The Canuck Way
Fansided

Canucks: 3 takeaways from Quinn Hughes’ rookie season

By Brayden Ursel

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 19: Quinn Hughes #43 of the Vancouver Canucks skates against Jack Hughes #86 of the New Jersey Devils during the third period at the Prudential Center on October 19, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils shut-out the Canucks 1-0. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 19: Quinn Hughes #43 of the Vancouver Canucks skates against Jack Hughes #86 of the New Jersey Devils during the third period at the Prudential Center on October 19, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils shut-out the Canucks 1-0. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 4
Next
Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks poses for a picture at All-Star Weekend (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks poses for a picture at All-Star Weekend (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /

He deserves to win the Calder Trophy

The race to crown a 2019-20 Calder Trophy winner has been more or less of a two-horse sprint to the finish line. Pitting two of the NHL’s top-talented young blueliners against one another, either the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar or the Canucks’ very own, Hughes will win the award.

Both rookie skaters played big minutes for their clubs this season and both players finished the year placed first and second in rookie scoring respectively. The shortened campaign resulted in Hughes (53) finishing with three more points than Makar (50), but he played 11 more games.

Don’t get me wrong, both players are offensive juggernauts, but that’s not even the best part. Each of them was able to flip the script and change the narrative for their home team in a positive way, speeding up their overall team development. Makar solidified Colorado as a powerhouse in the Central Division, and Hughes catapulted Vancouver into a play-in series versus the Wild.  Hughes and Makar were 100% game-changers for their clubs and will continue to be for a long, long time.

Hughes plays a complete control game with the puck, but away from it, he’s nearly the perfect defender positionally.  He’s an incredible split-decision maker and he can shut down the league’s best players in the blink of an eye. He never coughs up the puck, and he’s second to nobody when it comes to getting the puck out of the defensive zone and skating with it up the ice.

Arguably, Hughes would be a shoo-in for the award in any other season, but a lot like the rookie season of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby of 2005-06, there can only be one crowned winner. Both superstars deserve the award, but in my opinion, it should be Hughes that edges Makar for the honors when all is said and done.

His points per game production may have been slightly lower than Makar, but Hughes moved the needle in a positive direction while staying healthy and remaining a key factor to the team’s fight for a playoff berth. Believe it or not, but that goes a long way in voting.

He was the only player of the two to make the All-Star Game and to top it all off, since the beginning of 2020 he’s scored more points than any other defender in the National Hockey League. That’s not just outscoring another rookie, that’s being the very best. Simply incredible.

Home/Canucks News