Insightful post.
On topic, Hughes is still the player who scored at a pace to be 6th in scoring amongst rookie Defence men. Ever.
He only played 68 games due to Covid so he finished 14th in scoring amongst rookie D. Again, Ever. As in, the league has existed for over a century, and in a high scoring era great players like Larry Murphy, Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Gary Suter, Ray Bourque, and Nick Lidstrom playing in the 80's and early 90's are some of the privileged few above him.
Last year was bad, but he knows what he is and he could have asked for 8.25 and put the squeeze on Benning and we would have had to eventually budge. I see this as exceedingly reasonable and even a small win, if this is the number.
On the topic of Makar, Hughes was at his level most of their rookie seasons. That it seems apparent that Makar is better is due to a couple of things:
1. Colorado is a super team (and he is a big part of it).
2. And more importantly (I listed it in this order for stupid dramatic effect), his potential is off the charts. If he gets a little more solid defensively, and can parlay a tiny bit more frequent assertiveness with the puck i.e. even when playing with Mackinnon, into similar hit rates in terms of successful moves, shots, pinches, etc, Makar could reach the Mcdavid stratosphere.
The perceived difference between the two of them is not because Hughes' potential has diminished based on one weird Covid year with a bad team and a heinous schedule. But because Makar looks like he might just be that good.
