VANCOUVER — A lot can change for a hockey player in one summer.

Conor Garland’s baby son, Quint, said his first word. And it wasn’t mama or dada or Huggy — after Quint’s godfather and Garland’s Vancouver Canucks teammate, Quinn Hughes.

“It’s our dog’s name,” Garland said Wednesday, smiling after skating with most of his teammates at the University of British Columbia. “He said his first word, crawling on all fours: Bubba. He walked by him one morning and Quint just pointed and said, ‘Bubba.’ That was the best. He said mama once, dada once, but Bubba’s his favourite word. He says it 100 times a day. It was the best summer.”

Bubba-the-Maltipoo probably had a good summer, too, at the Garland home near Boston. But it couldn’t have been as good as Conor’s.

After helping Team USA in May win

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