While true, Makar was a late bloomer and was especially raw when drafted; meaning he had some catching up to do post-draft to get to a similar point to where Hughes was when he was drafted a year later. So at present, both are at similar points in their development curves. Hughes is playing better this year, and there's a strong argument for preferring him in the long run...but that 1 year ain't it; it's his higher level of creativity/slickness with the puck & smoother transition to the professional level (on both ends of the ice) atm.
Still too early to really change my opinion too much since both are just so talented & so exciting that I can only hope that both continue to develop towards their full potential.
True. Though this is the kind of hairsplitting that would mean also bringing up that Hughes has been working on his body with elite trainers for longer; which should (at least) mute some of the advantage Makar would have from that extra year of simple physical development...if not completely negating it, depending on the quality gap between the USNDP's staff & Brooks'.
But that's too pedantic for me when both are still so early in their careers & both have so much talent to tap into...and when I'm not getting paid to be that much of a pedant lol. I have no qualms with calling Hughes the more impressive of the two so far this season, but I still can't pick between them moving forward & would rather just have both
...so how about Vancouver trades us Hughes for Byram?
