Is Quinn Hughes overrated?

[Avelanche]

I dunno, Makar dominated the ice in all zones the last few games when the Avs have been without MacKinnon, Toews, EJ and a few others. Can't see Hughes doing that no matter how good Vancouver would be.

Avs still have a legit good defensive lineup top to bottom. Makar has improved significantly since last year in his own end it’s just important to remember being on a garbage team can make young players look bad or slow their growth. Landeskog scored 30 points one year for the avs now look at him.

 

[missionAvs]

f*** YEAH! HUGHES SUCKS! NUCKS SUCK!







, The Nucks defensive woes aren't all on Hughes. I think with the right pairing, he'd be doing a lot better. He's a super talented young player. His defensive game will develop in time IMO.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Avs still have a legit good defensive lineup top to bottom. Makar has improved significantly since last year in his own end it’s just important to remember being on a garbage team can make young players look bad or slow their growth. Landeskog scored 30 points one year for the avs now look at him.

The difference here is that Quinn Hughes is a below average defensive player. He doesn’t play the body at all, gets pushed around, can't clear the crease, doesn't offer much in the corners, cannot be used on the PK, doesn't block shots, cheats offensively etc.

Being on a stuggling team doesn’t help, but he would still look like a one dimensional player even if the Canucks would be stacked. The best defensemen in the league are not this limited.

 

[nowhereman]

The one thing I will say is that I am consistently impressed by just how much insight one can gain about a team/player from fans of other teams who really only watch random highlights. Particularly Avs and Leafs fans, who clearly have no ulterior motive or reason to be biased... your player analysis sure is on point!

It's also refreshing to see that people are refraining from resorting to hyperbole or jumping to conclusions. You can learn so much about a player's game from small sample sizes. As we can all agree, there is a high degree of likeleiness that James Van Riemsdyk will continue to score at a 115 point pace, the Panthers will be slugging it out with Tampa for the President's Trophy, Alexis Lafreniere is quite possibly the worst first overall pick of all time and the first 10-15 games of this season say a lot more about Hughes/Pettersson than any of the larger sample sizes of previous seasons/playoffs.

All joking aside, I actually feel a bit stupider after reading the responses in this thread. That said, I'm not sure what else I expected...

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

only judging by the 4 games that i saw against the habs but he was horrible defensively,woudlnt mind playing against him every day tbh but like i said thats only off the games that i saw this year

that being said hes still so young and im sure will improve

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

I actually feel a bit stupider after reading the responses in this thread. That said, I'm not sure what else I expected...

The one thing I will say is that I am consistently impressed by just how much insight one can gain about a team/player from fans of other teams who really only watch random highlights. Particularly Avs and Leafs fans, who clearly have no ulterior motive or reason to be biased... your player analysis sure is on point!

Or ask him to play one decent defensive game and well give him props. Dude puts up points but then lets in more in his own end and does it looking very very bad. Make him a winger maybe. He could have untapped P Kane potential.

 

[Avelanche]

The difference here is that Quinn Hughes is a below average defensive player. He doesn’t play the body at all, gets pushed around, can't clear the crease, doesn't offer much in the corners, cannot be used on the PK, doesn't block shots, cheats offensively etc.

Being on a stuggling team doesn’t help, but he would still look like a one demensional player even if the Canucks would be stacked. The best defensemen in the league are not this limited.

He’s 21 we don’t know what he will be yet. I think you are being disingenuous if makar also didn’t struggle with most of those same things. All I’m saying is playing on one of the best 5 on 5 teams helped makar develop a lot quicker and you can look to other av players to see how bad situations stunt young players.

 

[nowhereman]

Or ask him to play one decent defensive game and well give him props. Dude puts up points but then lets in more in his own end and does it looking very very bad. Make him a winger maybe. He could have untapped P Kane potential.

He did. Quite a few of them last year.

But let's base all our opinions off of a single month in the middle of a pandemic season!

Don't you have your own underwhelming, overrated young defenseman to worry about?

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

He did. Quite a few of them last year.

But let's base all our opinions off of a single month in the middle of a pandemic season!

Don't you have your own underwhelming, overrated young defenseman to worry about?

"Quite a few" is pretty awesome for now 83 regular season games played plus 17 playoff games...

You dont see Avs fans ripping Heiskanen ever. Why? Because he comes as advertised, aka not overrated. Makar on the other hand is still underrated.

 

[hockeeyyy]

Hughes is a very good second-line winger.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

Hughes is a very good second-line winger.

Not even joking. Maybe that is where he belongs. No one is saying he sucks offensively. He has great vision and great passing ability. His shot at times seems to have some muscle behind it then other times seems to be shot with a 45 flex stick. Dude may be much better off as a winger.

 

[Ghetty Green]

Not even joking. Maybe that is where he belongs. No one is saying he sucks offensively. He has great vision and great passing ability. His shot at times seems to have some muscle behind it then other times seems to be shot with a 45 flex stick. Dude may be much better off as a winger.

He could be a very good middle six winger.

 

[JTmillerForA1stLOL]

Some hilarious takes in this thread. We're pretty happy with the 21 year old who's leading defensemen scoring while playing on an absolute dumpster fire of a team.

 

[avsfan9]

Some hilarious takes in this thread. We're pretty happy with the 21 year old who's leading defensemen scoring while playing on an absolute dumpster fire of a team.

The only reason he’s leading d in scoring is because Makar hasn’t played in two weeks

 

[Burnaby Schmo]

Or ask him to play one decent defensive game and well give him props. Dude puts up points but then lets in more in his own end and does it looking very very bad. Make him a winger maybe. He could have untapped P Kane potential.

I feel last season he played several games that could be classified as 'decent", but then again he was playing the California teams and not McDrai / Matthews/Marner and psycho Toffoli every other day.

Maybe against top line competition he's just not there. The kid plays just stupid amounts of minutes and at this point, without Tanev, and against real offensive threats, he's being eaten alive.

I'm sure things will change once the Benning Blunder signings are gone and he can get a Luke Schenn/Tanev type partner back again and not bleed goals.

I still can't believe we couldn't flip for Schenn.

 

[Freudian]

The plus/minus is indicative of some defensive issues as the points are indicative of a special offensive talent.

Avs fans should have plenty of memories of how bad overall depth will drag talent down. There are still people who think the year MacKinnon had 53 points and -14 was a bad year, not realizing the second highest scorer on Avs had 39 points.

 

[63 others]

Defensemen often need some time to adjust to the defensive side and speed of the NHL. They dont peak as young as forwards, so there's still time for Hughes

And yeah exceptions confirm the rule

 

[nowhereman]

The only reason he’s leading d in scoring is because Makar hasn’t played in two weeks

Yeah, I'm sure that's the ONLY reason...

 

[strattonius]

The only reason he’s leading d in scoring is because Makar hasn’t played in two weeks

So 2nd in d scoring is bad?

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

This thread is cringe as hell I didin't realise how childish Makar vs Hughes discussions have been it's wild

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

People saying he should be a winger are trolling, or have no concept of hockey.

There’s so much value in having a player who can facilitate the puck up the ice as effectively as Quinn Hughes. Not to mention the point production you’re going to get from him is so much better than most other defenceman in the league.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Hughes just need a top end defensive partner to carry him defensively like tanev did last year. No shame in it, that's always been his projection if he was to play his current role.

 

[clay]

Hughes just need a top end defensive partner to carry him defensively like tanev did last year. No shame in it, that's always been his projection if he was to play his current role.

This was partially why Jett Woo was drafted in the second round in 2018. Whether Woo lives up to that role is up for debate.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

I feel last season he played several games that could be classified as 'decent", but then again he was playing the California teams and not McDrai / Matthews/Marner and psycho Toffoli every other day.

Maybe against top line competition he's just not there. The kid plays just stupid amounts of minutes and at this point, without Tanev, and against real offensive threats, he's being eaten alive.

I'm sure things will change once the Benning Blunder signings are gone and he can get a Luke Schenn/Tanev type partner back again and not bleed goals.

I still can't believe we couldn't flip for Schenn.

And that is completely fine. Hes an offensive dman, pp specialist type player. Hell Brent Burns won a Norris without playing defense. But lets not pretend hes regressing or a sophomore slump. Truth is, he isnt a good dman. Put him on wing already and you may have Kane v2.

 

[hockeydog23]

Seems like it’s the fans of other teams—with you being one of the worst culprits—who can’t “move on.”

I can't move on either... Canucks fans were so self-righteous about Hughes last year, and I love seeing this conversation unfold how it has. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--last year it was "he's not surrounded by a good team," this year it's "well he doesnt have Tanev anymore." They wouldn't be in this position of having to defend Hughes if they hadn't promoted him so obnoxiously, often at Makar's expense. That really hasn't aged well. Poor man's Tyson Barrie