Luke Hughes has arrived

The sophomore defenseman has played at a truly elite level since returning from injury.

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It’s a day that ends with ‘y’ and you know what that means: more gushing over Luke Hughes.

It’s honestly difficult to put into words how good he has been this season. It’s my job, though, so I shall try!

In terms of production, he’s done as much as you could realistically hope for. He has 17 points through 30 games, which equates to 46 points over a full schedule. That’s very impressive for a sophomore who doesn’t play on the top power play.

Analytically, he looks even better. Hughes ranks 10th in average Game Score – just ahead of Adam Fox, Evan Bouchard, and Josh Morrissey, a few names you may have heard of – and tied for 11th among defensemen with a Net Rating of +6.5.

The crazy thing is it took him a little time to hit his stride after returning from injury. If you zoom in a little further, he goes from a top-10/15 defenseman to a Norris-caliber player. And, no, I’m not exaggerating.

Let’s isolate the last 17 games, where the points finally started to follow the abundance of opportunities Hughes helps create each night. In that span, 156 defensemen have played at least 200 minutes at 5v5.

Hughes ranks 1st in expected goal share (66.06%), 1st in high-danger chance share (64.06%), and 2nd in goal share (68.18%).

The only defenseman who helped their team outscore the opponent by a wider margin in that span is his brother, Quinn Hughes, who managed a 70.37 GF% over the same period of time.