In the aftermath of the brawl between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks a Canucks analyst believes the team made a mistake allowing Nikita Zadorov to leave. Earlier today NHL insider <a href='https://www.hockeylatest.com/nhl-team/vancouver-canucks/elliotte-friedman-slams-canucks-for-failing-to-protect-quinn-hughes-from-on-ice-injuries' class='lien_marqueur' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Elliotte Friedman slammed the Canucks for allowing captain Quinn Hughes to be bullied on the ice.</a> Friedman pointed to the fact that the Vancouver Canucks lack any players within their lineup to protect stars like Hughes from being beaten up and it has led Hughes to be the target of a lot of physicality from several teams. Today Canucks reporters Rick Dhaliwal and Don Taylor spoke about the game and the sequence that many have highlighted with Hughes being taken advantage of. In the second period Oilers forward Corey Perry body-slammed Quinn Hughes during a brawl. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/dstaples/status/1882644903202623969'> </a></blockquote></div> After this occurred the Canucks tried to get back at Perry at different moments in the game but he did not take the bait when challenged to several fights. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1882850730173935747'> </a></blockquote></div> The lack of response in the moment from the Canucks during the scrum has frustrated fans and media and now Dhaliwal and Taylor have concluded that one former Canuck was the missing link to a proper response. <h3>Canucks analysts believe Nikita Zadorov is the missing link to protect Quinn Hughes</h3> During their most recent episode of Donnie & Dhali, Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal discussed the frustrating incident for the Vancouver Canucks and broke down what has gone wrong in protecting Quinn Hughes and other stars. I am surprised Perry didn't fight Blueger. Look Donnie the Canucks cannot have Hughes taking this kind of punishment every night. They have to find a deterrent. While talking about not having someone to offset these teams' attempts to bully their players, the duo did point out that Elias Pettersson did try to step in and help stand up for Hughes, but of course, that should not be Pettersson's role. It can't be Pettersson he cannot be the one having to be involved in those situations. Dhaliwal also confirmed that the Canucks did have the solution for these issues on the team last season in defenseman Nikita Zadorov and the Canucks allowing him to leave without a replacement for that role is a mistake. If Zadorov is in the Vancouver lineup last night, I don't care what anyone says, Perry is not doing that to Hughes Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal's full comments can be seen below where they go into detail about the situation and how they believe Zadorov would have been a major help in handling Perry and the Oilers aggression. <div align='center' class='pl20 pr20'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/donnieanddhali/status/1882882313199223171'> </a></blockquote></div> Now beyond the chaos within the Canucks locker room they have a problem on the ice surrounding their stars being taken advantage of and punished in ways that other NHL teams would not allow to happen. The future of the Vancouver Canucks at the moment remains in limbo as the front office tries to determine what to do with the roster. One thing is now clear the Canucks need to find a physical presence to add to the lineup that will stop incidents like this from occurring if they don't then the Canucks run the risk of one of their major stars suffering a major injury as a result.