Quoting: pharrow
this is a very one dimensional take.
1st off, under no way shape or form can team US "outskill" canada. Period. I don't care if hughes plays or not. They aren't "out skilling" canada. If that's the game you want to play, you have already lost.
It is not 1998. US can hang with Canada in skill game.
Quoting: pharrow
It takes a whole lot more than "hands" and "take aways" to play defense. You have to be a willing participant to get in the dirty areas and go get the puck. Hughes isn't going to do that. Period. Even if he tried, he'd get run over because he's too damn small.
He is small, but he never avoids the dirty areas.
I actually wish he did avoid...but turns out ok. No one can ever get a clean hit on him.
Quoting: pharrow
He's not a top 6 skilled person on this team. He just isn't. You can make up any other reality about it you want, any excuses as to how he doesn't make it, but those are just facts.
Jack Hughes is a top-6 skilled person on any team.
He has elite skating, skill, vision.
He is probably today, as a 19-year old, a top-5 player in NHL with puck on his stick.
Quoting: pharrow
If you aren't a top 6 skilled person, then you better be bringing something else to the table that is useful. Frankly, he doesn't. He can't win face offs so he'll never be a center on this team. Ever.
Many teams have wings take face-offs.
Taking the draw doesn't mean you are a center.
And being a center doesn't mean you take draws.
Landeskog takes as many draws as MacKinnon.
Don't overthink it.
Besides, they list Wheeler as center between Debrincat and Tkachuk (none are centers or take draws)
Quoting: pharrow
The best he can be is a bottom 6 winger. Which he isn't. Because he doesn't have the moxie to be that. He's not going to be the guy to go out there and block a shot, dig in the corner, and do whatever it takes to win. Period.
No one would ask him to.
He is neither a winger or bottom-6 player.
Quoting: pharrow
Has nothing to do with "size" Rust isn't a 6'3 winger. He's 5'11. But he'll damn well do whatever it takes to win. That's the difference. You need guys like that if you are going to win. Which is why all the guys I listed above are more likely to be that guy. Because in a close game, those are the guys you can count on to do what needs to be done to win. A guy like Saad is much more valuable to the team than a guy like Hughes.
Your list: Rust, Kreider, Trocheck. Batherson. Nelson, Saad
They are all wingers except for Trocheck and Nelson.
Neither of which can provide what Hughes can.
And Batherson plays for Canada.
But keep up the
hUgHes iS a bUsT stuff.
We need the humor.