Sure, if Hughes was a 24 year old senior scoring against 21 year old sophomores I'd get it and agree with you. In this case, you are talking about an 18 year old true Freshman. If he's a week younger he's in this year's draft. This past season was arguably equivalent to a draft minus one year. It's oversimplification to just say the Hobey Baker is meaningless because it typically goes to an older guy who is not a great NHL prospect. Again, show me something to suggest Hughes was not a good pick at four on his own merits. I'm open to anything on the issue. As an aside, I never saw Hughes as a risky pick. I posted several times before the draft (amazing how the contrarians typically can't point to their pre-draft posts making a point until after they get to use their 20/20 hindsight) where I suggested Hughes was likely a conservative safe pick. He had two very successful NHL bothers and he was bigger and stronger and possessed many of the same skills as the other two. I expected Hughes to go high because it was easy for an NHL GM to look at him and see at a minimum an NHL player. I expressed no real opinion on his upside, I leave it to
@StevenToddIves or
@Guadana to offer that since they spend hours researching and backing their opinions with video evidence, but their track records are valid in my view, and they both suggested he was an excellent prospect in his own right. Look, I get it, the team struggled this season and it's easy to be frustrated. That said, just saying it's all terrible and everything is bad is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Luke Hughes did nothing to downgrade his potential this season and if anything he probably exceeded expectations. Nobody has shown me anything that suggests otherwise. Now, I've watched him in college and my criticism is that he cheats towards offense because he can get away with it, he is that skilled and transcendent a skater. He will have to pick his spots against NHL competition. If that's the worst thing you can say about him he's doing pretty well as a teenager where he's playing against guys usually 2-5 years older than he is.
