Hughes or Kakko

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

With absolutely nothing to base this on, I'm assuming that Shero will go for Hughes...if that's the case, then one of the real winners here is...Pavel Zacha.

No more worrying about trying to become an offensive force or a Top 6, or trying to live up to the sex appeal of having been picked sixth overall in his draft class...at this point, you do everything you can to make him one of the best 3Cs in the NHL.  A guy who can put up 35-45 points, and might even flirt with 50 in a good year.  A guy who can fill in on the top two lines on occasion if need be, and at least be decent at it, without it feeling like it's crippling the team.  A guy who can do a little of everything, and has that knack for scoring a timely goal here and there...an unsung hero type. 

He's a RFA, so it will be interesting to see what he's offered, especially from a term standpoint.   

Crazy to think that next year, the Devils' centers could be Nico (age 20), Hughes (age 18), Zajac (age 34), and Zacha (age 22).  Zajac is the perfect vet to have around too...and clearly still has something left, as he enters the final two years of his deal.  I would love it if he could help turn Zacha into a loose doppleganger of himself. 

[NewarkDevil5]

The biggest question to me is, what does @Jas0nMacIsaac think? He's been the most consistent prognosticator of draft picks on this board for the better part of two decades.

Edited April 10, 2019 by NewarkDevil5

[Joonas #6]

I just feel bad for the #2 pick. Bright lights, bruh. 

(I want Hughes)

[Jerzey]

The more I see of Hughes the more I want him. But my research isn’t nearly done. I did vote too early though. I was excited. That doesn’t mean I’m a premature ejaculator though.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Jerzey

[Devilsfan118]

Here's a write-up from StevenToddIves, a journalist on HFBoards:

Quote

Here's what you're getting in Jack Hughes. On the scouting scale of 20-80, the last skater to score an 80 was Connor McDavid. Hughes is also an 80. Not only does he have straightaway speed to match anyone in the NHL, but his edge work is possibly better. What does that mean? It means that, if you are a defenseman, back the #$@! up. If you lunge at Hughes an miss, you will be posterized. He has almost superhuman agility and can skate sideways faster than you can skate forwards. Combined with Hughes' vision/stickhandling/passing skills, which are all on par with Patrick Kane, this makes him a one-man zone entry machine. If Hughes has a full head of steam (which takes a nanosecond, his acceleration is also as good as we have ever seen), two defensemen can be waiting for him at the blue-line, but he still does not need to dump in. Hughes has a rare ability to know where his teammates are, gain the blueline, turn on a dime, curl to give himself a moment's time and space, fake a move to freeze the defender, then feather a pass on the blade of a linemate no one saw him look at cutting into the zone across the ice. 

Hughes is quite simply, the rare player who will change the entire way the entire other team plays the moment he steps on the ice. Though his hands are a tick below Patrick Kane (who has, in my mind, the best hands in the world), his game is similar. But while Kane is a very good skater, Hughes can skate like McDavid. No one in the history of the NHL has combined skating on McDavid's level with hands on Kane's level. That is... until Jack Hughes enters the NHL.

Jack Hughes is not imperfect. The one area where Kappo Kakko is superior to Hughes is that Kakko has no weakness in his game. Hughes is slightly below average defensively and in physicality -- so he's going to need to be paired with a player on his line who can pick up his initial slack in these areas, likely by moving Zacha onto his LW or playing Coleman on his line. But what he will do for the goal-scoring of that player is unfathomable -- Hughes is the best pure set-up man to enter the NHL since Connor McDavid. 

Hughes' shot is another underrated weapon. While it is not extremely hard, it is extremely accurate and he gets it off with extreme quickness. In close, it is absolutely deadly. From further out, Hughes' greatest weapon in goalscoring is that he can change direction and angle so quickly with his otherworldly edge work that goaltenders do not have the time to change their angle, and then become victims of Hughes' outstanding accuracy. While Hughes will never lead the NHL in goals, it is a healthy assumption that he can become a perennial 30-75-105 player who can (like Patrick Kane did) become a 40+ goal scorer with greater strength and conditioning.

Hughes' size will be brought up repeatedly, like it was with those (read: the fools) who did the same with Patrick Kane. I can dig up articles of draft pundits who thought that, due to Kane's size, Van Riemsdyk or Turris should have been the #1 pick in 2007. Those pundits do not look so good now. Like Kane, Hughes seemingly has eyes in the back of his head and is nearly impossible to get a clean hit on. Like Kane, Hughes will never compete for a Selke Trophy but should develop, due to his off-the-charts hockey IQ, into a decent defensive player. Like Kane, Hughes will never be a physical player. But it is important to note that Kane is really Hughes' best comparable, and due to Hughes' far superior skating and position of center, Hughes has even higher upside than Chicago's perennial MVP candidate. 

Make no mistake, the Devils have both literally and metaphorically won the lottery. It is also crucial to note that Taylor Hall has become friends with Jack Hughes over the past year-plus. The addition of Hughes all at once significantly improves the Devils chances of making the playoffs next year, winning a Stanley Cup in the future, and convincing Taylor Hall to re-sign with New Jersey long term. It is not unreasonable to expect Hughes to put up a 20-45-65 stat line next season. He will immediately replace Brendan Shanahan as the most offensively talented forward the New Jersey Devils have ever drafted. This is cause for great celebration among the Devils and their fans.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Devilsfan118

[Satans Hockey]

"He will immediately replace Brendan Shanahan as the most offensively talented forward the New Jersey Devils have ever drafted."

I would argue every day that Elias was better than Shanahan.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[Nicomo]

Is it safe to say Hughes would be the best skater the Devils have had since Niedermayer? 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

14 minutes ago, Devilsfan118 said:

Here's a write-up from StevenToddIves, a journalist on HFBoards:

Yes, but why male models?

[SterioDesign]

8 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Is it safe to say Hughes would be the best skater the Devils have had since Niedermayer? 

[CommonDreads]

28 minutes ago, Nicomo said:

Is it safe to say Hughes would be the best skater the Devils have had since Niedermayer? 

Entirely safe to say that, you'll be hard pressed to find a current NHLer that's better on his edges than Hughes is, maybe Gaudreau or Marner? Hughes probably isn't as fast as McDavid or MacKinnon, but he might immediately be the most agile and shifty player in the league when he comes in, he's at least in the conversation.

Mulling it over a bit as well, I think a line of Coleman - Hughes - Palmieri would be so damn effective. Coleman can play the sort of Zach Hyman role that he plays on the Tavares line in Toronto, do more of the grinding and defensive work and can bang in some chances when his more skilled linemates set him up, and Hughes can just dish to Palmieri over and over. Adding a player of this caliber is going to change the shape of this team, there's so much reason for excitement.

[Rock]

Kakko really impressed me at the world juniors. Hughes was out for most of it. i hope they televise the under 20 worlds.  I would like to see a healthy Hughes in action.  I was wrong in wanting size in the Nico Nolan draft.  Right now I'm still leaning Kakko, but if Hughes is the skater that all the stories say he is, then he is the pick.  With Shero being Hughes father's agent and Hughes training with Hall, I say right now Hughes has inside track.  Can't wait for June!

[SterioDesign]

Yeah i voted Kakko simply cause this seemed like Patrick vs Hischier all over again.

What really helped me picking Hischier over Patrick that year though is that i read a report saying Hischier was basically Zetterberg and Patrick was Eric Staal.... personally i'd pick Zetterberg all day long for the devils so that's how i made my decision.

This year... sounds like Hughes is basically a smaller Matthews? And Kakko... the only comparison i heard was Forsberg..... but you also always hear insane comparison... remember when Larsson was compared to Lidstrom? lol

After watching a bunch of videos and read everything i could find though i'm going back to Hughes though... he makes other players better and we'd be solid down the middle which is what you need

[CommonDreads]

Just now, SterioDesign said:

Yeah i voted Kakko simply cause this seemed like Patrick vs Hischier all over again.

What really helped me picking Hischier over Patrick that year though is that i read a report saying Hischier was basically Zetterberg and Patrick was Eric Staal.... personally i'd pick Zetterberg all day long for the devils so that's how i made my decision.

This year... sounds like Hughes is basically a smaller Matthews? And Kakko... the only comparison i heard was Forsberg..... but you also always hear insane comparison... remember when Larsson was compared to Lidstrom? lol

After watching a bunch of videos and read everything i could find though i'm going back to Hughes though... he makes other players better and we'd be solid down the middle which is what you need

For me, I kind of like to think of Jack Hughes as Mitch Marner, Kaapo Kakko as Blake Wheeler. Both were 90+ point players this year, just different brands of producers.

[Nicomo]

1 minute ago, SterioDesign said:

Yeah i voted Kakko simply cause this seemed like Patrick vs Hischier all over again.

What really helped me picking Hischier over Patrick that year though is that i read a report saying Hischier was basically Zetterberg and Patrick was Eric Staal.... personally i'd pick Zetterberg all day long for the devils so that's how i made my decision.

This year... sounds like Hughes is basically a smaller Matthews? And Kakko... the only comparison i heard was Forsberg..... but you also always hear insane comparison... remember when Larsson was compared to Lidstrom? lol

After watching a bunch of videos and read everything i could find though i'm going back to Hughes though... he makes other players better and we'd be solid down the middle which is what you need

I’m seeing way more Hughes = Patrick Kane and Kakko = Laine (although not quite that level of sniper) comparisons. 

It’s funny you bring up the Zetterberg comparison for Nico, as I was looking this morning at what people were saying right before that draft and I’ll I’m seeing is Zetterberg and Datysuk. I could have swore there was some comparisons to Bergeron, but I can’t find them if there were lol

[Jimmy Leeds]

It's insane this kid is in between both my son's ages.

Anyway, Nolan Patrick's injury history was most definitely a factor during that draft.  I read Hughes missed the World Juniors (was it?) with an injury.

What is his injury history?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

In reference to the pic KITB just posted, what always gives me a chuckle is when these kids (and that's really what they are) slip on their draft jerseys upon reaching the podium, with no equipment to make them look bigger and stronger...they look any other 15-18 adolescent kid you see at a Devils game in the stands...usually not filled out yet and skinny and just looking so damned YOUNG...and yet, a guy like Hughes will almost certainly be playing in the NHL immediately, mixing it up against friggin' real MEN. 

And in Hughes' case, he was born on May 14, 2001.  The Devils were early in their ECF Finals against the Pens (up 1-0 for the series), on their way to reaching another SCF when he was born.  I remember it clearly and was quickly approaching my 31st birthday when that was happening.  And to Hughes, that might as well have been 50 years ago.  I have no idea where I was going with that one, but goddammit...

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[mfitz804]

12 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

Heavy breathing intensifies....

 

 

I hope there’s no friction between him and Seney over the jersey number. I think the response from management would be something like “Ok Brett, you can have a Binghamton jersey with whatever number you like”. 

[mfitz804]

1 minute ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

In reference to the pic KITB just posted, what always gives me a chuckle is when these kids (and that's really what they are) slip on their draft jerseys upon reaching the podium, with no equipment to make them look bigger and stronger...they look any other 15-18 adolescent kid you see at a Devils game in the stands...usually not filled out yet and skinny and just looking so damned YOUNG...and yet, a guy like Hughes will almost certainly be playing in the NHL immediately, against friggin' real MEN. 

And in Hughes' case, he was born on May 14, 2001.  The Devils were early in their ECF Finals against the Pens (up 1-0 for the series), on their way to reaching another SCF when he was born.  I remember it clearly and was quickly approaching my 31st birthday when that was happening.  And to Hughes, that might as well been 50 years ago.  I have no idea where I was going with that one, but goddammit...

 

To me, it says that be next year’s #1 pick will possibly not have not been born at the time of the September 11th attacks. 

[Daniel]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy Leeds said:

It's insane this kid is in between both my son's ages.

Anyway, Nolan Patrick's injury history was most definitely a factor during that draft.  I read Hughes missed the World Juniors (was it?) with an injury.

What is his injury history?

He missed some games at the World Juniors, but still played.  Point per game if I recall.

[Satans Hockey]

I don't really have an opinion on which one I want but with Hughes being the projected #1 for years and that we learned he apparently skates with Hall already then I don't see us not taking him.

I already thought Hall was going to resign here but if we take Hughes I think it increases the odds to a 99.9% chance of signing Hall long term. 

[Satans Hockey]

I can't wait for the draft a few years from now where we can say that the new draft picks were born after the Xanadu/American Dream mall broke ground and it's still not open. 

Edited April 10, 2019 by Satans Hockey

[CommonDreads]

21 minutes ago, Jimmy Leeds said:

It's insane this kid is in between both my son's ages.

Anyway, Nolan Patrick's injury history was most definitely a factor during that draft.  I read Hughes missed the World Juniors (was it?) with an injury.

What is his injury history?

He missed 3 games at the World Juniors for I believe a minor wrist injury, still came back from it though and played in a majority of USA's games and was point per game. Other than that he doesn't have any injury history of note, which is good as well.

[MadDog2020]

28 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

And in Hughes' case, he was born on May 14, 2001.  The Devils were early in their ECF Finals against the Pens (up 1-0 for the series), on their way to reaching another SCF when he was born.  I remember it clearly and was quickly approaching my 31st birthday when that was happening.  And to Hughes, that might as well have been 50 years ago.  I have no idea where I was going with that one, but goddammit...

 

He was born literally the day before I graduated from college. I’m old lol.

Edited April 10, 2019 by MadDog2020

[Derlique]

Build down the middle. Gimme Hughes 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, MadDog2020 said:

He was born literally the day before I graduated from college. I’m old lol.

One of Hughes' teammates this year is a 17-year-old kid born on Halloween in 2001.  His name?  Ryder Rolston.  Guess who his daddy is...yikes...