Luke Hughes has taken a massive step forward

[PWiz30]

Rachel Doerrie hates this thread.

 

[Eggtimers]

Don’t need fancy stats to see his defensive game has improved drastically. As others have said , it seems like something “ clicked” for him recently. It’s like a switch flipped. He looks very confident and under control and doesn’t seem to ever panic. A forward will have a stride or two on him and be driving wide , and he will just use his skating and stick work to neutralize the threat. He is now starting to be dominant in the O zone lately. He is taking more chances and driving the net and dangling more now. He occasionally dangles into traffic but he will adjust and be a pain in the ass for defenders to handle .
There have been numerous times the last half dozen games where he has made very skilled stick checks / perfect body positioning and routes with perfect gaps to defend and using timing perfectly to neutralize attacks and retrieve pucks . He has looked very poised and is improving each game . It will be very interesting to see how much he can grow his game . I don’t think he will be as elite offensively as Quinn , but then again Quinn is probably the best in the world at that so there’s no shame in not being better

 

[TBF1972]

This is every NJD dman QoC since he came back. There is 0 sheltering going on. He is playing the most minutes, and they aren't meaningfully different from the other pairings.

The other two pairings have boosted full year numbers because Nemec and Casey as a pairing were playing very sheltered minutes, meaning they had to pick up the slack early.
View attachment 939588


Casey and Nemec were getting sheltered to start the year. Other pairings (specifically siegs and kovy) picked up the slack then boosting their full year numbers.

why do you have to remind me that kurtis macdermid is on our roster?

 

[Bouboumaster]

Odd that the Hab's fans that like to bring Luke Hughes up randomly haven't chimed in.

Strange right?

It's as if Habs fans weren't the Villains in that story

 

[My3Sons]

Strange right?

It's as if Habs fans weren't the Villains in that story

the extremist homers on both sides made it messy. the use of "X team's fans" is way too imprecise. Everyone here speaks for themselves. it's probably a handful of posters for any team that drive the goofy narratives.

 

[Kranix]

does he have the potential to steal PP1 away from Hamilton

 

[Hisch13r]

does he have the potential to steal PP1 away from Hamilton

The PP this year has been by far the best in the league so I doubt it's coming any time soon. Luke was PP1 at the start of last year when they looked really good. Personally if Kovaecvic were to keep up his strong play all year I'd be looking to move on from Dougie this summer. Re-sign Kovacevic, insert Casey into the linup, and use Dougie's money elsewhere.

 

[Xirik]

Strange right?

It's as if Habs fans weren't the Villains in that story

Say's the guy who pokes at Devils fan's and then whines when they post.

Keep on doing your song and dance.

 

[dgibb10]

does he have the potential to steal PP1 away from Hamilton

Not really.

Hamilton is an elite PP1 weapon with his shot, and luke's skating allows him to carry a PP2 in a way hamilton cannot, especially with Jack and Bratt already being elite entry guys for PP1 making him less valuable there.

Works out better with Luke on PP2 and Dougie on PP1.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Say's the guy who pokes at Devils fan's and then whines when they post.

Keep on doing your song and dance.

I poke at the Trolls/2 or 3 Devils fans and their goofy ass/smooth brain opinions and troll them back

 

[NJ DevLolz]

Next contract is gonna be interesting. He’s not putting up the offensive numbers he did last year but he’s been much better overall. Anything under 8x8 would be a steal

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

He's figuring things out quite fast