Jack Dugan has never carried the cache that he is probably owed.
Providence College assistant coach Joel Beal will tell you that he was “one of the most prolific playmakers in college hockey that we’ve seen in the last five or six years.” Those who worked with him with the Chicago Steel before Providence, and at Northwood School before that, will tell you that he’s been a legitimate NHL prospect for years. His rookie season in the AHL, which included 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points in 37 games made him the Henderson Silver Knights’ second-leading scorer — and one of the AHL’s most productive rookies.
His trophy case tells a similar story: 2018 USHL First All-Star Team, 2019 Hockey East All-Rookie Team, 2020 NCAA leading scorer and Hobey Baker finalist.
But he was also an overaged, late-blooming, slow-skating, heavyset fifth-round pick. And even after he made quick work of his two-and-done college career, he’s now a 23-year-old who only has one professional season under his belt and one year remaining on his entry-level contract.
So the clock is ticking and the natural question becomes “What is Jack Dugan?”
The answer to that question is trickier than you might imagine, though, because he’s a pretty singular player who plays a style you might not expect.
And it’s a style that I think really works — and one which should make him a top-nine NHLer who can improve a power play and give his line something a little different.
Here’s why.
The tape
If you were to pull up a stat page for a 6-foot-2, 209-pound winger who has been among his league’s leaders in penalty minutes in three of his last four seasons, what would you assume of his offensive production or his style of play were I not to fill in the rest of the blanks?
I’m guessing the first thing you’d envision is a physical, power-forward type who occasionally crosses the line, isn’t particularly skilled, plays the net front on the power play (if he’s on it), forechecks hard, creates room for his linemates and does most of his work on the cycle.
But Dugan is almost none of those things. He’s physical, sure, but he doesn’t often chase it. He’s good on the cycle, sure, but he’d rather be a few feet off the boards making things happen. He’s a perimeter playmaker more than a net-driven attacker. He’s much better suited for either of the flanks on the power play than the net front. And instead of fitting in as a complementary piece for more talented players on his line at even strength, he’s actually better suited as an active, highly skilled carrier and distributor who can create
for them instead of playing
off them.
Are there elements to his game that fit into that “power forward” box? Sure. But there are more that don’t than that do.
We often expect players of certain compositions to play a certain way. If you’re big, you should be using that size to get to the guts of the ice, leveraging your frame against opposing players. You shouldn’t be drifting to the outside to look to pass. Right?
But why not?
Why can’t length and strength be used as assets in facilitation as well? Why can’t they be used in a player’s ability to hold the puck off his hip and
not drive or in a player’s ability to back defenders off only to bend and shape passes around them with a long stick?
If we teach bigger players to think one thing (impose themselves) and one thing only, that’s what they’re going to do. They’re going to drive. They’re going to push. And they’re going to get rid of the puck when those things aren’t there so that someone else can do the things they aren’t wired to.
But Dugan is one of those rare bigger, heavier players who doesn’t fit into that niche. His game is about slowing things down, surveillance and passing. He’ll sooner slow down and pull up to wait for a seam to develop than attack because there isn’t one there.
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So what is Jack Dugan?
He’s a bit of an anti-power forward. He gives you something you maybe don’t expect. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I’d argue that difference is an asset to a team because there are more players that look like the prototypical power forward than the hybrid one that he is.
If the
Golden Knights can recognize that and encourage him to play his game while giving him opportunities that suit him (i.e. The wall on the power play instead of the net front), I fully expect him to thrive and provide the team with a unique skill set.