Hughes might put up more points, but Chabot is better defensively right now and has a higher defensive ceiling.
There is obviously a place for players with Hughes style of play in the league, but he plays one way. I just don't buy into someone like him being a 1D. I think when you're a defenseman that you cannot be a 1D without being at least average defensively.
Whether he can improve defensively is the question. Karlsson is an example of a player who did, and at his best he won Norris' and was arguably the best player in the league because of it. His offensive and transition impact was elite, and he wasn't a net-negative defensively. Hughes has the offensive component down, but needs to learn to play defense. Naturally even against lower levels of competition he was a very weak defensive player. It's now harder against bigger, stronger, faster players for him to have defensive success. Let's see if he can improve his defense over the years. Right now, he's a very weak defensive player. Chabot might be a little inconsistent, but I'd say he's no worse than average defensively right now, and he has potential to be above-average or better defensively.