Have to tell you, the Hughes size thing really doesn't concern me.
The kid is beyond slippery and seems to rarely have to look at the puck. He vision and sense is impeccable.
And it's not just what he brings offensively, it's the way he impacts his teammates. He sets the tone for other roles, creates plays for them, raises their game and just enhances the team around him.
There are guys who are supremely talented and their individual efforts can carry a team. But Hughes just has that transformative quality to him.
It's not only that his performance is elite, it's that he's the type of player the rest of a squad falls in line around. His wingers, his defensemen, the centers playing behind him. Everyone.
He's not just dancing around kids. When you see a lot of hockey over the years, or decades in my case, you realize that there's very few players on the planet that move like him, that read and react like him.
That's not a knock on other top talents, but there's a significant difference that is apparent very quickly.
