He owes much of his success last season to Jesper Bratt, actually. If you look at Hughes' stats away from Bratt he was essentially average on a poor, non-playoff team.

Bratt with Hughes

Even offensively he owes Bratt: he scored 2.95 P/60 with Bratt and 2.35 P/60 without him. Bratt, on the other hand, scored just as well with and without Hughes (2.95 with, 2.89 without), while posting better defensive metrics away from Hughes. As you can see in the link I posted, Bratt was better alone that Hughes was alone by a good margin.

Also, Hughes is poor defensively and on faceoffs. I'm sure he'll get better over time, but at this point he's not driving offense at an elite rate and there's nothing else about his game to write home about.

He's good on the powerplay I guess. That's something.

Im not saying Hughes is an elite 1C right now but CD282 said he had "virtually no chance" which is pretty stupid to say about a 21 year old 1st overall pick

I inherently disagree with this part.

In order to drum up clicks and views, the media circus surrounding each year's draft over-amplifies the spectacle surrounding the players at the top of each draft class. Names like Hughes, Lafreniere, and Wright are being unfairly compared to names like MacKinnon, McDavid, and Matthews as part of that over-amplification. If I look back on the top-3 picks from the last decade and do my best to objectively rank them, Hughes sits anywhere between 8th and 12th nestled in with Dahlin, Svechnikov, and Laine while behind (in order) McDavid, MacKinnon, Matthews, Draisaitl, Ekblad, Barkov, Heiskanen, and Eichel. The top three on this list are bonafide generational talents, a genuine superstar in Draisaitl (has he earned the same kind of praise as Connor, Nate, and Auston?), and four very good players. Half of that list aren't first-overall picks.

Realistically, how many "elite" NHL players do you think there are currently in the league today? What do you mean by elite? I would argue that there are no more than 15 of them in the NHL right now.

Unless Hughes becomes an overnight sensation next year then I think it's safe to say he's missed the "elite" boat and is more apt to find himself in the crowd of "very good player". It's not a knock on Hughes at all, merely a re-calibration of what we were sold to something more fitting of what we've gotten.

Can we talk about how it's a perfect like to dislike ratio.

If I had a strong opinion on this signing I'd vote, but I don't. Try and win me over.

IMO, yes. He's been a top-5 player in the league for 4 years now. He's probably the most consistent scorer in the league.

1 year anniversary of the Jack Hughes extension

Hughes stats after signing: 71 games, 36 goals, 44 assists, 80 points
And he's only 21...

I would say this signing is looking decent

is this a good contract yet or na

Obviously yes. He finally transitioned those elite advanced numbers to points.

His market value is about twice that of his current AAV, according to Dom at the Athletic.

Stupidly good contract for the Devils.

Yeah, I don't believe in his worth according to that model. He's easily a $12 Million dollar player though. Absolute steal for the Devils.

Visits to Illinois: 1
50-point seasons: 2

So far, so good

Is he an elite 1C now?

Considering Jack is 10x the player it will be looked on quite favourably

L bozo

Hughes: superstar
Suzuki: 2C

So many fantastic Jack Hughes takes

Terrible contract, totally not one of the best in hockey


Bc hughes clearly had elite upside



is he a top 8 center yet??

Clearly it is a value deal. It was signed just under 2 months into what was a pretty good 3rd season, which at the end would probably have gotten him what he ended up signing for. Good for everyone.

Thanks for sharing the hindsight.

Someone make an archive of all these ****ty takes (the people who thought this was an overpay)

When this deal was signed, Hughes's analytics were amazing, but his production wasn't there. Some players it translates and some players it doesn't, which is where the risk was. Glad to see it pay off.

Meh, Hughes always had an elite projection (no player with his draft year profile has ever NOT became a star).

One of CapFriendly's moderators took offense to me calling out the Tage Thompson haters for the contract he signed.

I'll gladly eat crow on calling this contract out. To my credit, I just said it was a huge risk. Clearly those in the know, knew. Round of applause to them. I'm a big Hughes fan now.

No. He had a very good season but needs to do it several more times before he can be considered a top center.

Oh so you're doubling down on your terrible take and proving you actually don't watch hockey. I'd love for you to name these 8 Cs who are apparently better than jack hughes?

Depends, what do you define as an 'elite 1C'? BC their are a lot of ways of doing so... Technically, I can consider McDavid not an 'elite 1C' if those boundaries are focused around defence and face-offs, or McKinnon and Matthews based on health or Draisaitl in terms of even strength play or stats without McDavid... But I can also include some very obscure guys like Jordan Staal if I'm focusing on the defensive aspects for example...

So, what are your classification in terms of an 'elite 1C'?