering opportunity. That matters. The roster is in transition. Roles are more fluid. Ice time isn’t locked behind long-established hierarchies. That doesn’t guarantee success, but it does guarantee exposure.
In Vancouver, Ohgren doesn’t have to be perfect right away. He has to show potential. That starts with a stretch of responsible minutes, a spark on a secondary line, and a willingness to play through mistakes rather than fear them. That’s often the difference between a stalled prospect and a useful NHL player.
The early returns, while small, suggest he’s settling in. While he’s not dominating, he’s not disappearing either. He’s giving the Canucks good minutes, and sometimes that’s the first real step.
The Upside for Ohgren Isn’t Flash — It’s Fit
Ohgren’s potential value isn’t about becoming a star. It’s about becoming a dependable winger who can play in the middle six, handle pace, contribute some offence, and not hurt the team defensively. Those players are expensive to buy and invaluable to grow.
If Vancouver can unlock even part of the player he was in the AHL, the Hughes trade suddenly looks deeper than it first appeared. That’s often how good trades age. For the Wild, Hughes is there for the present. For the Canucks, the future is the litmus test.
Why Ohgren Matters for the Canucks’ Long Term
Friedman’s point wasn’t that Ohgren will determine the success of the Hughes trade. But he could. Trades aren’t judged in a month. They’re judged in layers, over years, as one piece quietly becomes useful while everyone else watches the bigger names.
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Vancouver needs more players who grow into roles rather than arrive fully formed. That’s the reality of where the organization is right now. Ohgren fits that need almost uncomfortably well.
It’s too early to declare anything. But for the first time in a while, it feels like Liam Ohgren is being evaluated for what he might become — not for what he wasn’t allowed to be. Sometimes, that’s how real value finally shows up.