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Should the Canucks draft Quinn Hughes?

The best skater in the draft might be gone before seventh overall.
Quinn Hughes skates for Team USA.

As the 2018 NHL Draft approaches this week, I’ve been profiling a few of the prospects they might pick at 7th overall. So far I’ve covered Noah Dobson and Adam Boqvist, two defencemen that are likely to still be available by the time the Canucks make their pick.

There’s a significantly lower possibility that Quinn Hughes will still be on the board at seventh overall. To paraphrase Lloyd Christmas, however, I’m telling you there’s a chance.

The biggest reason why Hughes might fall to seventh overall is actually a small reason: he’s small. He’s listed at 5’10” and, while the NHL is more conducive to small defenceman than ever, that’s still small enough to potentially scare off some teams.

If it does, Hughes’ size shouldn’t scare off the Canucks. He’s an elite talent that provides exactly what the Canucks need most.

Every significant NHL draft ranking has Hughes in the top-ten. Cam Robinson of Dobber Prospects went as far as ranking him third overall, ahead of Filip Zadina, while Scott Wheeler of The Athletic and Jeremy Davis and co. at CanucksArmy both have Hughes at fourth overall.

Hughes’ standout attribute is his skating. He’s arguably the best skater in the draft, with only Rasmus Dahlin in the conversation with him. Every aspect of his skating is elite: scouts rave about his speed, but his edgework and mobility at top speed make him truly dangerous in transition, as he’s able to quickly change direction on defenders to create space or blow past them.

His acceleration is also top-notch, giving him excellent escapability in tight quarters, particularly when it comes to breaking away from forecheckers and out of the defensive zone. His speed also helps in the defensive zone, as he’s just as quick getting back defensively as he is jumping up in the rush, and he closes gaps quickly and uses a smart stick to create turnovers.

What is most important is that his mind seems to be just as quick as his feet. He has great vision and creativity with the puck and is able to make plays at top speed, whether that means setting up a teammate on an odd-man rush or beating a defender himself.

Hughes’ offensive abilities make him an ideal power play quarterback. His superb skating is an asset along the offensive blue line and he can quickly create a shooting or passing lane with his mobility. He has great vision and playmaking ability to set up his teammates and has an above-average wrist shot for scoring goals himself. While he lacks some power on his slap shot, that could still come with time.

Rather than just blast shots from the blue line, however, Hughes prefers to get the puck to a more dangerous scoring area. Jackson Macdonald at CanucksArmy put it this way: “Unlike most defenders, Hughes prefers to shoot mostly when there’s a chance to score. Otherwise, he’d rather get the puck to a teammate in a high-danger area. In the attacking zone, Hughes doesn’t make the right play. He makes the better play.”

As the youngest player in college hockey this past season, Hughes was outstanding. He put up 29 points in 37 games, more than Cale Makar, who went fourth overall in last year’s draft. He only had two points fewer than forward Brady Tkachuk, who could be drafted in the top-five this year.

His ability to put up points against the older competition provided by the NCAA sets him apart from some of his peers like Boqvist, Dobson, or Bouchard. His freshman season is comparable to that of Zach Werenski, who has 47 and 37-point seasons in the NHL already at just 20 years old.

Hughes was the only NCAA player invited to join Team USA at the World Hockey Championships, where he held his own against some of the best hockey players in the world. Hughes put up two assists in ten games.

As is often the case with smaller, offensively-inclined defencemen, the defensive side of the game is Hughes’ biggest question mark. Some scouts suggest it shouldn’t be all that big — perhaps it could be one of the smaller question marks on the Riddler’s leotard.

Without size on his side, Hughes depends on his skating, positioning, and a smart stick to defend and is normally successful at keeping opposing forwards to the outside. He’s significantly better than Boqvist in the defensive zone, for those looking for a direct comparison within the draft class, though Boqvist has better hands with the puck.

With some added weight over the next few years, Hughes should be able to handle puck battles against NHL forwards and join the ranks of Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Ellis, and Torey Krug among the best undersized defencemen in the league.

More importantly, when Hughes is on the ice, his team generally has the puck. He’s such a driver of puck possession that his defensive deficiencies barely come into play. Dump-ins are a losing proposition against Hughes, as he’ll beat forecheckers to the puck with his speed and immediately move it back up ice. Beating him through the neutral zone is dicey, as he can read the play remarkably effectively and create turnovers at the blue line.

The fact that the puck is always on his stick is no accident: he knows how to divest opponents of the puck, even if he struggles at times in puck battles down low. And, when he gets the puck, he doesn’t give it up, finding space on the ice for both himself and his teammates with his skating and his passing.

While he’s ten months older than Boqvist, meaning the Swede has a little more development time ahead of him, that extra ten months means just that little more certainty that Hughes is who he promises to be: a top-pairing, play-driving, power-play-quarterbacking offensive defenceman.

If he falls to where the Canucks can pick him, it should be an obvious choice. Hughes provides so much of what the Canucks need. The issue is that he provides so much of what every other team needs as well. The Arizona Coyotes could easily pick him, as could the Detroit Red Wings, who have seen plenty of Hughes in their own backyard at the University of Michigan.

For Hughes to fall, it would require a few things to occur: Montreal would likely have to go off the board and pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi third overall. That would bump forwards Filip Zadina and Brady Tkachuk down a notch. At least one of the other defencemen — Noah Dobson, Evan Bouchard, or Adam Boqvist — would need to get picked ahead of Hughes as well.

Is that scenario likely? Perhaps not. But it is a possibility and one that Canucks fans should be thrilled to see should it occur on Friday at the draft.