I think people viewed the poll as who is better right now. And more that 2/3rds answered correctly.

Hughes was the better player last season offensively.

2021-22

Hughes: 49 GP, 26 goals, 30 assists, 56 points (1.14 ppg)
Pettersson: 80 GP, 32 goals, 36 assists, 68 points (0.85 ppg)

2021-22 Even-Strength

Hughes: 49 GP, 20 goals, 22 assists, 42 points (0.86 ppg)
Pettersson: 80 GP, 20 goals, 19 assists, 39 points (0.49 ppg)

If if you adjust for age, Hughes has produced more that Pettersson.
Pettersson started his career at 19 years, 325 days old. Hughes had played 96 games in NHL by that point.
Hughes played his last game at 20 years, 324 days old.

If you compare apples-to-apples

Age 19y, 325d through 20y, 324d

Hughes: 70 GP, 30 goals, 41 assists, 71 points (1.01 ppg)
Pettersson: 72 GP, 28 goals, 38 assists, 66 points (0.92 ppg)

Age 19y, 325d through 20y, 324d at Even Strength

Hughes: 70 GP, 24 goals, 30 assists, 54 points (0.77 ppg)
Pettersson: 72 GP, 18 goals, 26 assists, 44 points (0.61 ppg)


Saying Pettersson is better than Hughes "without a doubt" or "no question" seems like a stretch.

Forget the part where Pettersson was playing with a destroyed wrist for half the season? When healthy, Petterssons put up 49 points in 40 games last season. Stop being such a homer. I already agreed Hughes can easily be better in the future, but there is absolutely no question Pettersson is better right now

Fully healthy Hughes put up 48 points in 36 games

Forget the part where Pettersson was playing with a destroyed wrist for half the season? When healthy, Petterssons put up 49 points in 40 games last season. Stop being such a homer. I already agreed Hughes can easily be better in the future, but there is absolutely no question Pettersson is better right now

If we look at the last 82 games for both:

Elias Pettersson: 34 goals 71 points
Jack Hughes: 31 goals 73 points

Stats are nearly identical. This is getting tiring. Why don’t we all agree that both are, and will be amazing players

If stats are nearly identical, why would you say "but there is absolutely no question Pettersson is better right now"

Disagree. Hughes>Pettersson right now.

And all the evidence I have seen in this thread reaffirms that.

Your evidence is literally just the opinions of Capfriendly users. I’ve seen enough of what people say on here to know for certain that opinions to mean fact

Because before those last 82 games, Pettersson was easily better.

but there is absolutely no question Pettersson is better right now

Your evidence is literally just the opinions of Capfriendly users. I’ve seen enough of what people say on here to know for certain that opinions to mean fact

There has been plenty of evidence post here

JFreshHockey: Hughes vs Pettersson
ARHockey: Hughes vs Pettersson
Evolving Hockey: Hughes vs Pettersson
Other Fan Surveys: Hughes vs Pettersson
NHL Ranking: Hughes vs Pettersson
Natural Stat Trick: Hughes vs Pettersson
Dobber Hockey: Hughes vs Pettersson

...and of course, the majority of ACGM users.

Not sure what you are even arguing for right now

Yes Pettersson was easily better before those last 82 games. No one is denying that.

You JUST SAID

I don't think that's necessarily fair, Juice.
Just as we Devils fans have seen a lot more of Hughes lately the same is likely the case for you in regards to Petterson.
When the recent scoring and ppg are as close to each other as JH's and EP40's are, I don't see how that'd sway the argument for either player.
We need some other, preferably more comprehensive tool to compare their recent contributions.
There will be predictable bias when the sets of fans are discussing the topic but we've tried to get past that by showing EH's RAPM tool, which on average favour Jack Hughes for seasons 20-21 and 21-22.

Additionally, according to Dom's GSVA model JH beats EP40 by 3.4 vs 2.3.
Interestingly Petterson performed very well in defensive impact vs offensive, 4.8 vs (-) 2.5.
For Hughes it's the opposite, 12.7 offensive vs (-) 9.2 defensive.

The reason why I did this poll was to get other users from other fanbases than the Devils and Canucks involved in the voting and hear some of their reasoning in order to provide insights from other angles than the season discussion thread's usual suspects.
I think I'm gonna leave it here for now, we've talked about this enough and my feeling is that either fanbase is too entrenched in their biases to make this a truly meaningful discussion.
Can't wait to pick this up again once the season is underway.

All those sites show is that Hughes had a better 49 games than Pettersson had in 80 games. I guess we ignore Hughes next career high of 31 points, and next career best after that of 21 points. When you look at last 3 years stats, it’s abundantly clear that Pettersson has been better. You refuse to use that though because it doesn’t support your statement. You might as well just drop the argument if you can be bothered to listen to anything I say and act all closed minded

“All of those sites”.
Yes, all of them.

And if you want to keep comparing Hughes age-18 season (when he was probably 145 lbs) or his age-19 season (that included a pandemic) to Pettersson’s age 20 and 21 seasons, I don’t know what to tell you.

If you want to make a valid argument about EP, be my guest. But just saying, “Pettersson is better, no question” will not suffice. Back it up.

Ok so let’s just completely ignore Hughes’ first two seasons. Let’s just pretend he was a rookie this year? That what you want? Fine I’ll play along

His rookie season, he was outmatched.
His second year, he was very good
This past year, he was elite.
Can’t wait until next year.

Better right now as in: has shown that they have been better so far in their career. I’m not even saying Pettersson will be better in the future, I’m saying Pettersson has shown a lot more up until this current date

Also, you said nobody is denying that Pettersson was better before those 82 games, yet anytime I mention Hughes’ previous seasons, a plethora of excuses come up. “Oh well Hughes is a couple years younger”. “Oh Pettersson is on a better team”

I have seriously heard Devils fans defend Jack’s rookie year. I’m done arguing because clearly neither side is ever going to come to a fair conclusion

Better right now doesn't mean who has been so far in their career. They're two different things

All those sites show is that Hughes had a better 49 games than Pettersson had in 80 games. I guess we ignore Hughes next career high of 31 points, and next career best after that of 21 points. When you look at last 3 years stats, it’s abundantly clear that Pettersson has been better. You refuse to use that though because it doesn’t support your statement. You might as well just drop the argument if you can be bothered to listen to anything I say and act all closed minded

It’s not like either of them have been in the league for very long. Using just this year is a small sample size, especially since Hughes only played half of it

Im sorry but your arguments are wack

You're just going back on your word MULTIPLE times and bringing back things that have already been proven to be faulty

AS SAID BEFORE, using a three year sample is not accurate for this debate. Comparing Hughes stats as a 18 year old to Pettersson's stats as a 21 year old is stupid. We are seeing WHO IS BETTER RIGHT NOW. Not who was better two years ago. Not who has proven more throughout their career. Who is better right now. The fact that you keep bringing up "you can't just ignore Hughes' rookie year" "Pettersson has proven more in previous years" isn't relevant. Pettersson was better in 2019, Pettersson was better in 2020. Hughes is better in 2021. The fact that you want to show a 3 year window is just because it proves your flawed arguement. Has literally no relevance to who is better RIGHT NOW. Seems like you're the closed minded one for bringing that up over and over and over again.

"but there is absolutely no question Pettersson is better right now" - Juiceman

"If we look at the last 82 games for both:

"Elias Pettersson: 34 goals 71 points
Jack Hughes: 31 goals 73 points

Stats are nearly identical." - Juiceman

If their stats are nearly identical, why is Pettersson no question the better player? Because he was better in previous years? Joe Thorthon must be better than Jack Hughes because although he wasn't as productive last year, he has scored over 100 points twice in his career while Hughes hasn't come close to that. Im using the same exact logic as you are. You've continued to ignore you explicitly said Pettersson is undoubtably the better player with just based beliefs.

Speaking of which, you and the other fan Knuckles have provided zero factual evidence showing that Pettersson is better. Meanwhile JustABoss Tintin NHLfan10506 have provided a TON of evidence explaining why Hughes is better. If I was an unbiased viewer, I would believe the side with a load of evidence over the side with prejudice points of view.

I get that we are all biased towards our teams player (including myself), but if you are going to make a meaningful argument, make it make sense and use evidence to support your views. Saying "Pettersson is clearly better" does nothing to change my perspective. Show proof of why Pettersson might better and you might change my mind. And vice versa

Check one of my more recent posts. If you guys want to be super picky and compare their seasons by age, I showed how Pettersson and Hughes at worst are equal. In their 20 year old seasons, both players had around 55 points in 49 games. I actually put in the work to extract Petterssons point totals in his first 49 games of his career at age 20 to Macy Jacks most recent season.

To your point about Joe Thornton, I am extremely disappointed that you couldn’t find a better comparison. You’re saying that A 40+ year old Thornton to a 20 year old Hughes. Hughes has 3 seasons under his belt. Pettersson has 4. You’re way over exaggerating the age difference between the two. Thorntons career is completely irrelevant to this argument. That is not the logic I used. Why? Because Thornton had an entire 20+ year career already played. You can’t seriously say that Pettersson vs Hughes is the same as Thornton vs Hughes. That’s just comical. I’m not the only one biased here. You are clearly also super biased towards Jack Hughes and it’s been made abundantly clear. At WORST, they are equals in their career so far with Pettersson having the edge given his more proven seasons (yeah sure come at me with the hUgHes Is YoUnGeR argument)

Jack’s 49 games were great especially at 20. That’s the ONLY thing he’s done though. Pettersson matched that point production in 49 games at the age of 20.

They are on the same level which is what I said last time we had this discussion. You brought up the fact that Pettersson is no question better than Hughes which is the point I'm arguing

If you read properly, I said we were all biased. "I get that we are all biased towards our teams player (including myself)". No need to get pissed up for not being able to read. I could say the same thing; You are clearly also super biased towards Elias Pettersson and it’s been made abundantly clear.

Currently they are equals, Pettersson is more proven while Hughes has more potential. But currently they are equal.

Jack Hughes = 1.269 points per game
Elias Pettersson = 1.275 points per game

Both are borderline top 5 centers. Not worth debating who is better. Both are on the same level/tier