Luke Hughes

Last Season

Six goals and 29 assists in 68 games — 35 points, minus-four, at 23:01 a night. Fourteen games missed.

The Finesse Game

The skating is exceptional and it runs in the family — long, effortless, and quick enough to make a mistake recoverable. He leaves the defensive zone with the puck as a matter of routine and joins the attack as a fourth man.

Twenty-nine assists from a 22-year-old defenceman is a very good rate. The shot is a means rather than an end: 212 unblocked attempts from a median of 46 feet, six goals.

The Physical Game

Six foot two and 198, and light. Thirty-two penalty minutes. He is not clearing his crease and he loses net-front battles to heavy wingers, which is the ordinary cost at his age and build.

The Intangibles

Fifty point six per cent of the expected goals, 59th percentile, and 53.7 per cent of the shot attempts, 85th, across 1,326 minutes — and the goals 39-54 against.

Another fifteen-goal hole. This club’s entire defence has one.

He is 22, the fourth pick in 2021, 128 points into 223 games, and playing top-pair minutes on a team with real ambitions. No points in his last ten, which at this age and this workload is not worth reading anything into.