Luke Hughes game breakdown No. 3

I dove deeper into his January 3rd performance vs Youngstown.

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Based on need, talent, connections, and what I’ve heard from people in the industry, Luke Hughes seems like the odds on favorite to be chosen by the New Jersey Devils with pick No. 4.

Given as much, I’ve really zeroed in on him over the last while. This will be the third game breakdown I’ve posted at Infernal Access; and I wouldn’t rule out more in the coming weeks (and months…if he’s the pick).

This time I’ll be zeroing in on his January 3rd performance vs Youngstown. As always, you can watch it in full – thanks to Devils in the Details – here.

Look for No. 6 in blue.

Also, if you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out previous game breakdowns vs Muskegon and vs Air Force.

The Good

• Hughes played a whale of a game vs Youngstown. It started early with some strong defensive play. Hughes showed good gap control in the neutral zone and forced the oncoming attacked to try and chip it by him. Hughes recovered the puck, eluded pressure, and found an open teammate along the wall to help jump start a zone exit.

• One of the things I love most about Hughes is his elusiveness. He’s very good at dancing around challenging players in all three zones. Here, he steps around the oncoming forward and drives the puck right to the middle of the ice for a scoring opportunity.

• Here, we have another great example of Hughes’ elusiveness and in-zone work. He is once again challenged at the blueline. He fights through contact, spins out of it to lose his man, and makes a nice cross-zone to an open teammate for a one-time shot.

• Luke Hughes, like Jack, is a neutral zone god and transition wizard. Hughes beat F1 and, realizing there was a lot of open space in front of him, darted the puck into the offensive zone. Just when it looked like he was going to skate himself out of real estate, Hughes made a beautiful drop pass to an open teammate for a quality chance.

• One of the knocks on Hughes is his in-zone defensive play and/or tendency to space out, so to speak. I remain optimistic about his defensive ceiling, anyway, because of the tools he possesses. He can keep tight gaps due to his plus0skating and the long reach is a big time weapon for slowing opposing players down. Here Hughes closes on his man and uses his stick to swat the puck away. He recovers the loose puck, takes it wide, and makes an outlet on the tape for yet another clean exit.

• I am hopeful Hughes can be a solid in-zone defender but I do understand there are some concerns. I’m quite positive, at the very least, he can be stout in the neutral zone and limit the amount of times he *has* to defend for extended periods in his own zone. In this clip Hughes keeps a tight gap to his man, seals him off, and completely erases an oncoming rush. Beautiful.

• Offense is more fun than defense so let’s get back to Hughes doing things with the puck. Here we have yet another example of him effortlessly rushing it the length of the ice for a zone entry and look towards goal.

The Bad

• Hughes played a fantastic two-way game against Youngstown. There were still some mistakes made, though. One thing I didn’t like is on an odd-man rush, where a teammate was wide open waiting for a one-timer, Hughes elected to take a somewhat low danger shot instead. There were a couple instances where he could’ve slipped a pass to his teammate and caused pre-shot motion for the goaltender.

First, when he gained the line. The goaltender is way out to challenge and Hughes has an open teammate to the right with a good shooting angle. Hughes could have, and should have (in my opinion), deferred to his teammate right away. He didn’t.

OK, no harm no foul. Hughes still has the puck in a good spot. He can just take another stride or two forward before distributing the puck to a teammate in even better shooting position.

With the posture of the opposing defender, you can tell the weight is shifting backwards. The angle is a little tighter but Hughes still looks to be in a spot where he can ease off the trigger and dish it to a teammate for what would’ve been a very high percentage shot, especially factoring in the movement required from the goaltender to try and get in position.

Again, Hughes doesn’t pass. He takes a shot with no traffic from above the circle instead. Didn’t love it!

• Another nitpick: there were too many shots into shin pads for my liking. That’s something people always complain about with defenders – it comes with the territory – but Hughes did it three times. It’s one thing for Matt Tennyson or Connor Carrick to take those shots when they might not make it through, let alone test the goaltender. But Hughes is quite elusive, as I’ve shown time and time again in these breakdowns. I’d like to see him use that to advantage a little more when he intends to shoot. Changing the angles, or creating some extra space, could lead to more pucks getting to the net.

Data Dump

5v5 on-ice shot attempts: 14-7 U.S. (66.66 CF%)

5v5 individual numbers: four attempts, two assists (42.85 contribution%)

5v5 zone exits: three passes, four carry-outs, one dump-out (87.50 controlled exit%)

Merch SZN

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