What level of defenseman is Quinn Hughes currently?

[Petey O]

I see a lot of conflicting posts on this forum about how good Quinn Hughes really is as a defenseman. Obviously, he has remarkable offensive output. He's a fantastic PP specialist capable of getting his shots through, gaining the zone and getting set up incredibly well. He's also a great ES transition guy with elite skating when the puck is on his stick.

However, defensively, he obviously falls short. Without a babysitter, he looks lost on what to do when the puck isn't on his stick. He's a net negative out there when you need to defend a lead, and it doesn't matter if he's a good possession player; he just plain sucks at defending. Maybe he bounces back, but you can't ignore a season, defensively, like the one he just had.

So, with this knowledge, what would you classify him as currently, in a vacuum? Taking into account both his offense and defense, of course.

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[Ctrain2k]

Honestly I’m not sure how to answer this.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

Dude he's barely played like 1 full seasons worth of games..
Probably the Canucks best player going forward, by far the best defenseman. Only guy on the team not completely star struck by opposing high end forwards.
Level of absolute beauty.

 

[Petey O]

Honestly I’m not sure how to answer this.

Simplified, the question would be: How much do you think his defensive deficiencies bring down his overall ability as a defenseman?

If his defense ability was even average, would he be a #1 d-man? I think he would.

But, as his defense is severely lacking, what would you rank him as? Does it bring him down to a #2? 3? 4?

How much does his lack of a defensive game hamper his overall effectiveness?

 

[jcs0218]

He is a #1 by virtue of his offensive abilities. But he needs a solid defensive-minded #2 to balance out his defensive weakness.

 

[Painful Quandary]

I would vote #3 defenseman. He should not be facing the heavy minutes of a top pair at this point in his career.

 

[Love]

The way he played in the 2020 playoffs was unbelievable. He was easily a 1D. Last season he wasn’t that, but he was still good. In general his rookie season was better than his sophomore season but his struggles were a bit overblown last year. The whole team was garbage.

He’s super young and will continue to get better. He’ll never be a great defender in certain scenarios, but he’ll be absolutely elite (if he isn’t already) offensively and in transition. Basically, if he has the puck he’s without a doubt one of the best defenceman in the NHL. If he doesn’t have the puck, he needs to learn to use his skating to defend and make up for his lack of size and strength.

 

[majormajor]

He's a really really good offensive specialist. Not a #1D yet.

 

[majormajor]

The way he played in the 2020 playoffs was unbelievable. He was easily a 1D. Last season he wasn’t that, but he was still good. I’m general his rookie season was better than his sophomore season but his struggles were a bit overblown last year. The whole team was garbage.

He’s super young and will continue to get better. He’ll never be a great defender in certain scenarios, but he’ll be absolutely elite (if he isn’t already) offensively and in transition. Basically, if he has the puck he’s without a doubt one of the best defenceman in the NHL. If he doesn’t have the puck, he needs to learn to use his skating to defend and make up for his lack of size and strength.

I suppose for many his legend in the 2020 playoffs was already formed 5 games in. Because after that point he was a terrible liability. He got absolutely spanked by Vegas who targeted him hard. Lots of turnovers, and ugly goals against numbers.

His struggles weren't overblown in the first month of the season. There are a lot of conventionally bad players on the Canucks, but if you want to see someone not know the basics of playing defense than watch Quinn Hughes at the start of the season.

 

[ted2019]

He's Phil Housley at this stage of his career.

 

[Bouboumaster]

#1 but must be paired with someone who can cover his flaws

 

[Regal]

The way he played in the 2020 playoffs was unbelievable. He was easily a 1D. Last season he wasn’t that, but he was still good. In general his rookie season was better than his sophomore season but his struggles were a bit overblown last year. The whole team was garbage.

He’s super young and will continue to get better. He’ll never be a great defender in certain scenarios, but he’ll be absolutely elite (if he isn’t already) offensively and in transition. Basically, if he has the puck he’s without a doubt one of the best defenceman in the NHL. If he doesn’t have the puck, he needs to learn to use his skating to defend and make up for his lack of size and strength.

Really? I thought he was pretty good against Minny, decent against St.Louis and was pretty bad against Vegas. The Vegas series really showed how much he can struggle against an aggressive forecheck that doesn't allow him time and space in the defensive zone to attack in transition and it seemed like a lot of teams took note this year which led to a lot of his struggles.

 

[nergish]

Really? I thought he was pretty good against Minny, decent against St.Louis and was pretty bad against Vegas. The Vegas series really showed how much he can struggle against an aggressive forecheck that doesn't allow him time and space in the defensive zone to attack in transition and it seemed like a lot of teams took note this year which led to a lot of his struggles.

He was injured. Started taking charge towards the end of the series.

 

[Regal]

Honestly it's really hard to say at this point given how all over the map he's been in his career so far. Some games he can play 25 minutes and control play when he's on the ice and QB the PP and other games he can barely get away from the forecheck, is giving the puck away and frequently out of position. He might take a leap this year, but barring that, I'm not sure you're going to go far in the playoffs unless you have at least one better defenseman and one guy who's similarly effective overall but more defensively focused. I suppose that would make him a 2/3. If we look at it in terms of all defensemen, I'd say he's in the top 64 but not the top 32, so I'd say he's a #2.

 

[Regal]

He was injured. Started taking charge towards the end of the series.

Disagree. No one took charge toward the end of the series other than Demko. The entire team just played in front of the net and waited try to counter. The final 4 games, Hughes had a 35% shot share and 28% expected goal share at 5v5.

 

[The Moose is Loose]

He is a #1 by virtue of his offensive abilities. But he needs a solid defensive-minded #2 to balance out his defensive weakness.

So is Tyson Barrie a #1 dman?

 

[The Moose is Loose]

I really don't get how this board as a consensus can lay into a player like Barrie but then turn around and call Hughes a top pairing or even a #1 guy?

I don't know if its a bias towards overrating younger players or what it could possibly be, but as of now Barrie is better both offensively and defensively and I don't think anyone, even his own mother, considers him a #1dman.

The truth of both Hughes and Barrie lies somewhere in the middle. Offensively they are #1 guys (top 30 in the league quite easily). Defensively both are bottom pairing level at best, probably even worse for Hughes who got his head caved in this year due to Tanev's departure.

So if you average #1 offense with #6 defense you get a 1-dimensional #3 guy. Luckily for Hughes he has time to improve due to his age, but anyone calling him a top pairing guy after this past season has disgustingly low standards.

 

[CherryToke]

Based on last season he's 2nd pairing.

 

[Peen]

He has been played on the second pairing both seasons and struggled defensively half of his rookie season and the entire sophomore year.

This is a guy who will likely never be able to play against an opponent’s top line at ES, but his defense isn’t even passable on a second pair yet so baby steps

 

[CherryToke]

He has been played on the second pairing both seasons and struggled defensively half of his rookie season and the entire sophomore year.

This is a guy who will likely never be able to play against an opponent’s top line at ES, but his defense isn’t even passable on a second pair yet so baby steps

That has a lot to do with the makeup of the team he's on. He's easily 2nd pairing on a properly built and coached team.

 

[Regal]

He has been played on the second pairing both seasons and struggled defensively half of his rookie season and the entire sophomore year.

This is a guy who will likely never be able to play against an opponent’s top line at ES, but his defense isn’t even passable on a second pair yet so baby steps

Calling him on the 2nd pairing isn't really a fair assessment of how the team was set-up. Green doesn't really match-up his pairings but rolls his top defensemen fairly evenly. Hughes played the most 5v5 minutes on the team, and his percentage of ice time against elite competition (42%), according to PuckIQ was only marginally less than Edler (50%) and Schmidt(49%).

 

[Peen]

Calling him on the 2nd pairing isn't really a fair assessment of how the team was set-up. Green doesn't really match-up his pairings but rolls his top defensemen fairly evenly. Hughes played the most 5v5 minutes on the team, and his percentage of ice time against elite competition (42%), according to PuckIQ was only marginally less than Edler (50%) and Schmidt(49%).

Green basically exclusively rolled Schmidt - Edler against other team’s top lines when he could. I don’t agree with your statement at all.

 

[Regal]

Green basically exclusively rolled Schmidt - Edler against other team’s top lines when he could. I don’t agree with your statement at all.

Even if that's true, so is the fact that Hughes played similar minutes against elite competition.

 

[Peen]

Even if that's true, so is the fact that Hughes played similar minutes against elite competition.

It’s absolutely true. Watch back any single game - if the staff could, they were putting out Edler/Schmidt against an opponent’s top line every possible shift

I’m not insinuating he didn’t play high end 2nd pairing matchups. He was clearly targeted by other teams defensively when there was an opportunity (second change, icing, caught or whatever). So of course, other teams played good players against him.

But there’s a clear distinction of being utilized versus good players vs good players being utilized to target your deficiencies - even if they both end up with relatively similar baseline QOC stats (although Edler/Schmidt clearly had top line QOC while Hamonic/Hughes had higher end second pair QOC)

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

A team's leading offensive defenseman that runs your powerplay and plays 18-20 minutes a night, but not the guy you want out in the last minute of a game or on the PK.

I'd say #2D, maybe a #3.