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Patrick Johnston: Thursday was the latest example of Quinn Hughes having national marketing appeal, as he was named to the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 25.
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Published Aug 23, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 4 minute read
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Quinn Hughes poses with the James Norris Memorial Trophy during the 2024 NHL Awards in Las Vegas in June. Photo by Derek Cain /Getty Images
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Two things spring to mind when you see Quinn Hughes on the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 25.
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First of all, there’s the fact he is wearing the Vancouver Canucks’ black-skate third jersey, which the team brought back into rotation a year and a half ago. The look was an immediate hit with fans and has proven popular with the players as well.
It’s also a big hit with the Canucks’ marketing team. It hasn’t been the franchise’s full-time look in 27 years, but the staying power of the brand is clear. And even though it doesn’t match the blue and green of the current — and classic — primary look, it’s clear that it has a powerful cachet.
It’s not going anywhere, that much is clear. Don’t be surprised if it’s worn even a little more for home games than it was last year.
The second, and probably more notable, thing that comes to mind is how Hughes landing on the cover of NHL 25 is yet another example of how the Canucks’ captain is consistently put forward in national NHL marketing campaigns, quite possibly more than any other player in Canucks history.
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Hughes is the sixth Canuck to show up on a cover of the legendary hockey game series, following Kirk McLean (NHL 95), Markus Naslund (NHL 2000 and the European cover of NHL 05), Daniel (NHL 11’s Swedish edition) and Henrik (ditto for the ’11 game and also for the Vancouver regional cover in 2013), and most recently Elias Pettersson (NHL 20’s Swedish cover).
All those players had some stature, as did Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden before them, but it can be argued that the Canucks have never had a marketable star like Hughes before.
Hughes won the Norris trophy in June as the NHL’s best defenceman for the 2023-24 season. Photo by Bruce Bennett /Getty Images
Earlier this year, for instance, Hughes was confirmed as a featured player in Amazon’s upcoming behind-the-scenes NHL series. And then, of course, he won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenceman.
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Such a national profile has been a rare thing for the Canucks’ stars. Yes, the Sedins and Roberto Luongo were well-known, but rarely there in the mix of national promotional campaigns. Same for Naslund, whose star did burn brightly for a year or two, but still just a short window.
ESPN commentator Ray Ferraro thinks the only comparable to Hughes as a national marketing presence was Bure. The Russian Rocket was a league-wide superstar, but he played in an era when the sport and its players, for better or worse, were not as brand-conscious as today.
“Times are different, but it could’ve been Bure. He had a wit to him that would’ve married well with his flashiness,” Ferraro told Postmedia on Thursday.
“I think Quinn is awesome. He’s smart, he gets what he has to provide from a media standpoint, and I think he’s just going to get more and more comfortable doing it. He’s sneaky funny — a star in every way.”
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Sports marketing expert Tom Mayenknecht concurs with the Bure comparison.
“His captaincy is an important building block for Quinn given the long-range responsibilities he carries as the team’s primary spokesperson. Talent and productivity are key marketing assets, but so is leadership,” said Mayenknecht, a principal of Emblematic Brand Builders. “What makes Quinn somewhat of a unicorn among all-time most marketable Canucks is that he is a high-profile American from a high-profile American hockey family playing in a Canadian market that happens to be the second biggest English language market in the country.
“That American-Canadian storytelling extends his reach and relevance significantly. He’s not unlike Auston Matthews in that regard,” he added.
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At the very least, Hughes is on par with the Canucks’ most marketable players of the past — and given his presence, his age and all the other factors listed above, if he hasn’t already become the most marketable player in team history, he certainly will be that guy in the near future.
“He’s already right up there with Bure, Luongo, the Sedins and Linden. And his upside is clearly such that he could very well lock in that all-time most marketable status with another year or two of Quinn being Quinn,” Mayenknecht concluded.
pjohnston@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/is-quinn-hughes-the-most-marketable-canuck-in-team-history