Quinn Hughes leads the NHL in scoring, which means it’s time for the hyperbole.
Hughes is just the third defenceman in NHL history to reach 30 points in under 20 games, with the other two being Bobby Orr (twice) and Al MacInnis in the 1990-91 season. And he’s the first defenceman since Orr in the 1974-75 season to be the first NHL player to reach 30 points that season, beating all forwards to that mark.
Are those somewhat arbitrary ways to compare Hughes to Orr? Sure, a little bit, but they’re also true and mightily impressive.
"He plays like Bobby Orr."
No one should ever really be compared to Bobby Orr, who was a game-changer in both the micro and macro sense of the word. Orr changed everything about how the game was played, with every freewheeling defenceman who came after him owing him a debt of gratitude. He is still the only defenceman to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer and he did it twice.
But Hughes has dealt with Orr comparisons for a long time now. His assistant coach with the University of Michigan, former Canuck Jeff Tambellini, even name-dropped Orr when Hughes was drafted.
“People always ask me, who does he play like?” said Tambellini. “You’re not going to want to hear this — and I’m not saying he is — but he plays like Bobby Orr. I’ve never seen a guy possess the puck and skate his own problems away.”
Hughes doesn’t just skate his own problems away these days. Now he skates his way into problems for the other team.
“He’s making defences break down by himself,” said J.T. Miller. “He’ll beat a guy and somebody else will leave their guy now because there’s a breakdown and it just creates chaos. That’s what him and [Filip Hronek] are doing out there and I’m just trying to get out of his way.”
More than just breaking down defences with his skating to create openings for his teammates, Hughes is using his skating to create chances for himself. His goal against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night tied his career high of eight goals just 19 games into the season.
Some of that is good fortune — his 13.8% shooting percentage eclipses his previous career high of 6.3% — but a lot of it is putting himself in the right position to score.
“I always make fun of him because I think he shoots really goofy,” said Miller. “But he’s shooting with traffic and he’s timing his shots really well. He doesn’t have the most powerful shot, I think he’ll tell you that, but when he gets it off, it’s at weird angles and the goalie’s in a weird spot and there’s traffic in front. They’re going in at a high rate for him, which is awesome.”
Hughes is on pace for a top-five season all time
The end result is a defenceman leading the NHL in scoring as the schedule approaches American Thanksgiving, which is often used as an arbitrary cutoff for who is for real in the NHL and who isn’t. Quinn Hughes is for real and, for that, Canucks fans can give thanks.
Hughes is on pace for eye-boggling numbers that will only engender more Bobby Orr comparisons. Over a full 82 games, Hughes is on pace for 35 goals, 95 assists, and 130 points, which would be the fourth-best season by an NHL defenceman in NHL history behind two seasons by Orr and one season by Paul Coffey.
If Hughes reaches 35 goals, that would be the eighth-most goals by an NHL defenceman in a single season, behind three seasons each for Orr and Coffey and one season for Doug Wilson. 95 assists would be the second-best season by a defenceman all time, behind — you guessed it — Bobby Orr.
Here are the first 19 games for Hughes this season, along with some key comparisons: Bobby Orr from the 1974-75 season, Al MacInnis from the 1990-91 season, and Paul Coffey from his career-best 138-point 1985-86 season. I’ve also included the last defenceman to reach 100+ points, Erik Karlsson last season, and Cale Makar this season, as he’s keeping pace with Hughes in scoring but has played two fewer games.
19 games into the season, Hughes is six points behind Orr and one point behind MacInnis, but ahead of both Karlsson and Coffey. That speaks to just how dominant Coffey was over the remaining three quarters of the season, of course.
Can Hughes keep up with past legends?
Is Quinn Hughes likely to continue his torrid scoring pace and vault himself into a top-five season all time for a defenceman? Probably not but also…maybe?
Among the 203 NHL defencemen who have played at least 100 minutes at 5-on-5 this season, Hughes has the fourth-highest on-ice shooting percentage — the shooting percentage of all Canucks when he’s on the ice at 5-on-5 — at 13.86%, five points higher than the mean of 8.44%.
Generally speaking, one would expect that shooting percentage to regress at least somewhat but, in Hughes’ case, it might not regress very far.
The highest on-ice shooting percentage of any defenceman last season belonged to Vince Dunn at 12.44%, which was higher than his previous career high. As might be expected, that has cratered this season, down to 5.98% to start the season. In Dunn’s case, his on-ice shooting percentage can be expected to regress upward as the season progresses.
Who was second in on-ice shooting percentage behind Dunn among defencemen last season? None other than Quinn Hughes.
Hughes had an 11.31% on-ice shooting percentage at 5-on-5 last season, also a career high. But, instead of regressing downward to start this season, it just got better.
Some players, by virtue of their elite skillset, are able to maintain an above-average on-ice shooting percentage. By creating higher quality chances for their teammates and/or finishing at a higher rate themselves, the puck will go into opposing nets at a higher rate.
For example, Sidney Crosby, in the prime of his career, consistently finished seasons with an on-ice shooting percentage above 11%.
Defencemen are rarely among those types of players, as their point totals are typically at the whims of the forwards with whom they’re on the ice. Hughes, however, is a human cheat code. While it’s too much to expect him to maintain a 13.86% on-ice shooting percentage, keeping it above 11% might be within his capabilities.
Combine that with a power play that continues to be one of the best in the NHL, currently clicking at a third-best 31.0%, and maybe Hughes can enter the annals of history alongside Bobby Orr after all.
